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00Publius Contributor - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - GOP - Illinois ConCon - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture - Taxes - The Law - Warner Todd Huston

Illinois, We DO Have a Voice — Vote YES on ConCon NOW

April 13, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

There is no doubt that the State of Illinois is broken. We have crooks running every state office on both sides of the aisle — Republican AND Democrat. We have $106 BILLION of unfunded liabilities and that debt to the State Government is growing every single day. Nearly on a daily basis we have our representatives and officials being indicted and sent to jail. We have a Democrat Governor who cannot work with either party (yes even the one that voted him into office) and who constantly goes on TV and announces new spending measures that he has never brought before the State government.

Illinois is the most corrupt State of the union. It’s just that simple.

So, what can we do? The voters and the citizens of Illinois have absolutely no say whatever in this State government. Aren’t we just up a creek without a paddle?

NO. The time is NOW for change. We DO have a voice, but only for a short time, so ACT NOW. It’s called a Constitutional Convention — or the ConCon. If we, the average citizens of the State of Illinois speak up now, we CAN have our say.

So, what the heck is this ConCon? It may sound boring, or too complicated for you to bother with. You may even think that since it is all involved with the government, you will still be on the outside looking in if you aren’t in that government.

Worse, the powers on both sides of the aisle in our state government are trying to keep this whole ConCon under wraps until it is too late for community groups to get organized to talk about it.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Article 14 of the Illinois State Constitution says that every 20 years a Constitutional Convention will be called to consider changes to our State Constitution. It is now time for that 20-year call to be sounded. But if it slips by we will be out of luck for another 20 years, another 20 years where we won’t have a chance to take back our government.

This is NOT just a liberal or conservative call to arms, either. We citizens of the State have an opportunity to slap down our arrogant and criminal politicians regardless of our individual political leaning. They cannot hold us down anymore!

But we need to spread the word that we need to vote YES on the ConCon!

We have a chance to add a recall to get rid of criminals like Rod Blagojevich to our Constitution. We have the chance to fix our overspending ways. There are so many things we can do but ONLY if we vote YES on the ConCon.

SPEAK UP FOR CHANGE IN ILLINOIS… Vote YES on the ConCon!

For more info go to the Illinois Citizen Coalition.

Here is a 30-minute video that offers some facts on the ConCon:


Continue reading “Illinois, We DO Have a Voice — Vote YES on ConCon NOW”

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

Obama’s Deceptive Anti-Oil Ad: ‘I Don’t Take $ From Oil Companies’

April 13, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Barack Obama has been airing a shamelessly anti-business TV ad in Pennsylvania for a while now. In the ad Obama himself, in his own voice, makes the claim that he doesn’t “take money from oil companies.” But there is a two-fold deception in this claim that Obama doesn’t tell his sycophantic fans. So where is the media to pounce on these cynical deceptions? They’re nowhere to be seen.

Recently I saw the ad where Obama claimed he didn’t take contributions from oil companies and the claim struck a chord in my memory. I was under the impression that oil companies could not legally donate to a campaign at all. So, I did some checking and it seems that FactCheck.org did an entire page on Obama’s deceptive Pennsylvania ad.

Here is the transcript of the Obama ad:

“Since the gas lines of the ’70s, Democrats and Republicans have talked about energy independence, but nothing’s changed — except now Exxon’s making $40 billion a year, and we’re paying $3.50 for gas.
I’m Barack Obama. I don’t take money from oil companies or Washington lobbyists, and I won’t let them block change anymore. They’ll pay a penalty on windfall profits. We’ll invest in alternative energy, create jobs and free ourselves from foreign oil. I approve this message because it’s time that Washington worked for you. Not them. “

Yet, as FactCheck.org reminds us, it has been illegal for the last 100 years for an oil company to directly donate to a political campaign. So, while it is technically correct that Obama isn’t taking money from oil companies, it is ALSO true that neither is anyone else! Yet, here is Obama saying he doesn’t take oil money as if he has made a conscious decision to refuse their support. Someone who does not know that oil companies are barred by law from donating to politicians might easily be led to imagine that Obama is standing up against Bigoil with this ad. It is truly deceptive.

Continue reading “Obama’s Deceptive Anti-Oil Ad: ‘I Don’t Take $ From Oil Companies’”

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

If You ‘Feel’ Educated… You Are

April 13, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

We no longer educate in the United States of America. No, instead of making to educate our children we emot-ucate them. It’s all about our children’s tender egos, their vaunted self esteem, their itty bitty feewings. We don’t want them to know or understand so much as we want them to “feel good” about themselves. If they don’t know during what years the civil war was fought, that’s OK as long as they think they are “good people” anyway. If their math skills are substandard, who cares as long as they really like themselves?

The Boston Globe, for its part, seems to agree that everything is better when our students “feel better.” As far as real life’s lessons go, as far as hard work, good grades, educational standards go… well, not so much. No, it’s “group therapy, “liberation”, and “collective defiance” meant to make kids “feel good” that the paper seems to feel is a story worth pursuing.

On April 8th the Globe published a story titled “Wall of rejection letters is teen’s group therapy,” wherein the Globe celebrates the “defiance” evinced by the kids in Newton South High School who sought a measure of catharsis by posting their college rejection letters on a community bulletin board designated the “wall of shame.”

The Globe was pleased to see these kids making themselves “feel” better by each gathering his rejection together with others’ and transforming individual failure into a festival of self-pity aimed at mitigating responsibility. “Gosh,” the feeling seems to be, “if everyone else is failing too, I must not be so bad after all!”

The truth is, though, if so many others are failing, perhaps there is something wrong with the education these kids are receiving at the High School level? Instead of everyone breathing an undeserved sigh of relief that they are “in the same boat” as others, it would do far more for their futures should they endeavor to find out how to get in a different, more seaworthy boat.

But, look at the delusions these kids are under as described by the Boston Globe.

Continue reading “If You ‘Feel’ Educated… You Are”

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

Union Rigging Election at its OWN Convention

April 13, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

This internal brawl within the Service Employee International Union (SEIU) is getting uglier by the minute. Readers of the Union Label Blog will certainly know we’ve been watching the fisticuffs inside the union over the direction and policies of current president Andy Stern and we have to admit that there’s been no lack of smirks and guffaws over the union’s infighting among the denizens of the ULBlog offices! Some of us here have even been tempted to chortle openly at the union’s troubles.

Still, when serious reflection is directed at this incident it cannot escape notice that everything that is going on within the SEIU seems to violate every principle that unions are mythically assumed to hold dear. Under Andy Stern’s leadership, the “democratic process” has been steadily thwarted and union leadership has attempted to create a top-down, autocratic style of control belying the supposed principle of the rank and file “having their say” in how the union operates. Andy Stern has done his best to emulate Stalin instead of Ghandi. Stern seems the very picture of the elite instead of a man of the people.

And, isn’t it the common assumption that unions stand against “the man” telling them what to do? Yet, here is Andy Stern doing his level best to himself become the man!

Well now we can add delegate stacking and election rigging on top of his other tyrannical attempts to rule with an iron fist. According to a San Francisco Bay Guardian story by JB Powell, Andy Stern’s office has been exposed for efforts to make sure that SEIU dissidents don’t end up elected as delegates to the upcoming SEIU convention.

Continue reading “Union Rigging Election at its OWN Convention”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Lee Culpepper - Media Bias - News - President - Race - Religion - Society/Culture

I Dream of Obama

April 13, 2008 by

-By Lee Culpepper

Remember Barbara Eden’s hit character “Jeannie” materializing from a cloud of pink smoke? Well, I wonder if Obama’s stupefied supporters envision the same vaporous entrance each time their candidate with the magic wallet pops up on stage. Seriously, how else can they explain their belief that Obama could actually grant and fulfill all their government-sponsored wishes? Only silly television shows, children’s fairytales, and socialist fantasies have the sort of hope where magic – or less believable, the government – can fix people’s problems.

Nonetheless, smoky entrances and Walt-Disney-like magic account for only two of Jeannie and Obama’s interesting similarities. Let’s examine where each of them lived — or more accurately, didn’t live. Jeannie never really resided in that antique bottle with the pink, plush, puffy-pillowed pad inside. No, Jeannie trivia reveals that Jim Beam Whiskey was the only resident ever to actually occupy Jeannie’s bottle. After spending some time in the show’s art department, the whiskey bottle acquired its more genie-like appearance. Today, as the product of a whiskey maker and a Hollywood show, the bottle will always be one part Jim Beam and one part Jeannie.

Similarly, Barack Obama never grew up in a poor, black American neighborhood. As we know, he occupied his non-black grandparents’ house and the dormitories of America’s best schools. His unique background and commendable education left a portion of black America questioning the “authenticity” of his “blackness” (whatever that definition may be). Apparently his authentic whiteness was half the problem. Fortunately, spending twenty years in the Trinity United Church of Christ solved Obama’s superficial problem. Once blessed by his racist, anti-American “preacher,” Obama magically became a black man, as opposed to an American man who happens to be half black and half white.
Continue reading “I Dream of Obama”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Frederick Meekins - News - President - Race - Religion

Will Leftist Evangelicals Demand Believers Get On Obama Bandwagon?

April 13, 2008 by

-By Frederick Meekins

Just because some white liberals are going out of their way to vote for Barack Obama for no other reason than that he happens to be half-black, some within the Evangelical leadership are once again beating on their drums about congregations being too split along racial and ethnic lines.

However, it they are the ones noticing this, isn’t that proof that those patting themselves on the back for their embrace of racial diversity are in fact the ones looking at the color of skin rather than the content of character?

So long as a church sticks to Bible basics and welcomes those showing up at the front door, what does it really matter if a particular congregation appeals more to a particular group of people?

Has anyone ever stopped to think that, provided so long as no one is blatantly mistreated or rights to affiliate and peaceably assemble not infringed upon, maybe God is pleased as after all it is believed He is the one that caused different racial and ethnic groups to come about to begin with as a protection against the human tendency to unify and lavish accolades upon pseudo-messiahs?
Continue reading “Will Leftist Evangelicals Demand Believers Get On Obama Bandwagon?”

00Publius Contributor - 2nd Amendment - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Media Bias - News - President - Race - Religion - Warner Todd Huston

Obama’s ‘Small Towns’ Gaffe Reveals Un-American Democrats

April 12, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

At a fundraiser in San Francisco, Barack Obama said that small town Americans living in the Midwest are religious zealots, gun nuts, and racists. So much for Obama being the candidate of “working together” and the wondrous architect of a “new politics.”

Obama’s dismissing of the civility and religiosity of the largest part of America’s citizenry is reported to have upset a North Carolina Hillary supporter who was tasked with introducing his candidate at a rally there. Former state party chair Tom Hendrickson got in his high dudgeon at Barack’s anti-small-town America rhetoric.

Here is what Obama said in California late last week that got Henrickson’s goat.

“You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”

Barack’s rhetoric is pretty bad, just as Tom Hendrickson said in North Carolina. So, before he introduced Clinton, Hendrickson lambasted Obama over those remarks. ABC’s Jake Tapper reports Hendrickson’s irate words on his Political Punch blog.

“I listened to that quote and I got mad,” Hendrickson said, “and I wanted to reach out to Senator Obama and say senator, we are from the rural part of eastern North Carolina. We are very proud of our heritage, we are proud of who we are. We are not frustrated. We are not bitter. We turn to our faith because we believe, and we hunt and fish because it is part of our culture and we enjoy it.

Ok, that’s all well and good. We have a candidate in Obama pandering to his far left, elitist California base by telling them he thinks Middle America is filled with racist, hicks. And we have a Southern Democrat playing the good ol’ boy card claiming to be “proud” of his fellow hicks in flyover country.

Hendrickson is 100% right, of course. Obama has nothing but disdain for Middle America and he should be called on it.

There is only one problem with Hendrickson’s little tale and that problem comes in at the tale end of Tapper’s report.

Amos points out that, interestingly, the crowd had little reaction at all. They, in fact, seemed a tad bored.

Tapper says “interestingly” as if it is of but little concern. I, on the other hand, find it disturbing. It says to me that the North Carolina Democrats that Mr. Hendrickson was speaking to, people that are supposedly the sort of average North Carolinians from the same sort of “small towns” that Obama seems to hate so, weren’t upset in the least at Obama’s comments likening them to racist gun-nuts, etc.

Why is this one might wonder?

Let me posit to you that these Hillary supporters weren’t upset because the remarks that Obama made were not that big of a deal to them. In other words, these Democrats AGREED with Obama’s characterization that most Americans are overly religious, racist, gun-nuts. So, when Mr. Hendrickson tired to stir the crowd against Obama’s comments, they didn’t react because it didn’t make them mad in the first place.

And this gets to the nub of the issue. Most Democrats hate the average American. Most Democrats assume that most Americans are racists. Most Democrats agree with Obama that Americans are evil people.

THAT is the Democratic Party of today. A party that hates its fellow citizens. Obama’s charge against his fellow countrymen is garbage, of course. But few in his party think so, few disagree with his mischaracterization of Middle America. And THAT is the most disgusting part of this whole story.

Continue reading “Obama’s ‘Small Towns’ Gaffe Reveals Un-American Democrats”

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

Obama’s ‘Small Town’ Slam Framed as Republican Attack By Wash. Post

April 12, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post’s “The Fix” blog executed an example of political gymnastics so amazing for its twisting of reality that it boggles the mind. He actually turned comments by Barack Obama from a dissing of “small town” America to one highlighting how mean Republicans are. You heard me right. Obama’s comments had absolutely nothing to do with the GOP, yet Cillizza was somehow able to take his derogatory comments against the American heartland and turn it all into a discussion on how Republicans will attack the Democrat candidate! Talk about a bending over backwards to use an Obama gaff to attack Republicans, this one takes the cake and shows how in the tank for Obama Chris Cillizza seems to be.

So, as you may be aware by now, at an appearance in San Francisco where Obama was talking to some far left-wing California donors, he basically said that small town Americans are racist, gun-nuts who are religious fanatics and who just don’t get it.

“You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”

So, small town, Midwest America is filled with hateful religious, anti-immigrant, gun-nuts, eh Barack? How more harsh can a candidate be against people he wants to vote for him? Who can deny that this is a pretty bald and mean-spirited statement from the vaunted candidate of love and peace?
Continue reading “Obama’s ‘Small Town’ Slam Framed as Republican Attack By Wash. Post”

00Publius Contributor - Family - Morals/Sex - News - Religion - Thomas Brewton

Slavery, Freedom, and Forgiveness

April 12, 2008 by

-By Thomas E. Brewton

Vengeful anger is spiritual slavery from which we are delivered by Christian love and forgiveness.

Sermons this Sunday and last Sunday at Black Rock-Long Ridge Congregational Church (North Stamford, Connecticut) were based upon Philemon, one of the shortest books in the Bible. These sermons were parts one and two of a three-part series on the subjects of duty, Christian love, and forgiveness.

Pastor Steve Treash focused today upon the need, and the immense benefit, of forgiving and releasing feelings of anger and revenge that too often we nurture when we believe that someone has wronged us. Last Sunday’s sermon dwelt upon the paradox of physical slavery and spiritual freedom and of the necessity to face up to wrongs we have done to others.
Continue reading “Slavery, Freedom, and Forgiveness”

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

Media Research Center Gala- DisHonor Awards 2008

April 11, 2008 by

Media Research Gala 2008
-By Warner Todd Huston

I was pleased to have been invited to attend the MRC DisHonor Awards for 2008 held in Washington D.C. this week. Sponsored by the Media Research Center it’s a time for conservatives to turn their attention to the left biased media and poke a little fun at them. It was a lively and fun event for all… unless you were a leftie in the media.

Highlights included awards to McClatchy Newspapers (for saying the lower death rate in Iraq was “bad” on Iraqi gravediggers) and Chris Matthews (both for saying Obama gave him a “thrill up his leg” and saying Bill Clinton was like “Jesus in the Temple”… nice objectivity there Chrissy).

Presenters included Ann Coulter, Cal Thomas, radio host Mark Levin, Brent Bozell, movie director Ron Maxwell (Gettysburg), Congressman Tom Tancredo, Congressman Mike Pence, financial reporter and TV personality Larry Kudlow, and a host of others.

The guest of honor was former presidential spokesman Tony Snow who was awarded the William F. Buckley Award f or Media Excellence. And a more gracious man never trod the Earth!

We were also honored to host the Father and brother of Congressional Medal of Honor winner Lieutenant Michael P. Murphy, USN (Navy Seal). An emotional video of the life and heroism of Lt. Murphy had all of us chocked up. What a brave and honorable man. Financial whiz T. Boone Pickens then donated $1 million dollars to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society in Lt. Murphy’s name.

It was a great and memorable evening.

Check out Eyeblast.tv for some video of the event.

By the way, I urge everyone to sign up for Eyeblastv. It’s easy and free.
Continue reading “Media Research Center Gala- DisHonor Awards 2008”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Media Bias - News - President - Society/Culture - Taxes - Thomas Brewton

Senator Obama and the Transformation of Human Nature

April 11, 2008 by 1 Comment

-By Thomas E. Brewton

Believing apparently that specifics are not necessary, Senator Obama promises us that his election will bring us all together in one happy family via a miraculous transformation of society and its citizens.

Earthly perfection of human nature and human society, here and now, is what Senator Obama is promising us. This is his implicit message when tells us that he can, as President, bring us all together and move us beyond strife, aggression, and wars.

One thing we can state categorically in that regard is that what Senator Obama promises is emphatically, irreconcilably opposed to the Judeo-Christian foundations of Western Civilization. Parenthetically, the Senator’s secular and socialistic mind-set may explain in part why he saw no problem with the unchristian hatred preached by his minister, the Rev. Wright.
Continue reading “Senator Obama and the Transformation of Human Nature”

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

‘The Day the Earth Stood Still’ and Got REALLY hot!

April 10, 2008 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Remember the iconic 1951 Cold War era film, “The Day the Earth Stood Still”? It was a black and white film starring Michael Rennie as Klaatu, an alien who came to Earth to warn our warring nations that a galactic police force had deemed the world a “danger” to intelligent life everywhere and that we faced annihilation unless we acted nice. It was one of the classic, dystopian films with a utopian message. If only we could all just get along! Well, true to the axiom that there isn’t anything new in Hollywood, it is being remade as a Keanu Reeves vehicle (that’s Hollywood talk for “starring Keanu Reeves”).

Now, the original film was all about love for your fellow man, ending war, planting daisies and a being nice little Earthling… or Klaatu and his trusty robot Gort will blow you up. As the Cold War was looming in the minds of the civilized nations and MAD* had set the table for “doomsday clocks” and backyard bomb shelters, the original “Day” was a timely, if not a bit hamhanded, epic with a message. The title character, Klaatu, when hiding as a human, even took the name “Mr. Carpenter” as an allegory to Christ. Naturally, the bad, bad humans martyred the kindly “Mr. Carpenter” in the end. It was all very much geared for its time.

Well, as mentioned, they are now about to remake “Day” and they have searched the world over for a new timely message to expound upon. Is it that we still have too many people on this planet living in poverty? Is it that we still lamentably have regimes that use force and tyranny against their people? Is it that war is still all too common? Could these things be why the new “Day” film will posit that a powerful alien race wants to just erase humanity like a bad virus?

Nah. As far as the new “Day” movie goes, these powerful aliens are mad at us not because we are mean to each other, not because we might then bring that meanness with us into outer space. No, the important message that the Keanu Klaatu wants to bring us, the message that will warn us of an apocalyptic impending alien police action is….

Global warming.

That’s right folks, apparently the new “Day” movie is positing that the worst thing man has done, the one thing that will make an alien race ponder our destruction, is that we caused global warming.

Continue reading “‘The Day the Earth Stood Still’ and Got REALLY hot!”

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

More NYC Buss Union Fallout

April 10, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

For those of you that have been around our Blog for a while, you’ll remember we’ve highlighted the troubles of mob infested New York City bus drivers union before. Well, we have another update in this tale so filled with corruption, criminal activity, and mob actions.

The Village Voice reports that three union officials are now on the outside looking in at their former positions in the union.

Three officials with alleged mob ties got the boot today from the union representing the city’s 15,000 school bus drivers and escorts. Union delegates Paul Maddalone, his brother Nick Maddalone, and Gary Gugliaro were told they were personnae non grata by union trustee Tommy Mullins, who has been running Local 1181 of the Amalgamated Transport Union since the local was exposed as a nest of mob corruption by a federal investigation.

The officials’ removal comes one month after The Voice reported that former union bigs had named the Maddalones and others of having ties to mobsters.

All three men were closely associated with ex-local president Sal Battaglia, a Genovese crime family associate who pleaded guilty in January to federal bribery and conspiracy charges.

This, I’m sure, is but another small chapter in the ongoing mess happening in New York. You’d be best advised, though, not to imagine that this is an isolated case of union corruption. It seems all too representative, unfortunately.

00Publius Contributor - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - GOP - News - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

LegiStorm Publicizes Congressional Staffer Info

April 9, 2008 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Writer Leslie Carbone gives us a report that amuses and annoys at the same time. Apparently a gaggle of Congressional staffers are upset that their personal information has been released onto the Internet by government transparency advocate LegiStorm.

“Capitol Hill staffers are required to file financial disclosure forms,” say Leslie Carbone, “which contain sensitive information, including home addresses and signatures.”
When the info was released by LegiStorm, the staffers were incensed that their personal info was made public. For its part, LegiStorm says that it didn’t mean to put personal info on the net and promised to remove the staffer’s children’s names, bank accounts, etc.

But, the outrage aimed at LegiStorm is misplaced. Here’s how Carbone puts it:

The U.S. House of Representatives has released this information to the public.

Then LegiStorm, which promotes government transparency, published some of the sensitive information–provoking outrage by the staffers.

… And staffers shouldn’t have voluntarily included sensitive information on publicly available forms if they didn’t want the information to be available publicly.

But the finger-pointing at LegiStorm only highlights Congress’s aversion to accountability. Congress, not LegiStorm, is responsible for making the information public in the first place.

So, Congress gathers and releases the private information of Congressional staffers, but it is a watchdog group that gets the blame? Typical of government to blame everyone but itself.

Carbone makes a final good point. If the government was that cavalier with the personal info of their own staffers, what will they do with yours?
Continue reading “LegiStorm Publicizes Congressional Staffer Info”

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

Sun-Times/Andrew Greeley: Anti-Obama Pundits Have ‘Sick Minds’

April 9, 2008 by 3 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

On April 2nd, the Chicago Sun-Times’ Andrew Greeley accused anyone who isn’t a Barack Obama fan of having a “sick mind.” This takes political name calling to its worst level thus far in the campaign. Sadly — but all too typically — the sort of uncivil ignorance displayed by Greeley is exactly the kind we always see from liberals who want to shut down debate by an out of hand branding of their political opponents as bad people, not just people who have a difference of opinion. To hatemongers such as Greeley, conservatives aren’t just wrong, they are evil and now he’s decided that anyone who doubts Obama is mentally ill.

Greeley attacked conservative columnist Thomas Sowell, who Greeley claims has a “very clever” sick mind, as well as several others, some by name and others by inference. Greeley claimed that Sowell indulged in “hate” for Senator Obama in his columns. Naturally, Greeley doesn’t give us any examples of “hate” for Obama, he merely states it outright as if it were axiomatic. In fact, he ascribes the emotion of “hate” as a result of a “sick mind” to several columns he alludes to but his only examples discuss interpretations of Obama’s motivations and actions described by conservatives without any hateful rhetoric involved.

Of course, if you take Greeley’s word for it, everyone in Illinois simply loves Obama so that should be enough to make him president, apparently. But, no one has ever said that Obama is a jerk or a dirty player in politics. What conservative commentators ARE saying, however, is that the claim that Obama is somehow a “uniter” and that he is interested in “change” is not reflected in anything he’s ever done. Of course, Greeley reiterates the claim as if it is fact without giving us a single shred of proof to show that it is true.

Of Obama’s work in Chicago, Greeley says:

Continue reading “Sun-Times/Andrew Greeley: Anti-Obama Pundits Have ‘Sick Minds’”

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

Secret Multi-Million $$ Group Behind Many Union Backed Ballot Initiatives

April 9, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Now, this is the sort of thing that liberals do very well. They hide behind grand sounding organizations that claim to be “community” based, “non-partisan,” or but humble servants of the people. What they really are, however, are subversive organizations that try their best to stay behind the scenes while they promulgate their special brand of socialist policies. Most of all, they are massively funded by people like George Soros who have specific anti-American policies they wish to put into effect.

A new report from the Capital Research Center by James Dellinger and Karl Crow has recently been released to highlight the efforts of at least one of these back-room, secretive, leftist organizations.

In 2006, voters in 37 states faced a total of 203 state ballot initiatives and supporters and opponents of these measures raised and spent more than $350 million. Many ballot initiatives were sponsored and supported by labor unions, and often they received help from the little-known Washington, D.C.-based Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, which quietly provides assistance in promoting ballot initiative campaigns in states where the initiative process exists. But the Center plays another increasingly important role for Big Labor and its allies. It devises tactics for blocking ballot initiatives by union opponents using aggressive methods.

Conservatives have seen success lately using ballot initiatives and this has caused liberals to try to subvert the process of ballot initiatives that their side has used to effectively for decades. This shows once again that the left is not interested in the democratic process… unless it is on THEIR side.

Continue reading “Secret Multi-Million $$ Group Behind Many Union Backed Ballot Initiatives”

00Publius Contributor - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - GOP - Media Bias - News - President - Society/Culture - Taxes - Thomas Brewton

Herbert Hoover McCain?

April 9, 2008 by

-By Thomas E. Brewton

Senator Clinton and the Los Angeles Times need to get their facts straight before making ignorant pronouncements.

The Los Angeles Times Blog recently reported:

In the very first words she uttered reacting to John McCain’s speech on the housing market crisis Tuesday, Hillary Clinton evinced part of her appeal to older voters: her frame of reference is theirs.

“It sounds remarkably like Herbert Hoover,” Clinton said of McCain’s assertion that he is not inclined — and probably never will be — to embrace aggressive, sweeping government efforts to confront the problem of rising home foreclosures.

Specifically, McCain opined that “it is not the duty of government to bail out and reward those who act irresponsibly, whether they are big banks or small borrowers.”

By mentioning Hoover, whose tepid response to the Great Depression helped keep the White House in Democratic hands for 20 straight years after he was bounced from office in the 1932 election, Clinton invoked what once was a can’t-miss applause line among Democrats.

What are the facts, fully detailed and documented by commentators writing at the time?
Continue reading “Herbert Hoover McCain?”

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

Christiane Amanpour: Post Nam Cambodian Genocide Just Like U.S. ‘Waterboarding’ Today?

April 8, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

So, do you want to see a most egregious example of equating apples to oranges? Well, even that old saw is too mild a metaphor to describe the disgusting example of Christiane Amanpour’s latest foray into moral relativism. In her CNN piece titled, “Survivor recalls horrors of Cambodia genocide,” Amanpour assumes that American “waterboarding” today is exactly the same thing as the genocide of millions as perpetrated by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s. Amanpour seems to think that waterboarding is the same thing as what Pol Pot did with prisoners that were “whipped raw, their fingernails were yanked out, they were hogtied to wooden bars. Prison guards mutilated women’s genitals, ripped off their nipples with pliers. And worst of all, babies were ripped from their mothers’ arms and slaughtered.”

Amanpour’s latest project is being touted as a “major CNN documentary” that focusses on “those who stood up and said, ‘Listen! We must stop the killing. Stop the genocide,'” during a turbulent 1970’s Cambodia. The genocide in question describes the murderous reign of Pol Pot who slaughtered over two million Cambodians and imprisoned and tortured millions more after the end of the Vietnam war.

But what is Amanpour’s focus with her report? Is it how the Khmer Rouge communists tortured women, children and men to elicit faux “confessions” of capitalist crimes? Is it the many families that were torn apart? Is it that these murders continued with impunity because the Democrat Party convinced the U.S. to lose the war in Vietnam? No, none of that. Amanpour doesn’t seem to care much about what happened back between the years 1975 to 1979. No, it’s today that she is more interested in. Yes, Amanpour is far more interested that she get her Cambodian survivor to say that what Pol Pot did to millions of Cambodians was just as bad as what George Bush is rumored to have done to a few terror suspects today.

Continue reading “Christiane Amanpour: Post Nam Cambodian Genocide Just Like U.S. ‘Waterboarding’ Today?”

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

Rupert Murdoch: CNN is ‘Extremely Liberal,’ Free Press not Threatened

April 8, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Over at Media Bistro’s fishbowlDC blog Patrick W. Gavin was on hand to live-blog an appearance by News Corp’s Rupert Murdoch who visited Georgetown University’s Gaston Hall to talk about the shape of today’s media landscape. As reported by Gavin, Murdoch had some interesting things to say. Among his comments was that we shouldn’t have any fear that the media is becoming less free and…. oh, yeah… he claimed that CNN has “always been extremely liberal.” (Gosh, who knew?)

Murdoch also commented on the state of TV and how it can no longer assume it can reach such a “mass audience.”

“As a day to day reality, television can no longer rely on a mass audience. … There is no magic bullet, no one size fits all solution. To stay ahead of the competition, a media company needs to diversify geographically so it can reach more people. It needs to diversify by platform, which is one reason we bought MySpace and it needs to be constantly nurturing a new generation of businesses and business models to take place of the old.”

This same warning can be delivered to the “dead tree media” of old styled newspapers. The “old model” will no longer work.

Continue reading “Rupert Murdoch: CNN is ‘Extremely Liberal,’ Free Press not Threatened”

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

SEIU Union Fight Gets Ugly

April 8, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Uh, oh. Looks like SEIU Chief Andy Stern isn’t taking this insurgency in stride. He’s breaking out the long knives for this one.

We’ve mentioned before how the SEIU president is under internal pressure over his growth model. Stern’s internal union opponents are claiming that he gives away too much power to employers solely to get new membership. Because a certain faction of the SEIU thinks Stern is weakening the union, they have risen up from within and challenged his position as the union chief.

Well, ol’ Andy isn’t taking this lying down. He’s fighting back like a good union thug does by making allegations and trying to have his opponent thrown out of the union. Yes, in typical undemocratic union style, Stern is ignoring the real issues and trying to strong-arm his opponent into oblivion!

We get the tale from the San Francisco Chronicle.

The president of one of the nation’s largest labor unions moved this week toward ousting the leaders of its West Coast affiliate, in a power struggle that could affect hundreds of thousands of California workers and the state’s strained health care industry.

Ooopsie, trouble in the worker’s paradise.

Andy Stern, president of the Washington-headquartered Service Employees International Union, sent a letter on Monday – obtained by The Chronicle – that alleges misconduct by Sal Rosselli, president of the Oakland-based United Healthcare Workers West, who has been Stern’s most vocal critic.

I guess we shouldn’t expect Stern to delineate his strategy, bring it to the membership, and run on the strength of his ideas, huh? No, like a true union thug, Stern has to try and use strong-arm tactics to eliminate the opposition.

Stern’s opponent, Sal Rosselli is a bit taken aback, too.

Continue reading “SEIU Union Fight Gets Ugly”

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

No uniform answer for the Democrats

April 8, 2008 by

-By Michael M. Bates

Unless you’re more fortunate than I, you remember erstwhile Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. Monsieur Kerry was famous for bringing up he’d been in the military. Indeed, his service became a constant refrain of the campaign.

Beginning his acceptance speech at the 2004 convention with a salute, he announced “I’m John Kerry, and I’m reporting for duty.” A few weeks later, he snapped that if George Bush “wants to have a debate about our service in Vietnam, here is my answer: Bring it on.” Obviously, the fact George Bush never questioned Kerry’s service couldn’t get in the way of a good applause line.

The Democrat’s surrogates and supporters quickly got with the program. With Kerry at his side at an August Tacoma gathering, retired Army General Wesley Clark bellowed, “Where was George Bush when young men from Arkansas and Texas and Massachusetts were called to serve their country and went to Vietnam?”

The following month in Nevada a couple of retired generals lent their support to Kerry. One spoke of how members of the Bush administration were AWOL during Vietnam: “They all ducked the opportunity to participate.”
Continue reading “No uniform answer for the Democrats”

00Publius Contributor - 2nd Amendment - Democrats/Leftists - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Washington Times Gives me a Quote Today…

April 7, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Once again, the Washington Times has given me a quote in one of their stories. Upon the passing of screen legend Charlton Heston, the eulogies flow, of course. And the Wash. Times did their’s titled, “Heston’s legacies in cinema and civics.” It was penned by Jennifer Harper.

Go on over and check it out. On the web version, my quote appears on page 2, right above Ed Morrissey’s contribution.

00Publius Contributor - 2nd Amendment - Democrats/Leftists - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Reuters Anti-Gun Story With Misleading Photo

April 7, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Reuters highlights a great little tale filled with anti-gun bias and bad reporting, all topped with an extremely misleading photo that presents a wonderful example of biased “reporting” at its worst. The story is about a German man who was “crowded out of his home” by his gun collection but the photo is of a gun store display in America. What the two have to do with each other is anybody’s guess. But then we find out the man wasn’t crowded out by his gun collection after all. Just a little thought put to the Reuters tale reveals that the whole thing is bunk.

As this Reuters fairy tale begins we find that a man in Berlin, Germany “ran out of space” in his home because his gun collection was so large.

BERLIN (Reuters) – A German man was such an avid collector of weapons and other paraphernalia that he ran out of space at home and had to sleep in a hotel, neighbors said following the 71-year-old’s death… Executors found an arsenal of weaponry and assorted goods at the man’s two-story home in the western city of Aachen…

Wow, it must have been hundreds and hundreds of guns that caused this man to flee from his two-story home to a hotel, right?

Well, not really.

Turns out he only had 71 guns. That would hardly fill up a two-story house!

“There were 71 guns — one for each year of his life,” said police spokesman Paul Kemen. “He also had 41 cases of ammunition and five walking sticks fitted with retractable blades.”

Wait a minute. 71 guns filled up his whole two-story house? Now, it isn’t until the fourth paragraph that we find out it wasn’t all those guns that forced him out of his home. Apparently the man was a pack rat and “collected everything.”

Continue reading “Reuters Anti-Gun Story With Misleading Photo”

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

A Good Day, Supreme Court Rules Against Foreign Precedent

April 7, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

In 2003, then Justice of the Supreme Court Sandra Day O’Connor famously posited that our judicial system should take into account foreign court rulings when deciding American cases prompting outraged conservatives to denounce her idea as endangering American sovereignty and destroying the Constitution of the United States of America. This year, the Roberts led SCOTUS has made an important decision that will serve to forestall that possibility.

In October of 2003, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor gave a speech in Atlanta where she predicted that “over time we will rely increasingly, or take notice at least increasingly, of international and foreign courts in examining domestic issues.” Naturally, Americans who revere the Constitution were outraged over the thought that we’d place foreign court rulings before our own law of the land, essentially allowing foreigners to decide questions of American jurisprudence.

The fear over allowing foreign precedent or areas of jurisdiction to overlap into ours raises discussion of the very differences between our system of government and legal traditions and that of the rest of the world. Should we rely on foreign precedent, for instance, the very concept of innocent until proven guilty is put into doubt because foreign rulings will not generally be based on that bedrock principle.

Further, should American courts recognize the kangaroo courts of The Hague and the so-called “International Court of Justice” (or the World Court), foreign institutions such as these would have the authority to incarcerate American citizens for their politically motivated, anti-American “trials” at any time. After all, should we cast away our Constitutional rights by allowing foreign rulings to take precedence over our system, this will be bound to occur. What would stop such a thing from happening, anyway?

Continue reading “A Good Day, Supreme Court Rules Against Foreign Precedent”

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

Women in Islam: Suffering the Barbary of an Ideology

April 7, 2008 by

-By Frank Salvato

News spread quickly that anti-Islamofascism activist Dr. Wafa Sultan has gone into hiding, along with her family. They are in hiding because of her participation in a recent debate on Al-Jazeera in which she challenged Egyptian Islamist Talat Rheim over Dutch cartoons of Mohammed and the ideology of Islam in general. For her truthful criticisms of Islam Dr. Sultan earned a fatwa, a “religiously” decried death sentence, from an Islamic scholar. That she criticizes Islam is enough justification in the eyes of the radical Islamist to kill her. That she is a woman infuses into the fatwa an unbridled viciousness and a need for expediency.

In the al-Jazeera interview, Dr. Sultan proclaimed:

“…any belief that chops off the heads of its critics is doomed to turn into terrorism and tyranny. This has been the condition of Islam, from its inception to this day. Islam has sentenced [its critics] to prison, and whoever crosses the threshold of that prison meets his death… If you want to change the course of events, you must re-examine your terrorist teachings, you must recognize and respect the right of the other to live, you must teach your children love, peace, coexistence and productive work. When you do that, the world will respect you…”

Not long after Dr. Sultan’s remarks, Sheik Yusuf al-Qaradawi, one of Islam’s most respected scholars, presented his religious edict and denounced Dr. Sultan, calling for her death. Qaradawi, it should be noted, has also declared the killing of American soldiers in Iraq and suicide bombings against Israel as a religious obligation for all Muslims. Frank Gaffney, president of the Center for Security Policy, describes Qaradawi as, “one of the world’s pre-eminent Islamofascists.”

Continue reading “Women in Islam: Suffering the Barbary of an Ideology”

00Publius Contributor - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - GOP - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture

It’s Time for Conservatives to Dump the GOP!

April 7, 2008 by

-By Don Boys, Ph.D.

It is time for Christians and Conservatives (not always the same) to run from the Republican Party as if their hair is on fire. How much longer will principled people pretend that the GOP (Is that Gutless Old Party or Godless Old Party?) takes a principled stand?

Some background: Every member of my family in West Virginia was a Democrat, but when I turned 18, I wanted to vote for Ike, so I registered as a Republican and have generally voted for them most of my life—until recently.

When I was administrator of a large Christian school in Indianapolis, I was asked to run for the Indiana House of Representatives and did so as a “Reagan Republican” in the late 70’s. To everyone’s surprise, I was elected and served in the House that was divided 51 Republicans to 49 Democrats. Moreover, the GOP had the governor’s office. To the chagrin of fellow Republicans, I voted with the Democrats whenever I thought they were right—not too often but enough to anger GOP leaders.

Some Republican friends thought I was not a good Republican because the Party Caucus could not count on my vote, but I did exactly as I promised to do during my election campaign which was a reason party bigwigs did not support me.
Continue reading “It’s Time for Conservatives to Dump the GOP!”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - News - Religion - Society/Culture

Boy Scouts in Philadelphia Threatened by Left

April 7, 2008 by

Friends,

We need your help promoting www.savethephillyscouts.org.

You may be aware that the Philadelphia City Council recently told the Boy Scouts to leave their local headquarters building in the city unless they can pay market rent or change their membership policies. Even though the Scouts built the building 80 years ago and kept it up on city property deeded to them for $1 per year “in perpetuity,” the Scouts will probably be moving out of their building on May 31.

The Pennsylvania primary election is on April 22. We’re asking Americans who support the Boy Scouts to sign a petition to the Pennsylvania media, calling on them to ask the candidates at local, state, and federal levels about the Boy Scouts. From city councils to Congress and the presidency, our politicians can either affirm the Boy Scouts or they can side with the ACLU and other groups that are attacking the Scouts.

The ACLU tried to stop a military base from holding the Boy Scout Jamboree. The ACLU has worked to get Boy Scouts out of our schools and public parks. And one presidential candidate said that if elected he would renounce the title of Boy Scouts honorary president.

We need to make the attacks on Scouting an issue in this election.

Please go to www.savethephillyscouts.org and sign your name on our petition to Save the Philly Scouts. Then place a link to www.savethephillyscouts.org on your website, and forward this on to your friends.

Thank you –

Hans Zeiger

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

Arizona Monument That Blames America for 9/11 Gets Facelift

April 6, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Back in September of 2006 it was reported that an Arizona monument built to memorialize the horrific events of 9/11 featured many phrases that blamed America for the attacks, yet not a one that blamed the terrorists.

The so-called memorial featured metal rings with phrases etched into them. Phrases like “Must bomb back,” “Foreign-born Americans afraid.” and “Erroneous U.S. air strike kills 46 Uruzgan civilians,” appear on the memorial. There are other phrases that seem to place the onus for the attacks on the US and these phrases have angered Arizonans since the day this abomination was unveiled.

Well it has taken two years, but the state legislature in Arizona has finally gotten around to begin to rectify the outrage. The Arizona Republic reports that the Arizona House voted to alter the 9/11 memorial this month.

Unfortunately, we ended up with another example of why Democrats cannot be trusted with our security as well as why it is a good assumption that most Democrats hate their own country. The Republic reports that the vote was practically a party line vote at 32 in favor to 26.

But, the fight isn’t over. Many who favor the anti-military and anti-American aspects of the “memorial” are vowing to fight to preserve their vision.

Continue reading “Arizona Monument That Blames America for 9/11 Gets Facelift”

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

Daily Kos Attacking Charlton Heston on His Passing

April 6, 2008 by 3 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

I guess we shouldn’t expect any sense of decorum from Kossacks, but it is pretty lame that they had to unleash their hatred only minutes after the announcement of the passing of famed American actor Charlton Heston. A Daily Kos “diarist” named doriangz started out calling Heston a “gun-nut” and ending with his life and causes being considered “political nutdouchebaggery,” and the incivility just flowed like the opening of a damn from Kos posters’ keyboards after that. Not much respect for a man who’s film career spanned many decades, who marched with Martin Luther King, and fought to uphold our Constitution.

One poster said that Heston tore into the “victims of Columbine,” one Marcus Tullius said he laughed when Jerry Falwell died and that Heston’s death made the world a better place. And Fairy Tale echoed that with a post that said, “Things are already getting better in America” now that Heston was dead. RandySF said that he was sorry but that he “can’t think of anything nice” to say about Heston. Aqualad08 seemed to think that if there were “no guns in heaven” that would make it “hell” for Heston.

And they were just getting warmed up.

Then, we always have to have the “he’s a crappy actor” types like poster jazzmaniac and the ones that have no respect, like ohcanada who said, “As we sow.. I didn’t respect him in life..and I won’t in death.” Then FischFry jumped in to say that he assumed that mention of the Heston film “A Touch of Evil” was really a description of Heston himself.

And, predictably, there is the foul mouthed type that we have all come to associate so specifically with uncivil leftists, too. PerfectStormer posted a loving “So long, motherf***er” when he heard the news of Heston’s death.

Continue reading “Daily Kos Attacking Charlton Heston on His Passing”