00Publius Contributor

00Publius Contributor - 2nd Amendment - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - GOP - Immigration/Immigrants - Media Bias - News - Patriotism - President - Race - Religion - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

Philly Inquirer: Pistol Packing GOP Candidates at Debates

December 10, 2007 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Apparently, the Philly Inquirer wants us to know that the GOP candidates for president are drooling, half sentient, Bible thumping, gun toting, racists. Oh, and Fred Thompson is stupid and lazy. Just as apparently, the Philadelphia Inquirer is having trouble finding writers for their rag. I mean, what else could explain their giving a teenager a shot at filling space in the Sunday issue? Of course, I could be wrong. It could be that Dick Polman only writes like a 15-year-old. Worse, Polman seems to have sold himself to the Inquirer as some sort of comedian with “The American Debate, For the love of guns, God and Reagan,” too. But, if he IS an adult and really does think his Sunday piece is funny, well, there’s no accounting for taste — or sense — on the far left, I suppose. I guess the joke is on the readers of the Inquirer.

Billed as “what the GOP candidates might say in the next Iowa debate to woo conservatives,” Polman has decided the only thing that will do so is to appear as a gun crazed, racist that mindlessly echos Ronald Reaganisms. Like I said, it was supposed to be funny… I guess.

All the Republican presidential candidates will debate, again, on Wednesday in Iowa. Here’s an exclusive look at the advance transcript.

And here is what Polman imagines is the first question:

All these candidates have said they support guns. But talk is cheap. I want to know if they’re all proudly carrying their own guns, right now, right here on this stage.

Gentlemen, a show of hands . . . oh, my . . . that’s quite an arsenal up there. Somebody nudge Fred Thompson, wake him up. Sen. Thompson? Hello? What do you have?

So, what does Polman imagine the candidates will say?

Fred Thompson: Uhhh, got me a AP4 carbine rifle with a 16-inch barrel. This little ole honey would have surely impressed Ronald Reagan.

Rudy Giuliani: So what? Mine’s a bolt-action Remington. With a 24-inch barrel. Mine’s bigger than yours. And that’s not all I got. Say hello to my Charter Arms .44. It’s ideal for home defense against Islamofascists, because 9/11 changed everything. By the way, fuggedaboutit, I can see that there’s one wuss on this stage.

Mitt Romney: Yes, it’s true: I am not armed at this time. But I did just buy a gun cabinet for Christmas, and I have the receipt right here, with copies for everyone, see? From Dick’s Sporting Goods, and, my gosh, it’s a beauty. Wood veneer, tempered glass, holds six long guns

(Candidates scrutinize the receipt. Civil cross talk.)

You can just feel that Leno’s bookers are getting on the phone to book this funny man on the Tonight Show, eh? On second thought, he shouldn’t give up his job at McDonald’s just in case. There’s an old joke about comedy that comedians like to throw out: “Don’t try this at home, kids.” It’s a bit of advice that neither Dick Polman nor the Philly Inquirer seem to have followed.

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00Publius Contributor - Congress - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - News - Patriotism - Society/Culture - Uncategorized

This is America, speak Spanish

December 10, 2007 by

-By Michael M. Bates

I find it annoying to call a telephone number and have to press 1 to proceed in English. It seems to me that our national language should routinely be used and callers wishing an alternative should be the ones to select a number.

We’ve come very far from the sentiment of Teddy Roosevelt, who believed, “We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language.” That’s not politically correct by today’s standards and the U.S. government explicitly disdains such views. A model of current official thinking is the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s tormenting of the Salvation Army for setting up an English-only policy for its workers.

In Massachusetts, the Salvation Army gave all employees one year in which to learn English and speak it while on the job. Two people who sorted clothes for the agency refused and were terminated.

Enter the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Deciding that the Salvation Army’s action had embarrassed, humiliated, inconvenienced and inflicted emotional pain on the fired employees, last April the EEOC sued the Christian organization for back pay, damages and an end its “discriminatory rules.”
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00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Family - News - Religion - Selwyn Duke - Society/Culture - Uncategorized

He’s Gonna Find Out Who’s Naughty or Nice… or Stupid

December 10, 2007 by

By Selwyn Duke

Sometimes I could believe I was living in the Matrix. Only, I can’t imagine sentient programs creating a world as irrational as ours.

We’ve come to expect the usual Christmastime attacks upon tradition in the name of the mythical “separation of church and state”; the nativity scene on public property and school Christmas celebrations are favorite targets. Then we have those wonderfully inclusive “holiday trees.” But now, hell’s sleigh bells, Santa Claus is under assault.

Is it because his image smacks of religion? Is it because he is also known as St. Nicholas? No and no. It is far, well, more stupid than that. Here’s the first of two examples of Santa insanity:

Some people don’t want Santa Claus to say “ho-ho-ho” because it could be demeaning to women.

I kid you not.

I first heard about this idea being posited by some rubber-room candidates in Australia, but now it’s happening here, too. Writes the Austin American-Statesman,
Continue reading “He’s Gonna Find Out Who’s Naughty or Nice… or Stupid”

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

At Last, AP to Enter the Internet Age with ‘AP Version 2.0′

December 9, 2007 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Al Gore must’ve gotten to the Associated Press and introduced to them his invention, the Internet, because they have announced a refit for the new news age. The New York Times spins some coverage for the venerable news wire service’s newest venture, even taking the chance to extend a compliment for AP’s creation of the “24-hour news cycle” (I know, that one made my head turn, too). So, at last the AP has decided the world has changed… took ’em long enough.

First off, let’s dispense with the Times’ claims that the AP invented the “24-hour news cycle.”

After a decade of watching newspapers and rival wire services shrink, The Associated Press, the 161-year-old news cooperative, is refitting itself to handle the 24-hour news cycle it helped create.

Gosh, the rest of the world pins that “creation” on the cable news networks, not the AP. In fact, the 24-hour news cycle came into being long before that when the telegraph was first introduced in the USA by Samuel Morse. Still, if the AP had been at the forefront of creating that new cycle for news, how is it that they are so far behind now? If, according to the NYT, this raving compliment were right, it would have seemed the AP would have been at the front of the wave. So why the late-timed refit? Perhaps the NYT indulged in a bit of undeserved praise, eh?

Do ya think!?

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

We’re Winning!

December 9, 2007 by 1 Comment

-By Nancy Morgan

Question: If success in Iraq isn’t reported, does that mean it’s not news?

Last month saw the trickle of positive news from Iraq turn into a flood. Our troops, our allies and the people of Iraq are winning the war against fanatical jihadists murderers. By any measure. But curiously, the American media, the same media that gave 24/7 coverage of Abu Ghraib, Haditha, and the “quagmire” in Iraq, has suddenly gone silent.

Here’s a sampling of the astonishing good news out of Iraq in just this last week. News our American media either overlooked or relegated to a couple paragraphs – sandwiched between winter holiday advertisements and the exciting news of how presidential Hillary is looking:

Sen. Lindsey Graham, just back from a Thanksgiving trip to Iraq, said the recent surge of U.S. troops is so successful, it’s “history in the making.”

Nearly 6,000 Sunni Arab residents joined a security pact with American forces last Wednesday, in what U.S. officers described as a critical step in plugging the remaining escape routes for terrorists. That’s 6,000 Sunnis now working with us instead of against us. Very good news.

Neighborhood Christians and Muslims attended a mass to celebrate the reopening of St. John’s Church in Baghdad on November 15. Imagine that. Christians and Muslims celebrating together. In Baghdad. Awesome.
Continue reading “We’re Winning!”

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

Island Shrinking by Global Warming… But for Over 100 Years?

December 8, 2007 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Global warming acolytes have a favorite image, that of Al Gore’s fabulist tale of 20 foot waves engulfing our coast lines. Invoking that awesome image, the L.A. Times published a story last month that is supposed to be just another global warming scare piece. Still, even the Times couldn’t lie through its teeth in every instance because, while the island of Kivalina, Alaska really has been shrinking, even the Times admits its been doing so for well over 100 years.

It’s a bit hard to pin that all on “global warming,” though, since few claim that the phenomenon has been going on for over 100 years. After all, globaloney scaremongers pin global warming on CFCs and rising CO2 levels none of which were started until after the turn of the century from 1800s to the 1900s. So, why blame global warming when normal erosion has been at work on the island for hundreds of years? Ah, because it makes a better story to fit your ideological position, of course!

But, despite the use of common sense, the Times waxes despondent over the erosion of this rather stark and unattractive Alaskan island and the dissension that loss is sowing amongst the 400 residents there. And in doing so they miss a larger and much more interesting story.

“As global warming erodes their world, the residents of Kivalina battle the elements — and now one another.”

Oh, how worrisome… or is that wearisome?

But, even as the Times tries their darndest to pin the shrinking island’s fate on global warming, the Times can’t ignore the real truth here.

“Kivalina is disappearing, the victim of a warming world and a steady natural erosion that probably began long before the Eskimos settled here 100 years ago. “

Wait a minute. The island has been shrinking for more than 100 years? So, um, how can it be all caused by global warming? After all, the globaloney crowd says it’s man’s fault with all of his industry, cars and decadent lifestyles, right? Well, there wasn’t much of that a’ goin’ on in the 1890s and before!

Continue reading “Island Shrinking by Global Warming… But for Over 100 Years?”

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

Union Organized With Less Than 30% of ‘Employees’ Agreeing to Representation?

December 8, 2007 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Associated Press brings us a doozie of a story about the creation of an entirely new area of union representation created in order to represent a workforce that mostly doesn’t even know they have a union in the first place. For that matter, this new union representation has a workforce the majority of which didn’t vote to join. This was one neat trick for the union, for sure. In essence the SEIU (Service Employees International Union) created a new branch of their union out of whole cloth with the approving nod of 11 Democrat state administrations.

How did they do it? They sent a postcard in the mail and since a bunch came back saying they’d like the idea, wham-o-change-o a union was created out of thin air. But here is the thing: there was no vote, there were no mass meetings, there was no election of leadership… the unions just sent out a few postcards and decided they were now authorized to create a new union for a workforce that had no such union.

The SEIU has decided that in 11 states they now represent child-care providers that work out of their homes. Again, there were no meetings, there was no vote. Just some postcards.

In New York, for instance, the AP reports that this presumptuous new union organization represents 28,000 child-care providers. How did it happen? Well, see, the SEIU sent out postcards and got back 8,382 that said they wanted to join such a thing if it were to be created. So, as far as the SEIU is concerned with less than 30% of the 28,000 New York child-care providers saying it was a good idea that gives them the right to claim they are now representing ALL of the rest of them!

What gall!

Continue reading “Union Organized With Less Than 30% of ‘Employees’ Agreeing to Representation?”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Founders - Media Bias - Nancy Salvato - News - Religion - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Uncategorized

In Defense of Freedom

December 8, 2007 by

-By Nancy Salvato

According to “Devilstower”, a blogger on the DailyKos website, human rights are more important than national security. She explains, “Even if it was sure to be lost in a terrorist attack today, my life is not worth the Constitution. The life of my child is not worth the Constitution.” This same blogger believes that presidents Bush, Roosevelt, and Lincoln set aside their duty to uphold the constitution in exchange for the illusion of security.

“Devilstower” seems to have missed the whole idea behind instituting a constitution, which is that government is instituted to protect the peoples’ right to life, liberty and property, and the right to defend themselves against those who would rob, enslave, or kill them. This right, which the Constitution is designed to protect, is derived from Natural Law* not from the Constitution itself.

Abraham Lincoln, in his Gettysburg Address, proclaims:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that “all men are created equal.”

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of it, as a final resting place for those who died here, that the nation might live. This we may, in all propriety do. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow, this ground– The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have hallowed it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here; while it can never forget what they did here.

It is rather for us, the living, to stand here, we here be dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that, from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here, gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve these dead shall not have died in vain; that the nation, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people by the people for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

“Devilstower states, “The life of hundreds — thousands — is not worth setting aside the rights ensured to us by the Constitution. Because setting aside the Constitution is a defeat greater than any that can be delivered to us by any instrument of terror or war.” Isn’t it clear that those soldiers, of whom Lincoln spoke, gave their lives to preserve the union and to end the practice of slavery, a practice which had been under the protection of our Constitution?
Continue reading “In Defense of Freedom”

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

Helen Thomas Says You Bloggers are ‘Dangerous’

December 7, 2007 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

I don’t know… I don’t feel that dangerous. But, gee, I guess I am? Well I might be, at least according to Helen Thomas, one of the most uncivil “reporters” in all of journalism. Apparently she has proclaimed that citizen journalists and bloggers are “dangerous” on a HufPo blog of Dec. 4th. HufPoster Seema Kalia reported an exchange with the equine visaged Thomas where she raised alarm over her fear of the common American citizen and that terribly annoying Internet thingie. Yes, folks she thinks that if you are a blogger or Internet writer you have no sense of “ethics” and you are “Dangerous.” One wonders if she really knows any journalists at all if she thinks they show any sign of “ethics”?

Seema Kalia, relied on Thomas for her first entry in a proposed series titled “My favorite mistake” in which folks Kalia deems worthy of her focus will recount the mistake that “taught them the most.” Ostensibly this little foray into feels-goodism is meant to “teach” us all something it appears. Unfortunately for Kalia, Thomas miserably fails to give the entry any pop psychological umphf for her fist little attempt. It seems that the woman who is constantly badgering government officials to admit their mistakes has proclaimed that she, herself, has been entirely perfect since she began her career some time in the late Pleistocene period.

Helen Thomas: I don’t have any mistakes to tell you about.

No? Nothing? Not even her sense of fashion is a mistake? At least as far as she is here to tell you, anyway.

But, while the interview fails to perform to the stated purpose of making us all warm and gushy inside because our favorite personages can admit that they are fallible, it does succeed at one thing. It is a wonderful showcase of Thomas’s arrogance along with her hyper sense of paranoia.

After telling us she has never made a mistake, Thomas goes on to suspect a HufPo blogger of trying to make her look bad. Kalia tries to explain the purpose of the article to the aged scribe. “The spirit of this interview is really to explore the role of mistake-making as part of the growth of people who are really successful at what they do,” Kalia says. But Thomas is having none of it. “No, no, no…you’re looking for something else; you want people to flagellate themselves,” she suspiciously replies. To which our sycophantic HufPoster assures her that, “There are many people I’d like to see flagellated in Washington, but you are not among them.”

Of course, most of the interview is meaningless jabber, but one short exchange from this leading figure of the fossilized media establishment does reveal the same sort of arrogance that we chronicle here every day.

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00Publius Contributor - Books - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Ethics - Government Corruption - Hillary Clinton - Liberals - Media Bias - News - Progressives - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

She Still Takes a Villager — Hillary’s Authorship Lies

December 6, 2007 by 3 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Venerable book publishers Simon and Schuster have announced that on December 12th they will be issuing a new edition of Hillary Clinton’s starry-eyed 1996 paean to socialist collectivism, It Takes a Village — starring none other than Mz. inevitability herself, Hillary Clinton. I’m sure the rafters will once again tremble with hosannas for Clinton’s “hard work” in writing the book and she will again be heralded as a wonderful stylist. All due praise will be lavished upon the former first lady, current Senator, and unsurprising candidate for the Democrat Party nomination for President of the United States of America.

Actually, I’ll have to take that back because Hillary won’t be receiving all due praise for her efforts on the book. She will be getting far, far more than she deserves. Why, you might ask? Because she wrote barely a word of the book that bears her name, that’s why. And worse, since 1996 Clinton has lied repeatedly claiming she wrote it all by herself, refusing to acknowledge that it was ghostwritten by someone else.

Still, the ersatz praise has already started. As seen on Amazon.com’s page for the book, Audiofile magazine recently said of the new edition, “For the most part, this is not the former first lady and presidential hopeful we all know. In a softer, almost neighborly voice, Clinton reveals intimate details about her childhood and the childhood of her husband.” This is really quite an observant review for the single fact that Clinton’s voice is altogether missing from the book. Of course the reason for that is that the harsh, shrill voice of the Hillary Clinton “we all know” was nowhere near the typewriter of Barbara Feinman Todd, the woman who really wrote the book.

But, where is the acknowledgment of the real writer of the book Hillary is famous for? Nowhere to be found, making Hillary more correctly infamous for the book instead of praiseworthy. A description of the book prior to the new edition’s release, one probably written by the publisher, says, “Written when Hillary Clinton was the First Lady, IT TAKES A VILLAGE acknowledges the many challenges and difficulties of raising children in America and proposes an ideal of broad community responsibility for the total upbringing of healthy and secure children. Clinton draws on her own experiences as a child, mother, and lawyer, as well as those of concerned parents, teachers, and advocates for children–and she takes the time to listen to the important lessons that children can teach adults as well.”

It’s interesting that they don’t exactly come out and say she wrote the thing, isn’t it?

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She Still Takes a Villager — Hillary’s Authorship Lies”

00Publius Contributor - 2nd Amendment - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Media Bias - News - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

CNN Tries a Gotcha: ‘Thompson Has no Hunting License’ But, SO WHAT!?

December 6, 2007 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

CNN has posted a Political Ticker entry trying to create a “gotcha” on 2nd Amendment supporter, Fred Thompson. CNN’s South Carolina Producer Peter Hamby has breathlessly announced that “Thompson does not have hunting license,” but the question is… so what? Do you HAVE to own a hunting license to be for the 2nd Amendment? Does Fred not owning a hunting license disqualify him as a gun rights advocate? Well, it appears that CNN imagines that you are illegitimate if you claim to support the 2nd Amendment yet you don’t have a valid hunting license. What we end up with here is proof that CNN doesn’t have a clue what it means to own a gun, what it means to support gun rights, nor do they understand the 2nd Amendment itself, or that there are various “gun cultures” and levels of interest and usage for guns in the United States.

Of course, CNN’s allusion to that claim is absurd. It is perfectly legitimate to support the 2nd Amendment without being a hunter.

Here’s CNN’s set up:

COLUMBIA, South Carolina (CNN) — Fred Thompson has made a point of visiting gun shops and gun shows while hitting the campaign trail in New Hampshire and South Carolina, usually with camera crews in tow.

And now what Hamby imagines is the strike out pitch:

But Thompson said Wednesday he does not have a hunting license, nor has be been hunting recently.

Now, anyone interested in the Constitution, history, guns as a hobby, guns as historical artifacts, target shooting, Civil War and Revolutionary War reenacting, or Cowboy shooting will know right away that CNN’s gotcha is a meaningless point to flog. All those interested in the gun hobbies and causes mentioned above have no necessary connection to hunting whatsoever. Folks who like target shooting, reenacting or history might also be hunters, but many are not. Yet they are ALL for 2nd Amendment rights, hunting or no.

Continue reading “CNN Tries a Gotcha: ‘Thompson Has no Hunting License’ But, SO WHAT!?”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Media Bias - Nancy Salvato - News - Society/Culture - Uncategorized

Someone Is Telling the Truth but No One Is Listening

December 6, 2007 by

-By Nancy Salvato

It’s a timeless story, The Boy who cried Wolf, one I can remember reading many times as a young child perusing Aesop’s Fables long past my bedtime, while the rest of the house was sleeping. It’s a simple moral, “There is no believing a liar, even when he speaks the truth.” My love of these fables had an enduring effect; imprinting their many lessons on the direction my life has taken. Of late, it has occurred to me that many people are employing this moral to the yellow journalism that has graced the pages of our nation’s newspapers, the hyperbole which has escaped the mouths of our nation’s politicians and to the manipulation of statistics by special interest groups to draw attention to their causes.

As I read the Reuters headlines today on my Verizon LG mobile phone, my skeptical side emerged in full force. “More than º of US Birds Threatened: Report…global warming may be partially to blame”, yeah, right; “Bush vows active U.S. role for Mideast peace”, where have I heard that before?; “Cuddly Croc forces passenger off flight”, sounds like “Snakes on a Plane.” I rarely clicked to read the entire item, mentally deleting anything that didn’t sound like there was any substance to it. Every once in awhile I delved further, “Keep your shoes on: T-rays can see right through.” Hmm, that could truly be a breakthrough for medical science but I wouldn’t want airport security aiming that at my breasts.

How can one human being determine what is real and what is not? Who should a person believe? When is something really a crisis that needs to be addressed? What is a reasonable course of action? With all these roadblocks to simple, unedited facts, why (if I can borrow an overused colloquialism dating to the l980’s) wouldn’t our nation’s people be disillusioned and want to cocoon? For many, this is the path they choose, but for others who are trying to do the right thing and fulfill their civic responsibility, it is difficult to navigate through the b*#sh%t and make an informed decision. It is unlikely that they are analyzing both conservative and liberal sources of what is happening in the world and unreasonable to expect them to spend hours of their free time collecting news from around the world. No, for a great many people, they rely on a half hour broadcast which might spend 15 minutes of that time on Hollywood celebrities and sports figures. They will walk away comforted in the knowledge that they have been privy to “all the news worth knowing.” However, there are many stories to which they will never be exposed.
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00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Media Bias - Military - News - Society/Culture - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

A Case Where MSM Bias… ISN’T

December 5, 2007 by 6 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

General Keith Kerr IS a general! Our purpose here at Newsbusters is to chronicle and expose the leftist media bias that infests their coverage of the news, that is true. But, I feel compelled to also urge that our efforts be as true and guided by integrity as possible. I want to take a case that many on “our side” are taking up, claiming that it is an example of media bias and leftist “lies.” Unfortunately, it is not a good hook upon which to hang our hat because, while it may be a confusing issue, it is not an example of any bias and if we insist on making this an issue it will make us look petty and uninformed. This is the case where people are claiming that the “gay CNN general” is not really a general. In fact, if his rank is that of general in the State forces, he is and can properly be called a general everywhere he goes.

General Keith Kerr was the Hillary Clinton campaign operative that CNN planted in the GOP debates last month. There has been raised some confusion on his “real” rank. Yes it is true that his official U.S. Army rank was never higher than Colonel. It is also true that he held the rank of General in the Army of the State of California and it is also true that he has no battlefield experience.

Here is part of his bio on SDLN:
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00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Entertainment - Family - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

A Wizard of Oz Where Evil is Dorothy’s Fault? Ask Sci-Fi Channel!

December 5, 2007 by 3 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

As the Sci-Fi Channel’s new mini-series Tin Man comes to a close, it is sad to say that what we ended up with was a show that takes a family favorite and turns it into a dark, mangled mess not suitable for children that makes good responsible for all that is evil. It’s all a perfectly ghastly example of moral relativism and the sort of nihilism we have become so boringly used to from our current forms of entertainment.

Remember the Wicked Witch of the West in the original The Wizard of Oz? She was green and ugly, she only wanted what was bad for everyone but herself and she had the love of no one. Remember Dorothy, the pure of heart who would bring light to the land of Oz? She was beautiful and true, the personification of good. To many, the story of The Wizard of Oz was one where a plucky girl with self-confidence could beat evil and make the world a better place. But, not to the Sci-Fi channel. Noooo, in this day of cynicism we certainly can’t have a traditional tale of good vs. evil, now can we? With it’s re-imagining of the venerable children’s classic, the Sci-Fi channel’s Tin Man gives us a Wizard who is a drug addict, a Tin Man that is a bitter ex-cop, a cowardly lion that is… well, we aren’t sure what he is… a scarecrow that is a victim of a lobotomy, the dog To To as a shape shifter who betrays Dorothy, and a Wicked Witch of the West who is really Dorothy’s beautiful older sister and not “just” a witch at all. And what of Dorothy? Well, first of all, not only is she not from Kansas, she isn’t even human (She is from Oz originally, not Earth). But worst of all, the evil of the Wicked Witch of the West is all Dorothy’s fault in the first place. You read that right, evil is the fault of good in this new Oz flick.

It’s a common a trope of entertainment and literature that the existence of good is always countered by that of evil, of course. There have also been many times when good and evil are personified in relatives, such as the brothers of the Bible, Caine and Abel; the good son and the bad. For the most part, though, we’ve had a literary tradition of good triumphing over evil, even if it might mean relatives somehow vanquishing each other. Naturally, the theme of brother against brother, or son against father, and vice versa is meant to add even more tragedy and pathos to the story, but evil is still usually evil.

But, these days it seems that Hollywood and the creators of our forms of entertainment feel they are somehow beyond the traditional roles of good and evil. These writers simply cannot stomach an evil character that just IS evil, nor can the good really just be good. Just as the new version of Beowulf at theaters today makes Beowulf the good and pure hero into a braggart and liar and his enemy into a misunderstood grotesquerie, this new Wizard of Oz suffers from that refusal to make good, good and evil, evil. In today’s entertainment, evil must always be explained away. It’s all not so bad, these stories tell us, evil is just misunderstood.

Continue reading “A Wizard of Oz Where Evil is Dorothy’s Fault? Ask Sci-Fi Channel!”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Frederick Meekins - Media Bias - News - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Uncategorized

TSA To Rummage Through Emotional Baggage As Well

December 5, 2007 by

-By Frederick Meekins

On an episode of South Park taking aim at the airline industry, Mr. Garrison (still a man at that point) invented a mode of transportation where riders had to have a metal prod inserted into their backsides in order to avoid falling off the vehicle. The response of those enduring such discomfort and humiliation was that it was still less than what passengers had to endure at the airport. While the bit might have been a bit over the top in terms of propriety, it was pretty much on target in terms of how most Americans feel regarding the bureaucratic procedures implemented in the name of “transportation security” since September 11th.

As fairly good natured people content with the social order even if they don’t like the way the process is handled, most Americans deciding to utilize this form of transportation simply keep their comments to themselves and bear with the frustration. However, according to a McClatchy newspapers article titled “New Airport Check For Danger In Fliers’ Facial Expressions“, it may no longer be enough to stoically endure these indignations but one must also have a smile on one’s face about it.

A new specialty within the Transportation Security Administration known as Behavior Detection Officers (one could not devise a more Orwellian sounding division of the government if one tried) has been given the mandate to scrutinize those exhibiting unapproved facial expressions

If proponents of the theory get their way, certain facial expressions revealing whether an individual is feeling anger or disgust and, when taken together with heart rate, body temperature, and verbal responses, will be enough to get passengers shunted aside for further forms of interrogation such as having their baggage rifled through or being asked where they are going.
Continue reading “TSA To Rummage Through Emotional Baggage As Well”

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

Misrepresenting Morality

December 4, 2007 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Apparently, Time Magazine has no idea what the definition of the word “morality” is. It is also certain that they don’t understand the concepts inherent in it as is evident in a recent feature titled “The Morality Quiz,” where Time shows that they imagine that all there is to morality is life or death decisions resulting in sacrificing one person to save multiple others. Using decades old false dilemma questions engineered to elicit the conclusion that there is no such thing as a black and white moral choice, Time attempts to prove that Americans are either soulless killers or weaklings. Worse, as far as Time is concerned they imagine that the “foundation” of morality is mere “empathy,” meaning that the most important aspect of morality is “feeling” for others as opposed to societal exigencies or religious precepts. Confusingly, it’s also all a matter of kill or be killed to Time Magazine, which certainly takes all the messy “right” and “wrong” stuff out of the equation, eh?

In their opening statement, Time’s quiz ignores the societal aspects of morality to focus on empathy. “The deepest foundation on which morality is built,” Time begins, “is the phenomenon of empathy, the understanding that what hurts me would feel the same way to you.” It seems to me, however, that empathy isn’t the basis of morality, but that self-interest is. It isn’t what hurts others that keeps us mindful of morality, but how a violation of that morality would hurt ourselves. If we break with morality, it will come back to hurt us through societal opprobrium, so we are mindful to uphold our moral precepts.

Time also imagines that animals have just as much morality as man. “And human ego notwithstanding, it’s a quality other species share.” Well, one can understand why Time imagines that animals share man’s morality since they only define morality as a kill or be killed societal question. But, morality is far more complicated than that, isn’t it?

From there Time urges readers to take their quiz to “see how you compare to other TIME.com readers,” and they assure us all that their quiz reveals how “scientists” use these “dilemmas to study morality.”

The quiz is filled with stark dilemmas that really have little to do with concepts of morality and more to do with reactions to life or death situations. Certainly how we deal with death is guided by morality — or can be — but reactions to these extreme situations do not measure much of importance nor does it say much about what we as a society think of morality and what is moral.

Continue reading “Misrepresenting Morality”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - News - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Uncategorized

Durbin toys with a new idea

December 4, 2007 by

-By Michael M. Bates

Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) is really, really concerned these days about toy safety. So, as the Dickster is wont to do when he’s really, really concerned, he brought his massive intellect to bear in reaching a solution. This was plainly a time for creative, original, innovative, out of the box ideas. Think, think, think. By Jove, he’s got it! More money for a government agency.

Durbin is backing a heavy increase in funding for the Consumer Product Safety Commission, known as the CPSC. That agency is responsible for regulating toys, along with about 15,000 other product categories.

The Chicago Tribune reported Durbin’s support for more money with the headline “Durbin has gift for kids, parents – Senator’s bill offers $7 million to hire more toy inspectors.” In the mainstream media, you see, big government is a gift, bestowed on us by compassionate and charitable types like Dick Durbin.

Created in 1972, the CPSC was mandated to, among other charges, ‘protect the public against unreasonable risks of injury from consumer products.” Unsurprisingly, “unreasonable” wasn’t defined.

The Illinois senator wants to see staffing levels at CPSC increased. When the agency was activated, it had roughly twice as many employees as it does now.
Continue reading “Durbin toys with a new idea”

00Publius Contributor - Business - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Society/Culture - Thomas Brewton - Uncategorized

Socialist Seers

December 4, 2007 by

-By Thomas E. Brewton

The cloudy crystal ball of socialist intellectuals must be, not just cleaned, but consigned to the trash heap.

Most commentators blame corporate greed and poor judgment for the subprime mortgage meltdown and the resulting squeeze in the financial community.

In reality, excessive Federal spending on the socialist welfare-state inaugurated by the New Deal, and the Federal Reserve’s over-expansion of the money supply to fund it, are the proximate causes for today’s financial mess. Without excessive money in the system, neither greed nor imprudence enters the picture.

Today’s mess could not have developed had President Roosevelt not deliberately devalued the dollar and repudiated gold payment clauses for the currency and Federal debt in the 1930s, while centralizing control of the Federal Reserve system in the Federal Reserve Board to facilitate Federal deficit spending.

As I have written frequently over the past couple of years, the Federal Reserve is an example of the inherent weakness of entrusting planning for the entire economy to a small group of intellectuals. See Financial Hurricane Ahead for a partial list of those postings.

Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke, the two most recent Federal Reserve Board chairmen, are intelligent and talented men. But no individual, or small group of individuals, can assemble in real time all of the relevant data on economic conditions, process it, and comprehend it in a timely way to manage the entire economy. Picture an ant trying to build the pyramids solo.
Continue reading “Socialist Seers”

00Publius Contributor - News - Podcasting - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

Join us for the Voice of Liberty Podcast Network

December 4, 2007 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Publius’ Forum in Audio? That’s right, folks, you can hear the same sort of content on our podcast that you read every day here on Publius’ Forum by clicking over to The Voice of Liberty Podcast Network each and every Monday morning for our newest episode.

The Voice of Liberty Podcast Network is the collaborative effort of John McJunkin of Avalon Podcasting, Andrea Shea-King of the Radio Patriot, Ken Marrero of The Blue Collar Muse, and myself, Warner Todd Huston of Publius’ Forum.

I hadn’t mentioned this on Publius’ Forum much because I wanted to see how it was going to work out. But, I feel gratified with the finished product of the 5 podcasts we have done thus far. Here is the synopsis for episode #5:

In episode #5, Warner Todd Huston asks whether Americans can voluntarily give up their rights. Andrea Shea-King delivers some straight talk about communism and liberalism. Ken Marrero reminds us that there’s no such thing as a free lunch. And host John McJunkin wraps up the episode with reason number 4 in his 50-part weekly series, “Why Mrs. Clinton Will Never Be President.”

John McJunkin of Avalon Podcasting has been the tech guy behind this collaborative effort. Here is how he describes our venture:

The world is changing – the Internet has increasing sway over political opinions, and it’s time for the conservative side of the world to leverage it in order to influence people. The right-wing blogosphere is sailing along at full steam and has largely counterbalanced any advantage that the left presumed would accrue to them by blogging. The one area that remains wide open for the right to step in and dominate is the audio-only podcast, which is very similar to another medium that we own – talk radio. The difference is that anyone and everyone can do it, just like blogging. As a matter of fact – we like to think of audio podcasting as “verbal blogging” if you will. We are going to “promote conservative American values and principles” just like it says in our masthead. We invite you to join us each week for 20-30 minutes of punditry and opinion from the right.

So, please do add our Voice of Liberty podcast main page to your blogroll and visit us each and every Monday for our newest episode.

http://www.voiceoflibertypodcast.com/

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

Blaming Verizon Phone Co. for a Dog’s Death?

December 3, 2007 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The media are ever inventive in their attacks on capitalism, to say the least, and this one is as inventive as they come. Apparently Stu Bykofsky, columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News, thinks that cell service giant Verizon Wireless is somehow at fault for the death of a doggy. Or, if not guilty for the actual killing of the creature, Stu imagines that Verizon is somehow guilty of aiding and abetting those who killed the kidnapped pup of getting away with the horrid act.

How is it that, as far as Bykofsky is concerned, Verizon is the guilty party in this kidnapping/killing of Edna the Beagle? Because Verizon wants to charge a fee to ferret out cell phone records so that police can track the ransom call to the dog’s owner, that’s why. So, because a capitalist company wants a fee to access records, the Philly Daily News is set to accuse Verizon of aiding and abetting dog torture, kidnapping and the beast’s ultimate killing. Talk about emotionalism run amuck! This story and Bykofsky’s silly reaction to it is a perfect example of the logical disconnect the left has between common sense and their hatred of capitalism. And, sadly, to the left, not even the death of a puppy is to be free of being used as an ideological weapon.

Apparently, last Halloween, Edna’s owner, Bill Whiting, accidentally allowed his lovable little pup to run out the door as kids stood outside his door trick-or-treating that night. The next day, Whiting put up posters for the lost dog when it had not returned. 10 days later he got a call on his cell phone from two young boys who claimed to have the dog. They wanted $600, they said, and to prove they had Edna, the two boys hurt the dog to cause it to yelp so that Whiting could hear his pet.

They told Whiting to meet him at midnight somewhere (a location Whiting could not understand) but he demurred — obviously worried over his own safety. When Whiting shied from their demands the boy on the phone hurt the dog some more, then exclaimed that he just wanted to kill the dog instead. At that point the line went dead.

After Whiting hung up the phone he called the Philadelphia police who termed the crime one of extortion.

At 3AM, a second call came to Whiting’s landline (the contact number on the dog’s tags) and the boy said he had killed the dog. Whiting has since heard nothing from the boys or the dog.

That’s the story. Now here is the absurd take on the aftermath that Bykofsky had in the pages of the Philly Daily News. But, before we get into that, I have to highlight a bit of PCism that is ridiculous for its earnest desire not to connect “black kids” to a story concerned with kidnapping, torture, killing, and general lawlessness. So, instead of saying the kids sounded black, the story contains this gem of a description of the vernacular used by the kidnappers:

Continue reading “Blaming Verizon Phone Co. for a Dog’s Death?”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Islam - Islamofascism - Media Bias - News - Race - Security/Safety - Selwyn Duke - Society/Culture - Uncategorized

Muslims Attack Michael Savage: The Battle Between Taquiya and Talk Radio

December 3, 2007 by

By Selwyn Duke

You will have to forgive me, but I have a difficult time taking the war against Moslem extremists seriously. No, I haven’t become the latest in a line of anti-American quislings who say the war is “all about oil” or that Islamism is not a threat. It’s just that I have trouble mustering enthusiasm for overseas ventures when we allow the enemy’s fifth column to operate virtually unopposed on our shores.

I’m talking about the odious Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a group that could be the legal arm of al-Qaeda. Although CAIR’s machinations usually go unmentioned by the mainstream media, for quite some time now it has been training its sights on anyone who would tackle the Islamic threat with manly strength. It has carried out campaigns against National Review magazine, radio personality Paul Harvey, the producers of the television program 24, and many others who dare say the sultan has no clothes. And now it is targeting award-winning radio talk show host Michael Savage.

CAIR has been pressuring Savage’s advertisers to pull their spots from his show, and I’m dismayed to learn that some businesses have capitulated to their demands. Among these cowardly companies are AutoZone, TrustedID, OfficeMax, Citrix Systems Inc., and JCPenny. I will have them know that as long as they dance with the Devil and boycott Savage’s show, I will boycott them and encourage others to follow suit. And I have a very long memory.

It’s not surprising that business would kneel at the altar of political correctness, as it worships mammon. And, in truth, many people – the good, the bad and the ugly – use their economic clout to try to effect social change; why, some on my side in the culture war are boycotting Ford because it supports the homosexual lobby. But I really have to wonder if these companies know to whom they’re kowtowing. Let’s take a closer look at CAIR.
Continue reading “Muslims Attack Michael Savage: The Battle Between Taquiya and Talk Radio”

00Publius Contributor - 2nd Amendment - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Founders - History - Judges - Media Bias - Military - News - Patriotism - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

New York Times Hopes For SCOTUS Gun Grab

December 2, 2007 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

The “paper of record” once again makes like a broken record with another prosaic call to take away guns from the average American. The New York Times again displays its complete disregard of the Constitution in an editorial titled, “The Court and the Second Amendment”, claiming our founding law is out of date and doesn’t “confront modern-day reality.” In another editorial filled with extreme language, untrue definitions and arrogance, and cementing its reputation against self-defense and American principles, the Times addressed the recent decision by the Supreme Court to soon take on the DC Gun banning reversal case. Hitting all its best low notes and filled with propaganda laced verbiage, the Times again made the case that you, Mr. and Mrs. America, are too stupid and filled with bloodlust to be trusted with a firearm… quite despite that musty, stupid old, out of date Constitution thingie.

It’s hard to believe such a small editorial can have so many lies, distortions and misconceptions but the Times really packed them into this rant. Nearly every paragraph has something that is either incorrect technically, or just plain propagandistic. I’ll take each paragraph one at a time here:

By agreeing yesterday to rule on whether provisions of the District of Columbia’s stringent gun control law violate the Second Amendment to the Constitution, the Supreme Court has inserted itself into a roiling public controversy with large ramifications for public safety. The Court’s move sowed hope and fear among supporters of reasonable gun control, and it ratcheted up the suspense surrounding the court’s current term.

The Supreme Court “inserted itself into a roiling public controversy,” New York Times? Like most cases, this one came TO them, the SCOTUS didn’t go out to actively seek this case. And, notice the soft selling of their attempts to advocate for a reversal of the Constitutional right by calling the issue a “public safety” issue? No, it is a rights issue, not a “public safety” issue, Times, and you know it. By trying to reframe this debate as a “safety” issue, you are purposefully trying to pretend it has nothing to do with your plans to eliminate a Constitutionally guaranteed right to self-protection. It is also amusing that you call your gun grabbing “reasonable.” I am sure that totalitarians everywhere, in every age termed their desires to disarm the public “reasonable” before they undertook that outrage. It was quite a smooth propaganda effort there, though, Times, so props for trying to hide behind misleading language. I am sure your attempts at subterfuge might fool some.

Continue reading “New York Times Hopes For SCOTUS Gun Grab”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Islam - Islamofascism - Media Bias - Nancy Morgan - News - Security/Safety - Uncategorized

Two Muslim Feminists

December 2, 2007 by

-By Nancy Morgan

They don’t call themselves feminists. They don’t belong to any groups or organisations. They don’t claim victim status, and they aren’t members of NOW or CodePink. They don’t have big bucks or political backing. They don’t have the ear of the media or the establishment press. They most assuredly don’t have the backing of the plethora of established human rights, civil rights or women’s rights groups who claim to be the voice of the underdogs and the champions of the oppressed.

All they have is their own experiences, their passion and their voices, which are raised in unison against the religion of Islam.

Meet Wafa Sultan: She was born and raised in Syria. She is one of the lucky ones who, though indoctrinated in Jew hatred, the Koran and the Arab version of ‘history,’ was able to emigrate to the U.S. and become a citizen in 1989.

To Wafa, Islam is not a religion of peace. It is evil. Mohammed was an evil man who proclaimed himself the voice of God. His word was law and he fashioned it according to his whims and enforced it at the point of a sword. Wafa condemns all of Islam. Not just the terrorists. Wafa calls the religion of Islam a “brainwashing machine” for 1.3 billion people. It is only because she was born Muslim that Wafa can get away with condemning Islam. If Americans dare to criticise the “religion of peace” they would be branded “Islamophobes” and shunned for not paying proper obeisance to alternate cultures.
Continue reading “Two Muslim Feminists”

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

NY Anchorman Replies to my Piece on His Resignation

December 2, 2007 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Remember this one about New York One TV’s anchorman, Gary Anthony Ramsay?

Gary Anthony Ramsay, an anchorman for NY1 News, has resigned this week over his efforts to damage Rudy Giuliani’s bid for the White House by commenting on the Bernard Kerik situation under a false name on the air. It appears that Ramsay called into an episode of the station’s call-in show “The Call” and claimed his name was “Dalton from the Upper East Side” before going off on his rant against Giuliani associate Kerik. Looks like Mr. Ramsay couldn’t keep his journalistic integrity in force long enough to give his own name and stand by his own opinion and it has cost him his TV job.

Well, he has sent me a nice little email letting me know just how wrong I was. He does make one great mistake in his email, however. He assumes I am a “reporter.” I have never claimed to be a “reporter.” I am an essayist and editorialist. I do not “report the news” as Mr. Ramsay imagines. I talk about the issues of the day and mean my efforts to support my ideological positions on the news. I make no claims to be a “reporter,” nor has Mr. Ramsay ever heard of or read that I have made such a claim

In any case, without further adieu and in the interest of fair play, here is Mr. Ramsay’s letter to me:

Mr.Huston.

This is Gary Anthony Ramsay, the ex NY1 anchor who left the station after the incident you described in your article. Its an article NOT a report since it seems clear to me that you didn’t really do any reporting on this matter yourself. You just cut and pasted it into your cute little “look real” journal. It also seems clear that you did not hear the clip of the exchange between me and the host. But like the true modern day journalist you claim to be, you just ran with what you saw someone else write, didn’t make any phone calls yourself or double check facts.

There lies the base of my anger. Nowadays it seems that if you tell a lie long enough and loud enough people take it for truth. Which was what was happening on that show before I called.

Continue reading “NY Anchorman Replies to my Piece on His Resignation”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - News - Uncategorized - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Can Teamsters Clean up Own Act? Obviously Not

December 2, 2007 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

There is an old joke of a gingerbread man who was running away from a hungry farmer and came to a river. A fox told him he could help the cookie man get across the river and away from the farmer. The cookie asked if the fox would eat him after they crossed, but the fox said he wouldn’t because “he only wanted to help” the gingerbread man. So, the living cookie agreed and sat atop the fox’s nose as they swam across the river. As soon as they got to the other side, the fox ate the cookie man because, after all, the fox is a fox and cannot be trusted.

This little folk tale is a mirror of real life, only in this case the fox is the unions and the gingerbread cookie’s fate is that of the worker under the union thug’s thumb and this tale is a perfect allegory to the situation in Chicago with a corrupt Teamsters union being expected to investigate and punish one of their own corrupt locals.

The fox guarding the hen house is also a fine allegory for this situation.

The full story is at the Chicago Tribune, but here is the key paragraph:

The recommendation came in a sweeping call by the anti-corruption unit for an in-depth look at wrongdoing and mob ties among Chicago-area Teamsters locals. But the group’s report, which was never made public, was rejected by Teamsters officials.

In other words, the union was supposed to take the recommendations of this anti-corruption unit but decided to ignore the report issued from that very unit in their desire to safeguard their own corrupt pals.

Go read the whole mess over at the Trib, but you’ll find that the Teamsters don’t give a hoot about cleaning up their own corruption.

It is also interesting that the union pointed to the existence of the anti-corruption unit as evidence that they were, indeed, cleaning things up. Of course, if you just ignore the report and go on with business as usual, are you cleaning anything up?

Uh, no would be the answer to that.

Just more evidence that the union isn’t interested in lawful operations.
Continue reading “Can Teamsters Clean up Own Act? Obviously Not”

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

Erin Burnett Calls Bush AND Angela Merkel a ‘Monkey’ on Morning Joe

November 30, 2007 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

**With Video**

On MSNBC’s Morning Joe, back on Monday, Erin Burnett let loose with her real feelings and laid it on the line right on the air, calling President Bush a “monkey” during a business news piece about the Nicolas Sarkozy visit to China.

During the news piece, Burnett said that she couldn’t see how anyone “could not have a man-crush on that man,” in an apparent allusion to French President Sarkozy. The video on the screen at the time was a shot of president Bush and Nicolas Sarkozy walking side by side, with Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel just behind them. After her “man-crush” comment, Burnett made quick to say that she didn’t mean “the monkey” and that she meant “the other one.”

This caused Joe Scarborough and his co-hosts to wonder what the heck she was talking about? “The monkey? Who’s the monkey. What’s she talking about,” Scarborough asked.

After the crew kept asking her who the “monkey” was, Burnett then compounded her gaff by acting as if she thought they were talking about chancellor Merkel. “Why would you be talking about Angela Merkel like that? I don’t understand,” she bumbled in a failed attempt at humor.

Joe was nearly indignant at that one saying, “Now she’s attacking Merkel, she’s our ally in a time of war.”

Naturally, they all treated it as a big joke, but it really was a reveling episode, telling us all how Erin Burnett feels about allies and our own president.

Check out this video:

Jeeze, not much bias there, eh?

Transcript Follows:

Continue reading “Erin Burnett Calls Bush AND Angela Merkel a ‘Monkey’ on Morning Joe”

00Publius Contributor - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Immigration/Immigrants - Media Bias - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Taxes - The Law - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

Santa Cruz Sheriff Says Illegals Aren’t ‘Criminals’?

November 30, 2007 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The AP has used the somewhat heartwarming tale of an illegal alien who found an American boy and his mother suffering from a car accident in the Arizona desert and stayed with them until help arrived as an excuse to plead that illegals aren’t “criminals” and should somehow be given a break. The AP tried to pin this wild leap in logic on Santa Cruz County Sheriff Tony Estrada, but they offer no quote marks around the sentence, so it is hard to say if the Sheriff really said that or the AP was extrapolating and putting words in the Sheriff’s mouth. Still, that this one illegal did something morally right even while he was breaking our laws, does not erase all the illegalities and law breaking that every other illegal immigrant has done over the last 30 years. Nor does it erase the fact that this particular illegal was breaking the law even as he was nice enough to help the little boy and his mother.

Here is the tale:

PHOENIX (AP) — A 9-year-old boy looking for help after his mother crashed their van in the southern Arizona desert was rescued by a man entering the U.S. illegally, who stayed with him until help arrived the next day, an official said.

The 45-year-old woman, who eventually died while awaiting help, had been driving on a U.S. Forest Service road in a remote area just north of the Mexican border when she lost control of her van on a curve on Thanksgiving, Sheriff Tony Estrada said.

The van vaulted into a canyon and landed 300 feet from the road, he said. The woman, from Rimrock, north of Phoenix, survived the impact but was pinned inside, Estrada said.

Her son, unhurt but disoriented, crawled out to get help and was found about two hours later by Jesus Manuel Cordova, 26, of Magdalena de Kino in the northern Mexican state of Sonora. Unable to pull the mother out, he comforted the boy while they waited for help.

As night came on, Mr. Cordova built a fire to keep them warm and stayed with the boy until a couple of hunters spotted them and called for help. Cordova was taken into custody by Border Patrol agents and slated for return to his country.

OK, it was nice that Mr. Cordova had that pang of conscience enough to stay by this helpless child. It is possible he saved the boy’s life, and if he didn’t really save his life he certainly comforted the poor, scared kid through the trauma which may or may not have made the whole mess less of a trauma on him. For that Mr. Cordova deserves warm congratulations for his efforts and the knowledge that he did the right thing by the child.

But he doesn’t deserve a free pass into our country.

Here is how the AP ends their story (My Bold):

Continue reading “Santa Cruz Sheriff Says Illegals Aren’t ‘Criminals’?”

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

Unions Trying to Force Higher Property Taxes in Florida

November 30, 2007 by

Why are so many people fooled by unions? It is because unions care about the little guy they are told. It is because unions are supposed to be against the “rich,” or so gullible people are led to believe. Well, here is another case that proves the lie to that claim.

Realtors and business groups in Florida are squaring off against big labor unions in an attempt to pass a property tax cut amendment in the Sunshine state. The labor unions oppose this legislation because they claim it would “cost” local governments and schools “$12.4 billion in lost revenue over the next 5 years.” Why are they worried about that so-called loss? Because it might cause cities and schools to cut some deadwood jobs and that means union jobs cut.

In other words, to save union jobs in our bloated local governments and to save the jobs in failing schools, unions are trying to INCREASE taxes on EVERYONE.

Once again, unions prove how much they are out to help “the little guy.” This time by trying to tax him out of his home.

Nice going unions.