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

You-Tuber Puts Me To Music!

March 30, 2008 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Last week a You-Tube poster named Karen Smith contacted me and wanted to know if it was OK if she put one of my pieces to music and up on the venerable You-Tube. I said that I didn’t mind at all… and so she did.

The article she chose was called “Free Expression Quashed: YouTube Removes ‘Blasphemies’ Against Islam”, in which I took You-tube to task for allow radical Islamists in Pakistan to censor the video service itself. Not only did You-Tube bow to Islamofascist pressure to stop “insults to Islam” get into Pakistan, but You-Tube agreed to stop such so-called insults on every You-Tube service in the world!

Well, here is the result of Karen’s work and I have to say, I enjoyed it.

Thanks for the effort, Karen. I hope we don’t see You-Tube ban our Karen, though.

00Publius Contributor - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - News - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Mich. Speaker of House Employs State Paid Thugs to Stop Recall Effort

March 30, 2008 by 9 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Here is a story that details how far Democrats will go to destroy the people’s ability to be heard in government. It also shows Democrat’s penchant to abuse their power, their blatant waste of government funds, and the incestuous relationship that the anti-democratic process unions have with Democrats.

Up in Michigan, the thieves in the Democrat Party voted in a gigantic tax increase. Michigan has been mired in a one state recession for quite a while and Governor Jennifer Granholm’s only solution has been to raise taxes to pay for government “shortfalls” — and by “shortfall” you can read government waste. Well, after years of this localized recession in Michigan, the state legislature finally OKayed this massive tax increase meant to “save” the state from its financial ills.

Now, remember, this increase was supposed to make up for deficits in current commitments. Of course, as soon as the tax increase was passed, Governor Granholm and the state Democrats passed a new budget that raised spending by $760 million dollars. And the state GOP has reckoned that the Granholm tax increases has taken more than $602 million dollars from the pockets of Michigan families just since October of last year.

It is a typical Democrat Party mess of overspending, high, punitive taxes, lost business and a big hurt put on the average citizen.

So, what is the recourse that the people of Michigan have to address these wasteful politicians? The recall. Michigan has a recall law whereby citizens can gather 8,000 signatures to recall any politician under the Governor that they have decided no longer serves them. And a recall effort has been launched against Democrat Speaker of the Michigan House, Andy Dillon.

So, as these citizen activists who are sick of being bled to death by the uncaring masters in the state capitol of Lansing fanned out into Redford Township to ask the folks to sign their recall petition, they were met with harassment from state workers and union members imported for the purpose. The recall effort is all perfectly legal and serves as a fine example of the people acting in the democratic way to try and change the bad habits of their representatives in government, but the unions and the Democrats headed by Speaker Dillon are wholly against this expression of freedom and liberty.

What could be more democratic, more quintessentially American than a recall effort?

Apparently the Democratic Party and Speaker Andy Dillon are not so interested in the democratic process.
Continue reading “Mich. Speaker of House Employs State Paid Thugs to Stop Recall Effort”

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

Did French Soldiers Torture Congolese Citizens?

March 30, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Swedish military officials are accusing the French army of torturing civilians in Congo during their participation in the EU-led Artemis mission to stop marauding bandit bands plaguing the north-eastern part of the country.

Operation Artemus, the first major EU-led military effort, was supposed to mark a new era in joint European military operations. The short lived mission was active only a few months ending on Sept. 1 of 2003.

Now the Swedish military is accusing the French of torturing those whom they were supposed to be protecting.

According to the Swedish television news magazine Uppdrag Granskning, Swedish soldiers observed their French compatriots as they tortured a Congolese man in civilian clothes for hours, allegedly beating and strangling him. According to the report, the episode didn’t end until the Swedish soldiers went to the French commander.

Now, we can certainly look to France to investigate this incident and, if found to be true, we should expect them to prosecute these soldiers. But, I want to caution Americans from pointing to this with triumphalism.

We have to wonder why it has taken from 2003 to 2007 to report this torture claim? Second and most importantly, we cannot point at the “French” and say that “they” torture. This sort of behavior is not a French military policy and was likely just the actions of single soldiers. Even if a local French commander either encouraged or simply looked the other way while these things were occurring (if they really did) we cannot claim that it was any sort of official policy to the point where we can say “the French torture.” Any more than we can say with factual confidence that the U.S. military had any sort of policies that would have sanctioned the foolishness in Abu Ghraib.

Continue reading “Did French Soldiers Torture Congolese Citizens?”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Media Bias - News - Race - Society/Culture - Vince Johnson

The Very Predictable and Very Convenient Deadlock

March 30, 2008 by

-By Vince Johnson

Some will say the Clinton/Obama bashing and counter bashing is a clever orchestration arranged by moles working for Al Gore. The more they bash and counter-bash, the bigger the hero he will be when he suddenly arrives just in time to convert his party into an unstoppable effort to put himself in the Oval Office.

Others will say this is simply a case of mismanaged political strategies that are playing into Al Gores hands. This scenario was predictable so why not sit back and wait for the most appropriate moment to make a move? Why should he spend his money or energy running for President until his opponents spend all of theirs convincing America that neither one is fit to be President?

Is the Clinton/Obama deadlock by design or by accident? I say it doesn’t matter. I say it is not only “convenient” to Gore’s ambitions, it was sufficiently predictable to count on as a stepping stone of “heroic” proportions. When two candidates are perceived as equally inexperienced, it is predictable that both candidates will focus on the other’s weaknesses rather than the issues. When two candidates have a young and extremely dedicated following, there will be impulsive trash talk and there will also be emotionally driven remarks that belittle those they were aimed at them as well as those who uttered them. In their efforts to tear each other apart, they will tear themselves apart. And Mr. Gore will arrive as a great and benevolent hero without spending a dime!
Continue reading “The Very Predictable and Very Convenient Deadlock”

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

Obama HAS to Hate America or Lose ‘Black Vote’

March 29, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

On Friday, March 28th, Barack Obama made his latest stab at explaining away why he spent 20 years as a comfortable member of the volatile and racist Trinity United Church of Christ on the south side of Chicago. This was the church where Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Jr. bellowed sermons filled with hate for whites and the United States of America as well as a church that published anti-Jew, pro Hamas terrorist articles in church newsletters. And, like all Obama’s other “explanations on this matter” this one leaves a lot to be desired.

This time, Obama tried his best to make us believe that he would have quit the church over Rev. Wright’s racist, hate filled rants if the good Rev. hadn’t retired first – even though it was only a year ago. In an excerpt from an upcoming interview CNN reports that Obama earnestly hoped to assure America that Wright’s rhetoric was “outrageously wrong” and that his brand of “religion” would have caused Barack to quit the church had it continued.

The problem is, when you look at what Barack really said, it does not assure us that he would have left the church over Wright’s obscenities any more than a child caught with his hand in a cookie jar could be believed should he say that it was the last time he intended to steal a cookie. It’s easy to claim what you would have done after being caught at something. But the proof is in the pudding as history shows what was really done. Barack didn’t leave the church over Wright or anything else. He sat in that congregation with his wife and children nodding his head and saying “Amen” to Wright’s 20 some years of railing against the United States.

Barack talked about the controversy on ABC’s “The View” and tried to sound as if he was somehow disturbed by Wright’s long history of anti-Americanism and racist diatribes.

“Had the reverend not retired and had he not acknowledged that what he had said had deeply offended people and were inappropriate and mischaracterized what I believe is the greatness of this country, for all its flaws, then I wouldn’t have felt comfortable staying there at the church,” the senator said.

To ferret out the real truth here, let’s break Obama’s claim down line for line, let’s Fisk the rhetoric, if you will. (Barack’s words follow in bold)

Continue reading “Obama HAS to Hate America or Lose ‘Black Vote’”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Media Bias - Nancy Morgan - News - Race - Religion - Security/Safety - Society/Culture

Are You An Authentic White?

March 29, 2008 by

-By Nancy Morgan

Are you an authentic white person? For the answer to that, we need to go to the current authentic black community. They are the ones who define who is and who is not an authentic member of their race. Be they black or white. (Since Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, etc., have not yet amassed political clout, they’re excluded from being categorised by their skin color.)

The reigning Black elite have decided that authentic ‘typical white people’ are inherently racist. As Obama so blithely stated, this prejudice is inbred and rears its ugly head every time a white encounters a black. For those whites who believe reparations to date, in the form of trillions of dollars, affirmative action, special dispensations and a color-coded justice system, have adequately addressed the shame of their ancestors’ sin of slavery, well, it hasn’t. We are informed that racial prejudice is still rampant in American society. If you don’t see it, its because it has taken the more insidious form of ‘institutional racism.’

Not to worry, Obama assures us we can change. Phew. Just elect him President, and by virtue of the moral authority inherent in his skin color, he will kindly inform and advise his fellow Americans, excuse me, his fellow white americans, on the proper obeisance and reparations due all black people. Oops, I meant, all ‘authentic’ black people. Uncle Toms like Condoleeza Rice, Clarence Thomas, and other successful black people who succeeded on their own merit are not ‘authentic,’ and most decidedly not representative of the oppressed black community.
Continue reading “Are You An Authentic White?”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Family - News - Religion - Society/Culture - Thomas Brewton

Senator Obama and Christian Love

March 29, 2008 by

-By Thomas E. Brewton

Distressing remarks from the Senator’s pastor have been hashed and rehashed, but something more needs to be said.

In addition to assessing the inflammatory preaching by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright in terms of patriotism and decency, let’s also examine it from the viewpoint of Christian love.

Let’s acknowledge at the outset that we in the general public do not know the typical content of Rev. Wright’s sermons, whether his condemnation of the United States and of whites was an aberration or the norm.

Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God. (1 Corinthians 4:5)

But, however humanly understandable may be Rev. Wright’s vitriol reported in the media, it is far removed from the teachings of Jesus.
Continue reading “Senator Obama and Christian Love”

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

Sun-Times Blames City Taxpayers, Not City Government, for Chicago Budget Shortfall

March 28, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Chicago Sun-Times really pulled a whopper in their March 26th piece about a tax on bottled water that the Chicago City Council passed earlier this year. Chicago levied a 5 cent a bottle tax on each unit of bottled water sold in the city expecting to raise $875,000 a month on the tax. But somehow this windfall to the city has yet to be realized with the tax booty so far only amounting to $554,000. Because of this “below expected” revenue the Sun-Times claimed that this shortfall is “exacerbating a budget crunch” for the city.

I’m sorry Sun-Times but a tax shortfall isn’t “exacerbating a budget crunch.” The city itself is doing the “exacerbating” not the taxpayers. The City Council created a never before heard of tax and then spent the money it assumed it’d get. But then it didn’t get it. How can we blame the taxpayers who avoided the tax — legally avoided it, I might add — for any “budget crunch”? The budget crunch is the fault of wild spending by the Chicago City Council, not by the taxpayers not being bled enough.

In fact this new obscenity of a tax reveals a perfect example of human nature in action. The spendthrifts on the Chicago City Council created a new confiscatory tax out of thin air by placing a 5 cent tax on every bottle of water in the city. So, what happened? The suburbs found that, to avoid the tax, Chicago residents streamed into the suburbs and bought their water by the skids full in those neighboring towns.

Continue reading “Sun-Times Blames City Taxpayers, Not City Government, for Chicago Budget Shortfall”

00Publius Contributor - Budget - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - GOP - News - Society/Culture - Taxes - Vince Johnson

If You’re a Teenager, Listen up

March 28, 2008 by

-By Vince Johnson

This picture was taken back in 1950’s when I was in my teens. If you don’t know who I am, your parents or teacher will. They will probably tell you how I blew the whole deal after I got to the top of the world. Well that’s OK, because it’s true. In 1977, I was 42 and worth millions, but I messed up big time. I was addicted to drugs. I overdosed. The end wasn’t pretty and I didn’t make it.

So now let me tell you about another kind of addiction. It is going on in your Congress. The “addiction” I’m talking about has to do with borrowing money. Congress is absolutely hooked on borrowing money. Tons and tons of money. Check this number: $9,000,000,000,000! That’s $9 trillion! That’s how much money Congress has borrowed to cover their hog wild spending. If I made $100 million a year, I would have to work 90 thousand years to pay it off! If your calculator doesn’t have enough zeros, check it out with your math teacher.

Here’s what you ought to keep in mind. They are borrowing most of that money from YOU!
Continue reading “If You’re a Teenager, Listen up”

00Publius Contributor - Family - News - Religion - Society/Culture - Thomas Brewton

Good News From the Graveyard!

March 28, 2008 by

-By Thomas E. Brewton

Jesus is Risen!

Pastor Steve Treash preached the sermon for Easter Sunday at the Black Rock-Long Ridge Congregational Church in North Stamford, Connecticut.

The good news is that death is dead; fear has fled; and new life is ahead.

Jesus came to free us from the fear of death, to unite us with God in eternal life.

Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. (Hebrews 2:14-15)

Continue reading “Good News From the Graveyard!”

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

LATimes’ Dan Rather-Like Forged Documents in Rapper Attack Story

March 27, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

It looks like the L.A.Times has had to apologize for a false story they published last week that implicated rapper Sean”Diddy” Combs in a 1994 assault on Tupac Shakur during a so-called rapper’s war hit. The L.A. Times had to do an internal investigation when the website The Smoking Gun published an account detailing that the documents the L.A.Times used to base their story upon were forged and that the person who forged them was a well known con man on the rap music scene who pulled one over on the LAT — big time!

Yeah, the L.A.Times has an awful lot of egg on its face with this mess. The AP reports that TSG’s proof makes the LAT look like a bunch of bumbling idiots.

The Smoking Gun said the documents seemed phony because they appeared to be written on a typewriter instead of a computer, included blacked-out sections not typically found in such documents, and other reasons. The Smoking Gun story claims the documents were created by a convicted con man and music fan with a history of exaggerating his place in the rap music world.

Originally the LAT claimed their story was based on FBI records, interviews with people who were there at the time, and some FBI informants. Curiously enough, none of the sources were named in the LAT story, the whole thing being based on the ever famous, journalist’s best source, the “unnamed sources.” Naturally Sean “Diddy” Combs denied he had any part in the attacks on Shakur and it’s no wonder he’d say that because the LAT piece was full of puff, Daddy. Yeeh. Uh.

Now, let’s admit that Publius’ Forum isn’t the Rapper’s paradise it could be. If only we’d wear our pants a little lower and get some more gold plating on our teeth we’d be sure to be right in with the best rap fans across the country. I’d have to also admit that it might be a bit tough for the bulk of us to lower our IQs low enough to be for real fans, but we all could try a little harder, couldn’t we, G?

Still, seeing as how we Publius’ Forum “ain’t all dat,” you might wonder why this story is appearing on our site? Well, dawg, that’d be a good question… so I won’t be frontin’ ya, an all.

The main point of this story is that the LAT really dropped the ball here. TSG had a very extensive report revealing how badly the Times did on this one and it forced the LAT to admit their “mistake” (read shoddy journalism there). It certainly leads one to wonder how many other stories they’ve published in the past are as badly researched and sourced as this one?

Now, while we here on Publius’ Forum lament the loss of stature that this story might cause the LAT in particular and the MSM in general, we can’t help harkening back to a little story about president Bush’s Nat’l Guard service that Dan Rather tried to foist on the American public that also turned out to be based on forged documents.

That CBS report was widely discredited by just about everyone, too. I have to say, though, that I don’t quite recall Dan Rather’s big apology on that one. So, apparently the L.A.Times is all prepared to apologize to some thug rappers for a story based on forged documents, but the president gets bupkis from a forged document story that defamed him.

I’m juss sayin’. Ya know what I’m sayin’, dawg?

Continue reading “LATimes’ Dan Rather-Like Forged Documents in Rapper Attack Story”

00Publius Contributor - 2nd Amendment - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - News - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - The Law - Warner Todd Huston

Citizens Revolt Against Boston PD’s Jackbooted Gun Hunt

March 27, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

A few months ago, the Boston police department announced it would form a squad of uniformed police that would roam about certain “high risk” neighborhoods on the hunt for guns. The plan would be that these police squads would arrive at the doors of home owners, knock a few times, and “politely” ask residents if they would consent to a warrantless search of the premises — as if asking nicely was all the state needs to do to make it OK to abrogate the Constitution!

Well, apparently the community has discovered what a violation of trust and Constitutional rights this sort of jackbooted action would be. According to the Boston Globe, residents have “surprised” the police by intense opposition to the plan. The Boston Globe reports the shock and aw shucks of the police.

Boston police officials, surprised by intense opposition from residents, have significantly scaled back and delayed the start of a program that would allow officers to go into people’s homes and search for guns without a warrant.

The program, dubbed Safe Homes, was supposed to start in December, but has been delayed at least three times because of misgivings in the community. March 1 was the latest missed start date.

Apparently, citizens are a bit alarmed that the police imagine that they can just roam about preemptively “stopping” crimes that have yet to be committed. One community group has been circulating a petition to stop the program cold.

And here is the claim that the police have for their little program…

Police would ask parents or legal guardians for permission to search homes where juveniles ages 17 and under are believed to be holding illegal guns. Police would only enter homes into which they have been invited and, once inside, would only search the rooms of the juveniles.

This is an outright falsehood. Police legally CANNOT be limited to a single goal like they would be with a warrant. If the police enter a home, whether bidden or unbidden, they are obligated to act on anything that raises their suspicions. In effect, even if the homeowner imagined that they were only going to have police enter under a single premise, any violations the police see upon entering is fair game for police actions. In other words, by inviting police into the home, the homeowner is opening himself up to trouble even if he imagines the police are only there for one reason!

Community members are beginning to realize this fact, too.

Sarah Wunsch, a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union who has attended meetings about the plan, said those warnings are unnerving.

“People on the street may say: ‘This is great. I’m letting them in,’ ” she said. “But those are the people I’m concerned about, because they haven’t been educated about the hazards.”

What we have here is an violation of the Constitution, plain and simple. The police may have what some might consider good intentions. But, destroying the Constitution even for good intentions is no way to go about improving the community.

I hope that the communities in Boston continue to oppose these illegal police policies. So far, they are doing a good job doing so.

____________

Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, townhall.com, New Media Journal, Men’s News Daily and the New Media Alliance among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston

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

Media Doesn’t Get Why Hollywood’s Dismal Iraq War Pics Are Flopping

March 27, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

On the 25th, the Washington Post served up a lament for Hollywood’s dismal box office returns for the many Iraq war pictures it has churned out over the last several years, wondering why they have all failed so spectacularly? The whole article amounts to the Post just not understanding why moviegoers have stayed away in droves from these dark and dismal movies. But with the anti-Military, anti-American point of view depicted in every single one of these movies, it is no surprise that Americans have ignored these self-denigrating flicks. After all, with soldiers really taking casualties on the battlefield, who wants to see a film that tells us all it’s OUR fault?

Still, the Washington Post is mystified.

After five years of conflict in Iraq, Hollywood seems to have learned a sobering lesson: The only things less popular than the war itself are dramatic films and television shows about the conflict… A spate of Iraq-themed movies and TV shows haven’t just failed at the box office. They’ve usually failed spectacularly, despite big stars, big budgets and serious intentions.

The Post then goes on to wonder if audiences are “turned off by the war, or are they simply voting against the way filmmakers have depicted it?” As the post asks that question, you’d think they are on the verge of understanding. But, this question is dropped right away as the story details one flop after another. Ridiculously, the Post seems puzzled by the fact that audiences have not just mindlessly followed into the theater the “big stars, big budgets and serious intentions” of these failed flicks and no further attempt is made in this story to explore the public’s disinterest.

Continue reading “Media Doesn’t Get Why Hollywood’s Dismal Iraq War Pics Are Flopping”

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

Battle Royal Between CA Nurse Union and Services Employee Union

March 14, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

OK, folks, grab the popcorn and settle in for this hilarious tale of union against union. It’s an epic battle of lies, underhandedness, brute force, and sweetheart deals that pits the California Nurses Association (CNA) against the Services Employees International Union (SEIU). The two unions are at each other’s throats for the prize of representing employees in the Catholic hospitals of the state of Ohio.

Here’s the Beginning of Our Story

Three years ago the SEIU cruised into the state of Ohio to organize the workers in the Catholic hospitals there, cozied up to management promising to make the burden on employers as light as possible, and set out to organize the employees.

By cozying up to management the SEIU hoped to smooth any ruffled feathers that management might have over agreeing that their employees join the union. The plumb SEIU president Andy Stern hoped to pull out of Ohio’s pie was the 8,300 workers in the Catholic hospitals in Ohio, a number that Stern was salivating to add to his burgeoning union’s numbers.

As it happens, the SEIU had worked out a deal with the hospital administrators to the effect that neither the union nor the administrators would assault the employees with all-out efforts against each other. And with that deal in place, the SEIU took the next three years to negotiate the deal.

Success was close at hand with an employee vote on joining the union set to come off this very week.

But the hopes for harmony and love for all was soon to be demolished with the entrance into the story of the California Nurses Association — a group that even The New York Times called “an unusually militant union.”

The Plot Thickens

Just as the SEIU thought everything was going swimmingly, the CNA arrived in town ready to destroy the “rigged scam” of a deal that the SEIU had worked out with the Catholic hospitals administrators.

Continue reading “Battle Royal Between CA Nurse Union and Services Employee Union”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Elections - History - Media Bias - Nancy Morgan - News - President - Security/Safety - Society/Culture

My Husband, The Judge

March 14, 2008 by

-By Nancy Morgan

Living In Liberal La-La Land

As a child of the sixties, I was brought up in a time when there was still respect for America’s institutions. Be they banks, government, doctors, businesses, charities or churches. I accepted without question their authority, and assigned to them the respect due to the pillars and foundations of American society. I assumed they were honorable and above question.

Then life happened. Enron, pedophile priests, corrupt politicians, and the general politicizing of government and affiliated organizations. By the time I reached the age of 39, the only institution I accepted blindly and without question was the judiciary. The rule of law was set in stone. Or so I thought.

Then, along came Steve*. As a judge, he had society’s imprint as ‘Honorable’. He also had a sense of humor and a very nice physique. Best of all, he wanted me. Finally, a man with the two attributes I considered essential for marriage, trust and respect. We got married in April of 1992.

Steve presided over civil settlements in the Superior Court of ——–. Lawyers would come to him before trial on civil suits, to see if a settlement could be reached. Steve settled most of the cases before him, saving the costs and anguish of a trial. He would come home from work and over dinner, we would talk about the cases he had ruled on that day.
Continue reading “My Husband, The Judge”

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

Network News Ratings Tumble Among Viewers Aged 18-34

March 13, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

According to Media Life Magazine, the three big network evening news broadcasts have slipped badly in the key 18 to 34 age bracket. At the same time, though, the Cable news nets have picked up among that same demographic. All three network newscasts have lost numbers since last year, with Katie Couric having the worst slide of the three.

According to Media Life, the main reason the evening news shows have been losing so steadily is because the Internet and Cable can give news at any time the viewer is ready to take their news whereas the evening news must be specifically scheduled into the viewer’s lives. Media Life claims that the 18 to 34 age group just “never got into the evening news habit” — a pretty plausible point.

The Internet is a big factor for this age group:

Much of it takes place on the internet. A recent Zogby poll found that 55 percent of 18-29s cite the internet as their primary news source… By the time 6:30 rolls around, they’ve gotten the story, and there’s little Gibson or Williams or Couric have to add.

So what are the numbers? Here is what Media Life reported as the latest numbers through the beginning of March.

Season to date, the “CBS Evening News with Katie Couric” is down the most among 18-34s, off 21 percent from a 0.86 rating last year, to a 0.68, according to Nielsen data analyzed by Carat. In the same span, Couric has fallen 14.6 percent in 25-54s and 16 percent among 35-64s.

ABC’s “World News with Charles Gibson” has slipped 13.5 percent among 18-34s, from a 0.96 to a 0.83, while falling 5.6 percent with 25-54s and 3.3 percent with 35-64s.

NBC’s “Nightly News with Brian Williams” has dipped the least in 18-34s, where it also leads, off 10.1 percent, from a 1.09 to a 0.98. That’s compared to dips of 7.7 percent among 25-54s and 5 percent with 35-64s.

This is good news for those who would love to see TV network news gone the way of the dinosaurs. I’d say that once the Baby Boomers begin to fade into history, they will take the regular network news with them because the generations after the Boomers have little need or interest in the big three news outlets.

These falling ratings are really bad news for network news, though. They have no where to go but down unless they can figure a way to re-ignite viewership among younger viewers.

Continue reading “Network News Ratings Tumble Among Viewers Aged 18-34”

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

Senate to Vote on 1 Year Pork Diet

March 13, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Senator Jim DeMint, champion in the fight against wasteful Congressional spending called “earmarks,” is at it again today. He is proposing that the Senate approve a 1 year ban on earmark spending.

The Politico reports:

The first-term South Carolina Republican introduced the earmark moratorium after becoming convinced that the GOP’s participation in the provisioning of home-state pork — as well as its ties to lobbyists and all their “shameless requests” — had cost the party control of the House and the Senate in 2006.

Well, apparently the Senate is going to take this issue up today, so call your senator and tell him to support this measure.

It’s possible we can make headway against wasteful gov’t spending today, especially since it seems that all three presidential candidates are supporting the measure. The word is that McCain, Clinton and Obama are coming back to the Senate today to vote to approve the moratorium.

If this gets past, we have a year to work to eliminate them forever.

So, let’s go people. Contact your Senators and tell them that you want some responsibility in Washington for a change.

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

Shocking Story of Gay Porn as Required Reading in High School

March 13, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The story of an Illinois high school making a gay pornographic play required reading for seniors has been reported since March 7th, but it has been ignored for the most part with only a handful of news outlets having taken on this issue. The fact that a public high school that requires such reading doesn’t raise a fuss in the media shows how the media supports the gay agenda, of course.

The book, “Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes,” has numerous passages that describes gay sexual encounters in exacting, sometimes violent, detail.

The book, “Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes,” has numerous passages that describes gay sexual encounters in exacting detail, some of them violent.

Initially, this book was required reading for college-bound seniors, but a Deerfield community group was successful in getting the book removed from the required list and placed on an opt-in list.

Matt Barber, director of cultural issues with Concerned Women for America, was amazed by the explicit nature of the book.

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

A Liberal-Progressive Wrestles with Morality

March 13, 2008 by

-By Thomas E. Brewton

Choosing human reason alone as the road to understanding means that morality is no more than the result of the latest public opinion poll.

Read Richard John Neuhaus’s commentary on Austin Dacey’s The Secular Conscience: Why Belief Belongs in Public Life. Mr. Dacey is the editor of Philo, a journal of secularist philosophy.

Despite its title, Mr. Dacey’s book is a confrontation with spiritual religion. Mr. Neuhaus writes:

On almost all the hot-button issues—abortion, embryo-destructive research, same-sex marriage, Darwinism as a comprehensive philosophy, etc.—Dacey is, in my judgment, on the wrong side. But he is right about one very big thing. These contests are not between people who, on the one side, are trying to impose their morality on others, and people who, on the other side, subscribe to a purely procedural and amoral rationality. Over the years, some of us have been trying to elicit from our opponents the recognition that they, too, are making moral arguments and hoping that their moral vision will prevail. But in the world of secular liberalism, morality is the motive that dare not speak its name. Austin Dacey strongly agrees. I expect he would not agree that the secularist moral vision entails a quasi-religious understanding of reality, but one step at a time, and The Secular Conscience is a critically important first step.

Dacey has quibbles with Pope Benedict’s analysis of moral “relativism,” but he admits that “secular liberals find it had to shake the lingering feeling that there is something to the pope’s diagnosis. Something disquieting has been happening to the Western mind over the last half century.” He writes about a philosophy professor who reports that none of his students are Holocaust deniers, but an increasing number are even worse: “They acknowledge the fact, even deplore it, but cannot bring themselves to condemn it morally.” Who are they to say that the Nazis were morally wrong? And so it is also with apartheid, slavery, and ethnic cleansing. For these students, passing moral judgment “is to be a moral ‘absolutist,’ and having been taught that there are no absolutes, they now see any judgment as arbitrary, intolerant, and authoritarian.”

…Secular liberalism “has been undone by its own ideas,” Dacey writes. “The first idea is that matters of conscience—religion, ethics, and values—are private matters. . . . By making conscience private, secular liberals had hoped to prevent believers from introducing sectarian beliefs into politics. But of course they couldn’t, since freedom of belief means believers are free to speak their minds in public.” Dacey recognizes the gravely flawed view of John Rawls that public decisions must be advanced by public reasons recognized by all reasonable parties. That is not the case with most questions requiring political decisions. He writes: “A policy can be justified when it is favored by a convergence of citizens’ varying reasons, without there being any consensus on those reasons themselves. And there is no reason why the claims of conscience can’t be a part of such convergence…”

Several points touched upon by Mr. Neuhaus in his commentary need emphasis.
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00Publius Contributor - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Media Bias - Morals/Sex - News - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

CNN Apologizes for Spitzer Analyst who Attacked Topless Dancer in ‘96

March 12, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Maybe it takes one to know one, but CNN is nonetheless a little red in the face over the gaffe of turning to a man with a troubled past in “adult entertainment” — so to speak — as an analyst for the Elliot Spitzer prostitution story. CNN has apologized for offering up as an analyst one Kendall Coffey, a fellow who had to resign as a U.S. attorney over an incident in 1996 when he attacked a topless dancer during a visit to an adult club.

Glenn Garvin of the Miami Herald has the torrid tale of Coffey’s snippy past:

When it came to getting informed comment Tuesday on New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s involvement in a sex scandal, CNN got a real expert — with more experience in the field than he let on. Billing him only as “a former U.S. attorney,” without any reference to how he achieved his former-ness, the network interviewed Miami’s Kendall Coffey, who had to resign the job in 1996 after biting a dancer during the process of running up a $900 bill at a strip club.

Coffey told CNN that Spitzer should find major trouble with this incident, especially when money changed hands. After all, Coffey ought to know.

That was precisely Coffey’s undoing in 1996. Ejected from the club after his failed attempt to kiss the stripper ended with him biting her instead, he used a credit card to pay the $900 bill. Later he sent his father to the bar to buy the credit-card slip back at a premium price of $1,200, which tipped the irate stripper and her even-more-irate husband off that they’d been dealing with someone anxious to conceal his identity. Their complaints eventually attracted an investigators from the office of the U.S. Justice Department’s inspector general, and Coffey was soon toast.

I guess when CNN claims they are bringing in the experts they really mean experts — or even sexperts, as the case may be.

For it’s part CNN says that they knew of Coffey’s gummed up past. But obviously Coffey got on TV with this story by the skin of his teeth to give us his biting commentary anyway. The AP reported that CNN spokesman Nigel Pritchard said that it was just a “miscommunication” that Coffey was chosen to discuss Spitzer’s story with news anchor Tony Harris on the 11th.

Not the end of the world, here, but it is rather amusing that CNN turned to a guy with past troubles with adult entertainers to talk about a prostitution mess, isn’t it?

Continue reading “CNN Apologizes for Spitzer Analyst who Attacked Topless Dancer in ‘96”

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

Poll: Democrats Trust Press More than Republicans Do

March 12, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Harris released one of their latest polls on the 6th and it showed that less than half the general American public trusts the press. With the state of the media today, this should come as no surprise to anyone. But, the numbers are pretty amazing when it is realized that 54% of those responding said they did not trust the press while 46% admitted that they don’t trust television news either. The Internet fared better with 41% saying that they trust what they see there with only 34% saying they do not trust the web for their news.

But, the really interesting news with this poll is the wide disparity between Democrats and Republicans where it concerns their trust in the media. It seems that Democrats are far more trusting in the media in nearly every category than are Republicans. (Independents trusted the media even less, incidentally.)

According to Harris, the press is trusted by 43% of the Democrats polled but only by an anemic 19% of the Republicans contacted. Radio is trusted by 51% of Dems, and 45% of Repubs while TV is trusted by 50% of the Dems and only 31% of the GOPers. The Internet saw the two sides closer together with 45% of the Dems trusting what they find there and with 40% of the Republicans who also did.

Now, this should also come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the left slanted nature of the “news” that comes out of most of the media. With TV and the press firmly in the left’s corner, it is not a shock to see few Republicans trusting what they see and hear from those sources. In fact, this poll pretty much serves as more proof of how far left most of the media is.

The poll also showed that the Internet is not yet a dominant news source for the general populace.

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

Overstepping Union Attacks US Foreign Policy

March 12, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

In the military there is phrase for something that gets larger than it started; mission creep. This phrase is a really good one to describe how things often get out of hand. It also describes why unions always go awry. In this case, mission creep describes what happens when a union goes from being concerned with the interests of employees and union members to imagining it has the power or even the place to try to guide American foreign policy.

The Atlantic Free Press brings us the ridiculous tale of the arrogance of the ILWU that has decided it has the right to shut down all west cost ports of entry so that the union can announce its disagreement with the war in Iraq — a war that we are winning at last, by the way.

In a major step for the U.S. labor movement, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) has announced that it will shut down West Coast ports on May 1, to demand an immediate end to the war and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Middle East. In a February 22 letter to AFL-CIO president John Sweeney, ILWU International president Robert McEllrath reported that at a recent coast-wide union meeting, “One of the resolutions adopted by caucus delegates called on longshore workers to stop work during the day shift on May 1, 2008 to express their opposition to the war in Iraq.”

If anyone can show me where a union has the place to take such an action… well, I’m all ears.

But here they are with the arrogance of those who imagine that they smarter and better equipped than those whom we actually ELECT to lead this country!

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00Publius Contributor - Business - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - History - News - Security/Safety - Thomas Brewton

For What Purpose Was the Fed Created?

March 12, 2008 by

-By Thomas E. Brewton

The role of the Federal Reserve has changed enormously, not for the good, since its creation in 1913.

Most people today assume that the Fed’s proper function is to manage the economy via monetary policy.

A quotation in today’s Wall Street Journal in the “Ahead of the Tape” column reflects that understanding.

“We may be going from bubble to bubble,” says Ed Yardeni, chief investment strategist at Yardeni Research. The problem is that the only other choice for the Fed is to do nothing and let the economy fall into a recession.

“The Fed was created to avoid financial crises and get us out of them when they happen, and that’s what they’re trying to do.”

In the March 8th edition, Wall Street Journal reporter Greg Ip writes:

The Federal Reserve, facing constraints on how much it can accomplish with lower short-term interest rates, is increasingly pressing alternative approaches to restore order to credit markets and combat the risk of recession.

On Friday, it fired its latest unconventional salvo, announcing it would pump as much as $200 billion into short-term funding markets through two separate mechanisms to ease strains on banks’ funding and on mortgage markets. That followed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s call Tuesday that both lenders and the federal government do more to write down the face value of troubled mortgages, forestalling foreclosures and helping stabilize the housing market, and his earlier support of fiscal stimulus.

None of this was envisioned by Congress in 1913.
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00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Media Bias - News - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Further Proof NPR Caters to Extreme Left

March 11, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Jennifer Harper, Washington Times reporter, gives us a revealing look at how far left our taxpayer funded National Public Radio network has gotten itself these days. Even when they try to go a little toward the conservative side of the debate, they get lambasted by their audience, angered that they had the temerity to air conservative views. Of course, the only reason they would get such a rude reception from their own audience is because they have garnered only a far left listenership as a result of their far left programming. After all, if they had a balanced listenership they wouldn’t get deluged by angry emails when they aired conservative content.

Apparently, at the end of February, the NPR program “Morning Edition” took the unusual move of airing four consecutive days of interviews with conservative thinkers in a segment they dubbed “Conversations with Conservatives.”

The roster consisted of the Rev. Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission; Grover Norquist, founder of Americans for Tax Reform; talk-radio host Glenn Beck; and David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union.

Each of these conservatives had their own focus, religion, taxes, and the like. But, as Harper discovered, “NPR listeners were not especially pleased in the aftermath of the broadcast segments.”

According to NPR ombudsman Alicia Shepard, more than 60 angry e-mails and phone calls arrived at the network, calling the programming “shameful” and a “lovefest with radical, right-wing nuts.” There were only a few, she said, that praised the series as “refreshing” and “articulate,” among other things.

For his part, program host Steve Inskeep admitted he made a portion of his audience mad.

“We did annoy our listeners, but if we do our job right, we function as a personal intelligence agency for them. Hopefully, they hear allies and enemies and everybody in between. We have to learn from a wide range of people,” he said.

So, are we supposed to celebrate how brave NPR is for this decision to give us the “other side”?

And, who can doubt that he meant “opposition research” as opposed to learning from a “wide range of people”? After all, his audience only cares about conservative opinion as far as it alerts them to the opinion of the enemy and not because it will “help” them “learn” anything useful with which they can make a balanced decision of their own.

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00Publius Contributor - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Family - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture - Thomas Brewton

Liberal-Progressive Mind Control

March 11, 2008 by

-By Thomas E. Brewton

Socialism, of which liberal-progressivism is the American sect, is more than control of the economy. Most importantly it is mind-control through the public education system.

The Washington Times reports the latest liberal-progressive-socialist curtailment of personal freedom.

“California courts have held that under provisions in the Education Code, parents do not have a constitutional right to educate their children in their own home,” said the Feb. 28 ruling by the California Appellate Court for the second district.

When they wish to overrule long-standing political liberties, liberals look to precedents of so-called international law and other nations’ customs. The socialist European Union, and Germany specifically, provide ammunition for abrogating educational liberties.

Why the animus of liberal courts and teachers’ unions against home schooling?
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00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Being ‘Poor’ A New Qualification for Denver’s ‘Gifted’ School Programs

March 10, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Denver Post gave us a fine example — not that they meant to — of why every year our schools are turning out more semi-literate kids with over inflated egos. To the Post, of course, it’s all good news that being poor in the Denver School Districts now qualifies a kid to be placed in the “gifted students” programs. To the Post this new classification “makes things more equitable” in those gifted programs. Why, it’s giving minorities a “lift,” you see? Of course, there isn’t a word out of anyone in Denver if whether or not any of these kids suddenly classified as “gifted” students actually have any gifts that might prove them worthy of their politically motivated status.

In the typically empty fashion so popular among our ideologically left infested school administrations the country over, it’s merely a matter of quotas and economic stats by which we measure success, not any true educational achievement. If your program for gifted students doesn’t have enough of the right race of children (or the minority du jour) why then it must be obvious that the program is a failure. So, instead of improving the overall education for all students in order to bring minority students up to snuff so as to qualify them for entrance into a gifted program, the Denver Schools are just going to “add points” to the tests for kids merely because they are “poor,” or if “English is their second language.”

Voila, more “gifted” kids abound in Denver.

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

The Sordidness of Liberal-Progressivism

March 10, 2008 by

-By Thomas E. Brewton

There is more to life than sensual gratification.

Reading Anthony Daniels’s At the Forest’s Edge in the New Criterion website, one is reminded of the superficiality of the liberal-progressive philosophical foundation.

Mr. Daniels ruminates about the analysis of modernity expressed by Sigmund Freud in Civilization and Its Discontents and by Jose Ortega y Gasset in The Revolt of the Masses. Both works were published in 1930, when liberal-progressivism was becoming ascendant in the United States.

Both are products of the materialistic philosophy of the 19th century that repudiated God and spiritual religion, proclaiming that only the tangible and material elements of everyday life here on earth had any real influence upon human conduct and the course of history.
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00Publius Contributor - Business - Economy/Finances - News - Society/Culture - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Labor Better? Not by a Long Shot

March 9, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Well, let’s see. There’s the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, elves… oh, and the myth of that says union labor is superior in quality to private labor.

That last one is probably the more pernicious myth because many are convinced that union myth is actually true. People grow out of belief in the Tooth Fairy, but unfortunately too many refuse to shed the absurdity of the superiority of union labor.

But, some people are coming out of their self induced stupor in Connecticut over the shoddy work that their tax dollars paid for on so many public projects.

On Feb. 27, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal announced he has sued 13 contractors who worked on the $50 million expansion of the York Correctional Institution in Niantic, the state’s only prison for women.

Whaaaat? But, aren’t state contracts handed out exclusively to union contractors?

Yes, Virginia, there is an indictment.
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00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - GOP - Islam - Islamofascism - Media Bias - News - President - Security/Safety - Society/Culture

A Hussein by any other name

March 9, 2008 by

-By Michael M. Bates

Michelle Obama describes the use of her husband’s middle name, Hussein, as “the fear bomb.” Political adversaries tossed this device in his 2004 Senate race. “They threw in the obvious, ultimate fear bomb. . . When all else fails, be afraid of his name, and what that could stand for, because it’s different.” Now “they’re” doing it again. An intriguing storyline, but is it supported by the facts?

A NewsBank check for 2004 shows no stories in either the Chicago Tribune or the Chicago Sun-Times reporting this particular fear bomb being dropped by his feisty opponent, Alan Keyes, or any of his supporters.

A December, 2006 commentary in the New York Times noted “there hadn’t been much focus on the unfortunate coincidence” of Obama sharing a name with the Butcher of Baghdad until that week.

Perhaps Mrs. Obama is confused. That’s understandable, with all that was going on in her life at the time. Within weeks after her husband’s arrival in the Senate, the University of Chicago Medical Center more than doubled her salary. And then there was an appointment to the board of TreeHouse Foods that brought in another $100,000 or so to the Obama household.
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00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Judges - Military - News - Patriotism - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - The Law - Warner Todd Huston

Anti-War Judge Won’t Allow Foster Child to Join Marines

March 8, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Children’s Court Commissioner Marilyn Mackel of Simi Valley, California is against our actions in Iraq. With that said, this activist judge felt she had the right to prevent a foster child under her jurisdiction from joining the Marines. This refusal is an obscene abuse of power based solely on her hatred for the U.S. military. And she’s done this before.

The L.A. Daily News gives us the outrageous story of young Shawn Sage, a foster child, who appeared before judge Mackel to ask for permission to sign with the Marines for an early enlistment. Sage is 17 and would have been eligible for a $10,000 signing bonus upon signing. The young man has long dreamed of joining the Marines and is shocked that this judge denied him permission to join.

“The judge said she didn’t support the Iraq war for any reason why we’re over there,” said Marine recruiter Sgt. Guillermo Medrano of the Simi Valley USMC recruiting office.

“She just said all recruiters were the same – that they `all tap dance and tell me what I want to hear.’ She said she didn’t want him to fight in it.”

According to the L.A. Daily News, Makel also denied another young foster child who wanted to join the Navy because she feels that all military recruiters are liars and just want “another warm body.”

As Mr. Sage stood before the judge he had the backing of several members of the military as well as his brother and his foster parents behind him. Yet regardless of all the adult support this young man had for his quest, this out of control judge ruled against his right to join our nation’s military.

But something good may be coming from this episode despite of all this military-hating judge’s actions. The legislature is stepping in and doing their job deflating some of this un-American judge’s power. As a result of this judge’s untoward acts, Shawn Sage submitted a proposal to a local California lawmaker’s write a bill challenge and Mr. Sage’s proposal has since become Bill AB2238.
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