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00Publius Contributor - Crime - News - Race - Security/Safety - Selwyn Duke - Society/Culture - The Law - Uncategorized

Stereotyping 101

November 18, 2007 by

-By Selwyn Duke

In a racial profiling lawsuit against the Maryland State Police (MSP), a plaintiff’s attorney named Eliza Leighton said that some training documents contain “startling examples of racial stereotypes about Hispanics.” (Just so you know, when leftists use the word “startling,” it usually means, “Man, this truth hurts!”) According to the Associated Press:

For example, one document cautions that Hispanics generally do not hold their alcohol well. They tend to drink too much and this leads to fights. And it notes, Hispanic males are raised to be MACHO and brave, while females are raised to be subservient. Other sterotypes [sic] include the assertion that the weapon of choice for Hispanics is a knife and that Hispanics are reluctant to learn English.

Regardless of the outcome of this lawsuit, we can now expect such information to be purged from the training documents. But, as I wrote about Dr. James Watson’s comments regarding Africans, intelligence and genetics, this is part of a very distressing pattern. Everyone fixates on the fact that such comments constitute generalizations (about groups that are supposed to be immune from such things), as if this is an offense in and of itself. Yet, no one seems to ask the only relevant question.

Are the generalizations true?
Continue reading “Stereotyping 101”

00Publius Contributor - Budget - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - News - Taxes - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

Sink the Earmark!

November 17, 2007 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Senator Jim DeMint (R- SC) has launched the 100,000 Blogger challenge for earmark reform this week. I hope that each and every one of you out there interested in putting a halt to the drunken spending indulged in by Congress go to the Senator’s new website to sign the petition. Or, use the handy widget below to do so…

Be proud to say, I support Senator Jim DeMint’s fight for commonsense earmark reform.

Now, earmark reform is a really hard concept to get across to the American people. After all, it isn’t as sexy an issue as abortion or illegal aliens. It is also harder to explain. But we really must try.

For the uninitiated, an earmark is a sum of tax money inserted into a bill in Congress. This is tax money to be spent on some pet issue that a Congressman wants to send to his pals and buddies. It is basically graft for sale to the highest bidder. Worse, these earmarks do not have to have anything to do with the bill they are inserted in. So, if you have a bill to pay for our troop’s health care, for instance, a Congressman can slide in a little section that calls for tax money to go to that Congressman’s favorite pork project — like when Ted Stevens inserted millions into a bill to pay for a bridge to be built to a nearly empty island in Alaska. This is pork-barrel spending at its worst and we need to stop it dead in its tracks.

So, climb aboard this reform movement, folks. Let’s SINK THE EARMARK!

00Publius Contributor - Book Reviews - Judges - News - Society/Culture - Uncategorized

Judging Clarence Thomas

November 17, 2007 by 1 Comment

-By Michael M. Bates

Much of the reaction to Clarence Thomas’ new memoir, My Grandfather’s Son, has centered on the justice’s anger. You have to credit the mainstream media credit with consistency. Sixteen years after his confirmation to the Supreme Court, he’s as disliked by them now as he was in 1991.

A Hearst Newspapers’ columnist finds the book “the ultimate, most revealing act of hostility.” A Washington Post Writers Group essayist asserts that in his volume, “Thomas reveals himself to be a Shakespearean archetype, consumed by rage.”

On National Public Radio, the account is described as “a book of complete bitterness and rage.” Over at the Washington Post, readers were first told that “Justice Thomas Lashes Out in Memoir” and a few days later learned: “To read Clarence Thomas’ book is to be struck anew by the blast-furnace of his anger.”

I read Justice Thomas’ memoir today. It’s captivatingly interesting and gives hope there are yet thoughtful, honorable people in Washington. The impoverished black child from the Jim Crow South matured to be his own man and observes himself candidly, warts and all.
Continue reading “Judging Clarence Thomas”

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

Dem Lawmakers to be Ousted Over Union Criticism?

November 16, 2007 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

There is no room for disagreement among Democrats. If you are a Democrat that has anything at all critical to say about a union, for instance, they don’t just get mad at you and call you names, they arrange special meetings to throw you out of power! See, this is the more “tolerant” and more “adult” Democrat Party we have all come to know and…uh…. love.

In Prince George’s county, Maryland, a little dispute has arisen between the UF&CW (United Food and Commercial Workers union) Local 400 and two members of the Democratic Central Committee, Vice Chairman Arthur A. Turner Jr. and Chairman Terry Speigner.

At issue is the monkey wrench that the union is trying to throw into plans to build a Wegman’s grocery store in the area. This project will bring a lot of tax money as well as jobs into Prince George’s, but because Wegman’s is non-union, the union is trying to deny the area this new commercial development.

We find the story on Prince George’s Gazette.net.

The dispute began in August when a member of the United Food and Commercial Workers union filed an unsuccessful zoning appeal that could have hindered grocer Wegmans from coming to the county. Wegmans, a high-end grocery store chain based in Rochester, N.Y., does not employ union labor.

From here the two aforementioned Democrat Party officials sent out an email saying that they were aghast that the union would try to stop this useful community development.
Continue reading “Dem Lawmakers to be Ousted Over Union Criticism?”

00Publius Contributor - History - Islam - Islamofascism - Media Bias - Military - News - Religion - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

One of the Good Muslim Groups

November 16, 2007 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The clash of civilizations is in full swing between Islam and the Democratic west and one of the things that many on the anti-jihadi side of the argument are wont to say, those who use the term Islamofascism commonly, is that there aren’t any “moderate” Muslim groups out there. In truth, for the most part they are correct in the assertion that there are not many Muslims who oppose the Jihadists, Islamofascists and Wahhabist extremists in Islam (called Takfiris in the Mid East). It appears thus far that most Muslims are at least tacit supporters of the aims, if not the tactics, of the most radical Islamists. The “purity” that the most radical Muslims seek is an appealing feature even for the most peace loving Muslim. To put it in a broader context, what religious person of any faith could oppose a drive for the pure religion? Couple the ideals of purifying their religion with the general tendency of Islam towards collectivism and subservience of the individual to the group and you get an awful lot of Muslims reticent to criticize other Muslims even when they are blowing up innocents, stoning people, and chopping off heads. For far too many Muslims, the violence of the jihadis is “understandable.”

This all too common tacit approval through silence and a base level of “understanding” where the radicals are coming from evinced by the average Muslim leads to a misconception in the west as to whether or not there is such a thing as a “good” Muslim, one that will stand up against the evil of the Wahhabists and bin Laddenists of their kin. While westerners are correct that the Muslim who will stand up against the evil of Islamism is far and few between, they are not correct to say that there aren’t any Muslim groups who oppose the radicals and here I would like to showcase one that is, indeed, stepping up to the plate to protest those who would murder and destroy in the name of Muhammad’s religion.

The Weekly Standard’s Stephen Schwartz wrote a piece last week about Al-Baqee.org who’s tag line is “A Cry for Justice,” their call to action, “Stop the atrocities against the Ahlul-bayt(as) and their followers!” and “Shi’a and Sunni Muslims Against Wahhabi Extremism.” Here is a group that stands foursquare against Takfiri terrorism.

What spurred their activism is the constant destruction of thousand years old religious sites throughout the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia by ruling officials steeped in Wahhabi extremism as well as the oppression of minority sects or those Muslims who do not hold the reins of power in the Kingdom and elsewhere. It is an ethnic cleansing as complete as any that the west got all excited about in Bosnia, but one that doesn’t get much play in the west. To be sure, this is Al-Baqee’s chief fight against the Takfiri influence on Islam, terrorism against the west taking more of a back seat. Still, they do not mince words on any of the atrocities that the Takfiris commit.

Sadly, few westerners are aware of it, but the Saudi government has been systematically destroying Islamic shrines, Mosques, graveyards and holy sites of minority sects for many years now. Leveling graveyards and building government buildings upon the grounds and destroying ancient, holy buildings is a deliberate plan set in place by the Saudi government to eliminate any vestige of opposing religious voices. This sort of destruction has also featured in other parts of the region when extremists take charge. The destruction of the Golden Dome of the Askariya shrine in Iraq and the Bamiyan Buddha Statues in Afghanistan are other examples of this sort of destruction of Holy sites by Islamist extremists and it is this sort of terrorism that Al-Baqee.org has organized to combat.
Continue reading “One of the Good Muslim Groups”

00Publius Contributor - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Media Bias - News - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Taxes - Thomas Brewton - Uncategorized

The War Against Unhappiness

November 16, 2007 by

-By Thomas E. Brewton

New York Times proposes a follow-up program by the folks who brought us the War on Poverty.

In an extraordinary opinion piece in the November 13 New York Times, editorial board member Eduardo Porter endeavors to make a case for socialism’s Holy Grail: forced equality of income and government-regulated consumption as the road to happiness.

He writes:

The framers of the Declaration of Independence evidently believed that happiness could be achieved, putting its pursuit up there alongside the unalienable rights to life and liberty…for all the public policies aimed at increasing economic growth, people have been left to sort out their happiness. This is an unfortunate omission…

The key to understanding Mr. Porter’s concept is the underlying psychological principle of liberal-progressive-socialist theory, beginning with the Epicureans of ancient Greece, revived in the 17th century by Thomas Hobbes, and made a cornerstone of socialism by Karl Marx. That psychological principle is the idea that human beings are merely mechanisms that react to external, material factors inducing pain or pleasure.
Continue reading “The War Against Unhappiness”

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

A Review Of Saucer by Stepehn Coonts

November 16, 2007 by

-By Frederick Meekins

In most science fiction stories, extraterrestrial technology is unveiled to the world when it is piloted to earth by proverbial little green men or bug eyed monsters. However, in Saucer, Stephen Coonts presents a scenario where man’s initial exposure to a civilization from beyond the earth does not occur overhead but rather from beneath our feet.

In Saucer, Coonts details the account of a spacecraft unearthed in the Sahara desert and the international intrigue that results as various nations conspire to acquire the vehicle from an egomaniacal Australian industrialist.

Though the novel focuses primarily on the actions of the factions jockeying to acquire the saucer, Coonts brings up a number of intriguing questions that he raises even if he does not answer them directly.

Scattered throughout the novel are a number of comments examining the philosophical ramifications of evidence suggesting life beyond this earth.
Continue reading “A Review Of Saucer by Stepehn Coonts”

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

Christmas Under Assault: Dumping the Christmas Tree for a ‘Family Tree’

November 15, 2007 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

In a further erosion of our American traditions and holidays, Lowe’s Hardware stores has decided that they aren’t in the business of selling Christmas trees anymore. They have decided, instead, that the big seller for 2007 will be the erstwhile “Family Tree” — that Christmas thingie being so gauche and offensive and all, you see. In fact, in their 2007 holiday catalog, Lowes uses the word Christmas a grand total of two times. And on their website, the tree listings all avoid the word in their descriptions.

Take a look at the first page of their “Family Tree” section in their new print catalog:

One of their tree products is even upside down for some unfathomable reason. Described as the “Holiday Living 7.5′ Pre-lit Switchit Cashmere Hard Needle Bavarian Fir tree,” this tree has what is generally the top of the tree affixed to the stand so that the wide base is what ends up in the air.

I suppose this might be considered funny by some and might be a novel thing to have to such folks, but it certainly does not evoke the Christmas spirit and absolutely doesn’t run along traditional, nor respectful, lines.
Continue reading “Christmas Under Assault: Dumping the Christmas Tree for a ‘Family Tree’”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Family - Nancy Morgan - News - Society/Culture - Uncategorized

My Mother Is A Feminist

November 15, 2007 by

-By Nancy Morgan

My mother is a feminist. A die-hard, take no prisoners, true-blue feminist. Armed with a hard-won PhD., she has made her life’s work the counselling of the transgendered, the gay and the sexually confused. Honest work in which she is passionately invested. The only fly in the ointment is me, her conservative daughter.

I am as passionate a conservative as my mother is a feminist. It’s hard to imagine two more diametrically opposing viewpoints. I view the current state of feminism as doing more harm than good. As undermining the traditional and family values that I consider the backbone of our country. On the other hand, my mother considers conservative values as outdated, invalid, and as having absolutely no intrinsic value.

I understand how mom came to be such an ardent feminist. Though I thoroughly disagree with her views, I respect and admire the courage and sacrifices she made in attaining them.
Continue reading “My Mother Is A Feminist”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Media Bias - News - Race - Resa LaRu, "Warchick" Kirkland - Society/Culture - Uncategorized

AUTOPSY — Murdering Freedom

November 15, 2007 by 2 Comments

-By Resa LaRu Kirkland

It all began with the following letter that I emailed to Dog’s website, and then sent out to my mailing list to rouse support for Duane Chapman:

Dear DOG,

I left a phone message at the following phone number: 808-***-**** for you regarding his use of the word Nigger. (See? The world didn’t end…it’s just a damn word, the one thing that the Constitution ensures is free for all to use with no restrictions saving those of violence or panic.)

I wrote to you last week regarding your father, as I am a Military Historian whose focus is on the Korean War, and I wanted to know your dad’s story. I also write conservative commentary online, known as the WARCHICK, and am good friends with Bob Parks. He, too, is a conservative commentator who cannot stand the enslavement and fear-based power of the leftist blacks.(You should see what his fellow blacks called HIM when he dared to write about their wretched behavior after Katrina. No one covered those words–far worse than Nigger–and Bob somehow survived) There is no one more kind, decent, or intelligent on this subject. He deplores the idea–as we all should!–that in a nation of free speech we inexplicably have words that, if uttered, can cause a man to lose his job, business, home, possessions, and even his freedom. I, too, have written about this and discussed it on my radio show:

Continue reading “AUTOPSY — Murdering Freedom”

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

Hollywood Writers’ Strike is Rush Limbaugh’s Fault?

November 14, 2007 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Hollywood’s Variety is wounded. They are upset that their buddies across the lines of the Hollyweird writer’s strike have written some mean things about them on the Internet and they are just cut to the quick over it all. Aghast, really. So, instead of dealing with this criticism, Variety decided that it’s all Rush Limbaugh’s fault because he has made “modern politics” so “poisonous.” I guess they really are so used to creating their own reality in La La Land that they don’t know their creation from God’s creation!

In “Strike fight rages on in a bubble,” Variety complains that this writer’s strike is getting ugly. But, it isn’t because unions are filled with thugs, loudmouths and the uncouth, no it’s because talk radio is filled with a bunch of meanies. I know, this absurd claim makes my head spin in amazement, too.

The Industry newser has been scanning the Internet to see what some of these petulant Writer’s are saying about them on message boards and they are not happy:

Scanning message boards and blogs uncovers all manner of allegations about kowtowing to corporate interests. The assumption is that those not fully following the Writers Guild’s script must be bowing to pressure from their ownership or currying favor among advertisers, with journalists lacking the spine to bite the hands that feed us.

Gosh. Imagine that? Someone impugning the integrity of the “news” folks out there. Of course, we have been doing it for a long time, but now even their left-wing pals are doing it. This insult must be too close to home, eh?

So, why is this all happening? Blame Rush!
Continue reading “Hollywood Writers’ Strike is Rush Limbaugh’s Fault?”

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

Can a City Stop you From Web Linking to Their Site?

November 14, 2007 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Here is an interesting question: Can a city stop a private citizen from putting a link on their website to a city website?

The question arises over a Sheboygan, Wisconsin case where a woman who is often critical of the town mayor was ordered by the city to remove a city website link from her own pages. Yes, you heard me correctly… ORDERED to remove that link. The Sheboygan Press posted the story a week or so ago and it got me thinking about the abuse of power indulged in by this small Wisconsin town.

In a move initiated by Perez, City Attorney Steve McLean sent a cease-and-desist letter earlier this month to Jeni Reisinger, who was among the leaders of a mayoral recall effort last year, officials acknowledged Friday.

The letter, dated Oct. 19, states, “maintenance of this link could be construed as having been authorized or endorsed by the city and/or its police department” and should be removed “until such time as the city were to authorize such a link.”

This has to be a joke, right? A city attorney who has the gall to attempt to force a private citizen to remove a link to public city website should be summarily removed from his position. Further, if he was put up to this outrageous action by Mayor Juan Perez, then this mayor should similarly be removed.

Of course, this city government is being run by a bunch of bumbling nitwits, here. Of that none can deny. But, the situation is galling none-the-less. If this city can prevent people from linking to a public service, then what else can they strong-arm the public over? Can the city decide that, forthwith, all people critical of office holders should receive a “cease and desist” letter? Maybe no one should even be “allowed” to run against them for office from this point onward? The arrogance of this is shocking, to say the least.

The next thing you know, every city will look like the mob infested city of Chicago, run by the criminal enterprise we call the Daley family!

In any case, if the City of Sheboygan is so afraid of people visiting their webpages then why have them at all? Now, if you’d like to go to their sites and ask a few questions, you can see them here:
Continue reading “Can a City Stop you From Web Linking to Their Site?”

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

NYTimes: Audience ‘Leans Left’ on Cable… or Not!

November 14, 2007 by 4 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

I can’t believe we all missed this one from November 6th, but The New York Times read the cable TV ratings tea leaves and decided that the left is “riding a ratings wave” to dominate the medium. Using the supposed “ratings wave” that the NYTimes imagines has propelled Keith Olbermann to some sort of success story, they have decided that it’s all good on cable for the left. Yet, any look at the real ratings makes it hard to understand the Times’ claims unless they have based all their hopes on mere wishful thinking instead of factual proof. Not only did the Times wildly exaggerate Keith Olbermann’s success but they went as far as to say that Olbermann was “tantalizingly close” to rival Bill O’Reilly’s ratings — a claim that the Times is off the mark with by nearly 2 million viewers! As it turns out the “ratings wave” the Times is so excited about seems more like a trickle and could hardly be taken as evidence of some sort of major shift in viewer preferences. Obviously the “paper of record” is trying hard to create their own reality here!

In “Cable Channel Nods to Ratings and Leans Left” the Times reported the obvious drift left that MSNBC has been taking, a direction the cable station was poised to drive further off the cliff with the addition of a new Rosie O’Donnell slime fest — the one that didn’t pan out due to Rosie’s queering the deal. But, the analysis thoroughly missed the mark and amounted far more to an Olbermann wet dream than reality.

The Times reported that MSNBC was leaning their programing ever further left with hosts Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, Dan Abrams, and Joe Scarborough — who is going further to the left every day — all of whom are airing more and more leftward leaning content and are ruling the cable venue’s opinion shows. The then expected addition of O’Donnell would have cemented MSNBC as the bastion of the far left even though MSNBC execs told the Times that they “never set out to create a liberal version of Fox News,” but that their veer leftward had “happened naturally.”

“It happened naturally,” Phil Griffin, a senior vice president of NBC News who is the executive in charge of MSNBC, said Friday, referring specifically to the channel’s passion and point of view from 7 to 10 p.m. “There isn’t a dogma we’re putting through. There is a ‘Go for it.’”

What ever the case, if MSNBC decides to become the anti-Fox and find themselves the station of the lunatic left fringe, then it had better be prepared for permanent low ratings. Not the best business model, to be sure.

But, the Times thinks this is great and they point to the … *cough*… success… of Countdown, with Keith Olbermann as proof that this really could work.

Here is the laugher of the piece:

Mr. Olbermann has even come tantalizingly close to surpassing the ratings of the host he describes as his nemesis, Bill O’Reilly on Fox News…

Huh?
Continue reading “NYTimes: Audience ‘Leans Left’ on Cable… or Not!”

00Publius Contributor - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - History - Judges - News - Society/Culture - Thomas Brewton - Uncategorized

Are Federal courts again going to override states’ Constitutional rights?

November 14, 2007 by

Cloning Roe vs Wade
-By Thomas E. Brewton

A New York Times editorial dated November 10 argues that the task of moving stem cell research to the next level cannot be left to the states…As this page has argued before, stem cell research is of such importance and promise for the entire world that it deserves to be carried forward by a national program underwritten by federal funding.

Impelling the Times’s editorial pronouncement was the recent defeat in New Jersey of a $450 million bond issue for local stem cell research, a measure championed by the state’s socialist governor Jon Corzine. So far, liberals don’t have the votes in Congress, either.

Implicit in the Times’s editorial is the tactic that led the 1973 Supreme Court in Roe Vs Wade to ignore individual states’ Constitutional prerogative to exercise police powers, which are maintenance of law and order and protection of public health and safety. When the public opposes a liberal-progressive-socialist cause, liberals use judicial activism to do an end run around elected legislators and impose their will upon the majority.

James Madison is generally agreed to be the most influential single delegate to the 1787 Convention which drafted the Constitution. Judicial activism that infringes upon the Constitutional prerogatives of the states contrasts starkly with what Madison wrote on this subject in Federalist No. 45:

The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce; with which last the power of taxation will, for the most part, be connected.

The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects [the so-called police powers] which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State.
Continue reading “Are Federal courts again going to override states’ Constitutional rights?”

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

A Nation Ignorant of Being at War

November 14, 2007 by

-By Frank Salvato

There can be little doubt that terrorist organizations have arrived on the shores of the United States of America. The thousands of lives lost on September 11, 2001 stand as testimony to this undeniable fact. The attacks signaled to the world that radical Islamofascists were serious in their declaration of war against the United States and her Western allies. An examination of Osama bin Laden’s 1996 fatwa – his declaration of war – indicates that this conflict is a generational conflict and a confrontation as we have never experienced before.

The truth of the matter is that terrorists have been migrating to the United States, establishing their organizational cells, infiltrating and fading into our communities for decades; laying in wait for the correct moments to strike. These are precisely the events that preceded the flights that delivered the nineteen 9/11 hijackers and thousands of innocent people to their destinies.

Today, dozens of terrorist organizations with thousands of operatives exist and operate within the borders of the United States. These organizations include, Hezbollah, Hamas, Abu Sayyaf, Islamic Jihad, Jamaat al Fuqra, the Muslim Brotherhood and al Qaeda, to name but a few. These organizations have cells in Seattle, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York and Washington DC, as well as Tucson, Denver, Tulsa, Detroit, Cleveland, Orlando, Kansas City, Boston and many more cities in the United States.

Radical Islamist front groups and sympathetic “philanthropic” organizations such as the Holy Land Foundation and the Council on American-Islamist Relations – both named in evidence offered in a recent federal court case involving the funding of terrorism – have set up regional branches around the country. They are not only raising, laundering and funneling money back to the Middle East to support their terrorist organizations, they are setting up jihadi training camps right here in the United States.
Continue reading “A Nation Ignorant of Being at War”

00Publius Contributor - Business - Congress - Constitution - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Immigration/Immigrants - Media Bias - News - Race - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

Hayworth-Nadler, Closer Than it Seems – Immigration and the GOP

November 13, 2007 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Over the last month there has been a donnybrook of sorts in the pages of the Wall Street Journal between Richard Nadler, the president of America’s Majority Foundation, and former Congressman J.D. Hayworth of Arizona. At issue is exactly why Mr. Hayworth lost his last bid for reelection to the House of Representatives in 2006. Nadler claims it was J.D.’s overzealous illegal immigration policy suggestions that culminated in a “deportationist policy” revealing an antipathy toward Hispanics that caused Hispanic and white voters to consider Hayworth an extremist on the issue making them shy away from pulling the lever for him in the voting booth. Hayworth, for his part, lays the blame for his loss on the perennial need of voters to occasionally vote an incumbent out of office — a “six-year itch” as he calls it. Hayworth also says that president Bush’s failures to control the border caused the voters to react in frustration at him simply because he is a member of the president’s party.

I had the occasion at the Conservative Leadership Conference in Reno during the second week of October to interview both men in separate interviews, asking them similar questions in order to compare and contrast their positions. What I came away with was that, once stripped of the element of personal pique, the two men were surprisingly close on their thoughts and ideas on the issue of illegal immigration. It turns out they just weren’t that far apart after all.

Not to be insulting to either Nadler or Hayworth, this little fracas is remarkably like a revenge of the nerds against the jocks. Nadler, stoop shouldered, furtive and lugging an over stuffed leather valise, greeted me with a peevish grin when we first met. As we spoke in the entryway of the meeting hall in preparation for the interview, he paced, deep in thought, passionately relating his points and ideas to me. I felt like I was watching a university professor presenting a lecture. I also got the feeling that Nadler expected to be roughly treated by everyone he came across at this conservative gathering because he feared that our “homeboys,” as he put it, were not too keen on hearing about policies that comforted Hispanics. On the other hand, Hayworth was a force of nature. Tall, commanding, well tanned, not lacking for any passion himself, and, like the consummate politician he is, always mindful to use your name in conversation. Hayworth is the very picture of the ex-jock, Nadler the ex-nerd. I couldn’t help but to get the vague feeling that Nadler derived a bit of a thrill from taking on the big guy as a wry smile constantly stole across his face as we talked.

Still, it’s the issues that matter here and at first it seemed that the two were as widely separated in their positions on those issues as they are in physical appearance with those positions themselves being at the extremes of the spectrum within the conservative viewpoint. Nadler appears to be an open boarder economist type and, in Rovian fashion, ready to bend principle to any measure that will get the Hispanic vote and assure the GOP a seat at the table of power for the foreseeable future. Hayworth appears to be a raging nativist, anti-immigrant advocate who has no problem throwing away the very power Nadler wishes to cement in place if it means stopping “them” from getting into the country.
Continue reading “Hayworth-Nadler, Closer Than it Seems – Immigration and the GOP”

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

Eagles Flightless With new Album

November 13, 2007 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The new album from The Eagles, Long Road Out of Eden, is just one long, sustained attack on the integrity of the United States and is as bad as any loud-mouthed Dixie Chicks diatribe. With songs prosaically about Global Warming and the evil American “empire,” seemingly the only one of the band who just wanted to entertain the fans was Joe Walsh, the others too puffed up with their own sense of superiority to bother. Unfortunately, what we have here just another exclamation from pampered rock stars that they are smarter, more environmentally friendly and more caring than the rest of us… but be sure and buy more albums for Christmas gifts, will ya folks!

This album should have been titled “Long Trip to the Bank” because for much of it the band seems to be on autopilot and too much of it seems like a cynically engineered ploy to sell plastic as opposed to a solid attempt to entertain. It even seems that they consciously wrote this one to appeal to specific sectors of the radio market — the country market, adult contemporary — so much so that the album lacks freshness. The Eagles have always been on the country side of Rock-n-Roll, but several of the songs are so obviously written to have a country sound in an effort to get airplay on America’s country stations, for instance, that it’s a bit hard to get past the obvious ploy to enjoy the tunes. This cynical ploy is quite unlike their past work, where the country influence seemed more natural.

This two disc set starts out with a short, whiney little piece that is a blatant plea to appeal to those worried about global warming. “No More Walks in the Wood,” penned on autopilot by Don Henley, from a poem by John Hollander, it ridiculously whines that his walk in the woods ain’t so cool anymore because “The trees have all been cut down.” Hollander’s poem tried to be clever with a globaloney reference, but it just ended up sounding clumsy. “This is the aftermath,” Henley warbles, “Of afternoons in clover fields, where we once made love… where we made our own weather.” Naturally, we ruined it all, man! It laments that “now they are gone for good” as if we could destroy all the clover fields and trees in the world. This little piece of doggerel is not very subtle, but it is thankfully a short one at two minutes.

Sometimes, I forget how preachy and boring Frey and Henley can get, but with that as a beginning, it slams the memory home and then some.
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00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Elections - Media Bias - Science - Society/Culture - Taxes - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

SanFran Chronicle: Only The ‘Informed’ Believe in Global Warming

November 13, 2007 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

The San Francisco Chronicle decided to pat Californians on the back last week for how much “better informed” Golden Staters are on the supposed dire threat of global warming. With their headline joyously proclaiming, “Californians better informed on global warming threat, poll finds,” the SF Chron handed out the party hats, blew their celebratory horns and lined up little Al Gore statuettes to hand out at the awards banquet. And how is it that their poll “found” this startling fact? Why it’s because our friends in California believe, man! It’s not because Californians are any better informed, that they know all the facts, it’s just that they accept Al Gore’s claim that the “debate is over” despite any evidence or lack thereof. They really, really believe man.

Californians are more likely than the rest of the nation to see global warming as a threat, but also are more optimistic that greenhouse gases can be cut while creating jobs and expanding the economy, according to a Field Poll released Friday.

See, they are “better informed” because they are “more likely” to see global warming “as a threat.” It’s not because they have any more facts or science backing up this “informed” position. It’s cuz they “get it,” baby.

The SFChron goes on with their elation:

State residents are more likely than other Americans to back efforts to address climate change, with large majorities favoring government regulations, tax incentives and other efforts by industry and individuals to curb their emissions, the poll showed.

Ah, I see. It isn’t because our friends on the left coast have memorized Al Gore’s movie and independently verified the facts. It’s because they are “more likely” than the rest of us dolts to “back efforts to address climate change.” It’s not that they actually know anything, but because they are more easily duped into allowing extremist global warming advocates to glom onto piles of their tax dollars and more likely to acquiesce to their politicians’ demagoguery and pledges to “do something” about global warming.
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00Publius Contributor - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Media Bias - News - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Thomas Brewton - Uncategorized

Chickens Are Returning to the Roost

November 13, 2007 by

-By Thomas E. Brewton

The exchange value of the dollar is declining at an accelerating rate, and China has blown the whistle to stop the game.

Since the recovery from the 1999 dot.com bust, we have benefitted from cheap imports that kept inflationary pressures down. Our financial markets have been flooded with dollars from foreign holders, which meant low interest rates and a booming stock market.

That is coming to an end, unless the Federal Reserve reverses course and ceases its efforts to manage the economy by flooding it with excess money.

China, Middle Eastern oil producers, and other exporting countries have to raise the dollar prices on goods they export to us to compensate for the declining value of those exports in their own currencies. Some exporters are beginning to refuse payment in dollars, requiring payment in Euros or their own currencies.

An article in the November 8 edition of the Washington Times summarizes this latest development:

China roiled financial markets around the globe yesterday when it asserted that the dollar is losing its luster as the world’s reserve currency and that Beijing will swap some of its $1.4 trillion in reserves out of U.S. dollars and into stronger currencies like the euro and Canadian dollar.

China’s verbal assault on the dollar helped trigger a 360-point plunge in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and came as French President Nicolas Sarkozy warned in a speech to Congress that the “disarray” caused by the dollar’s steep fall could lead to “economic war.” …

With the world’s largest reserves of dollars, China has been a major investor in U.S. Treasury bonds and debt securities and is the second-largest holder of U.S. government debt next to Japan.
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00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Israel Teitelbaum - News - Society/Culture - Uncategorized

Prerequisite To School Choice Victory

November 13, 2007 by

-By Israel Teitelbaum

Failure is okay, provided we are willing to learn from the experience. This year marks 52 years since Dr. Milton Friedman first proposed school vouchers to bring to education the magic of free enterprise. We now have less than 150,000 children throughout the USA with vouchers. This amounts to an average success rate of under 2,884.6 children per year. At this rate, it will take 20,800 years until his plan is fully implemented. This is a long time to wait for freedom of choice in educating our children! However, we can take a tip from our Founding Fathers and greatly speed up the process.

Here’s how.

The key can be found in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. “Congress shall make no law…abridging…the right of the people peaceably to assembly, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” Apparently, our Founding Fathers reasoned that the silencing of grievances was a sure way to tyranny.

Thankfully, free speech and assembly is still very much respected in the USA, and we are most grateful for the freedoms we have. Yet, we need not be intimidated from openly expressing our legitimate grievances. This is prerequisite to restoring our civil right to educational choice.
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00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Entertainment - Immigration/Immigrants - Media Bias - News - Race - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

KMYL Radio: Calling Rapist Hispanic is ‘Racist’

November 12, 2007 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

If a person of Hispanic origin rapes a woman and, in an attempt to catch this violent criminal, police publish a description identifying the suspect’s general racial makeup, is that a “racist” thing to do? Apparently the folks at KMYL (1190 AM) in the metro Phoenix, Arizona area think it is. It appears that we cannot even discuss the basic appearance of a wanted criminal now without being “racist” about it all.

The story comes to us from The East Valley Tribune, where the paper quotes the vice president for programming at KMYL as saying that calling a criminal an Hispanic is “racial profiling.” And what is her reasoning?

(Mayra) Nieves said Hispanic is an ethnicity, not a race — and many Hispanics are white or black. She said ethnicity should not be used when describing an attacker. Instead she said she would describe the Chandler Rapist as having “dark skin.”

Even her “explanation” contradicts itself. If a “Hispanic” can be white or black, why should the rapist be called “dark skinned”? After all, what is the definition of “dark”? To an albino, even a white person is dark skinned… or can I say albino without somehow being a racist?

Is it really a racist thing when we are given a generalized description of a wanted criminal’s race or is it just good police work? It would seem to anyone with an ounce of sense that the later is the answer here. After all, if police are looking for a white Ford Bronco, should the police report describe the auto in oblique terms? (Such as calling the vehicle a “somewhat colorless, large car American that could be thought of as a sport utility vehicle, not that we are impugning all SUVs.”) Or should the police just say it is a white Ford Bronco? Which one would more easily get the public to lend assistance with finding the vehicle?
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00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

MSNBC Misquotes Evangelical Leader on Global Warming

November 12, 2007 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Here is a perfect example of why no one can trust the MSM. They can’t even get a quote in context without spinning it to their own desired ends by leaving out parts of the quote, materially changing its meaning. MSNBC took a few choice words out of an Internet post written by Randy Thomas, vice president of Exodus International, a Christian based organization that promotes “freedom from homosexuality through the power of Jesus Christ.” In MSNBC’s “More evangelicals concluding God is green,” they quote Mr. Thomas as to why he is supporting Mike Huckabee. But, the way they quote Thomas it seems that he endorses the “God is green” concept, when he doesn’t at all in reality.

Here is how they quoted Thomas:

Randy Thomas, vice president of Exodus International, an evangelical ministry, wrote last month that “I have decided to vote for Huckabee. Yes, it is because he is unabashedly Christian, but it is also that he does care for the environment.”

Wow, it sure seems as if Mr. Thomas is all about the green, doesn’t it?

Problem is, they took a few words out of Mr. Thomas’ original post and those few words materially alters Mr. Thomas’ meaning. Here is Thomas’ full quote as he originally posted it on his blog:
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00Publius Contributor - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - News - Uncategorized - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Union Harasses Workers, Capitalizes on Dead Worker’s Accident

November 12, 2007 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Here is a story that shows exactly how a union will lie, cheat and violate the law to get their way. Apparently UNITE, the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees, is trying to force the Cintas Uniform company in Mason, Ohio to accept union representation. And, they don’t care what they have to do to get that done… even IF the Cintas employees consistently vote the union down!

As the Cincinnati Enquirer reports the union “wants to skip the customary secret-ballot and force 17,000 Cintas workers to join the union and pay dues. But Cintas and its workers have said no thanks.”

So, what has the union done to force the issue?

Unite copied license numbers from Cintas workers in Pennsylvania, to snoop in personal information and harass them at home. The union has been ordered to pay the workers $2,500 each. Unite also published a false press release that caused Cintas stock to drop $300 million, according to a defamation suit by Cintas that is going to trial in Warren County court.

Harassing the workers that they want to represent? Seems a bad way to start a relationship, doesn’t it? That and their tactics violating the law, and all that.
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00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Marie Jon - News - Society/Culture - Uncategorized

Public Schools and Birth Control Pills, Time For School Vouchers

November 12, 2007 by

-By Marie Jon’

2005-2006 fiscal year Planned Parenthood recorded 264,943 abortions and reported profit of $55.8 million and received a record high in taxpayer funding of $305.3 million

Parents are caring and loving. They instinctively want to protect their families from harm.

A role of a good parent is to teach its children about things that affect their lives, including the dangerous pitfalls that come from having sexual intercourse. The trend of giving birth control pills to 11 and 12 year-old girls in our schools must stop. Instead there should be massive police investigations as to who, what when or where. These are under age little children who are being sexually molested.(http://www.sexlaws.org/what_is_statutory_rape)

A youngster’s mind is not mature enough to make decisions about sex. They do not understand the horrors of venereal diseases, or the ramifications of becoming pregnant. The emotional downsides of abortions are never mentioned by those who propose it. However, even for an adult woman it is an unforgettable act. Abortion can lead to long lasting depression, low self esteem, emotional problems, drug abuse, and alcoholism.

A child or a young teen are just who they are. They are not adults. However, your children are at risk of becoming statistics — unwanted pregnancies or unlawful sexual behavior — because of the influences that are enticing them to do so. Our public schools are no longer safe havens from those who gladly give little girls hormonal pills. Expect this practice to come into your schools. Be vigilant and prepared to stop it.
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00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Media Bias - News - Society/Culture - Uncategorized

Obama, pizza, and the forgotten man

November 12, 2007 by

-By Michael M. Bates

Barack Obama has a special appeal to youth, as evidenced by the $4,600 campaign contribution he received from one 8-year-old boy. Sibling rivalry may have played a role as the kid’s sister matched his contribution with her own to the Illinois Democrat.

Gallantly deciding he doesn’t take money from admirers younger than 16, Mr. Ethical returned those payments. The fact this was done just as USA Today questioned them was, we can be certain, strictly a coincidence.

Last week at a North Carolina appearance, the senator denied press appeals to answer questions. Hadassah Jones, a 5-year-old Internet “correspondent,” reacted to the rock star’s refusal by turning on the tears, a stratagem the wily Mrs. Clinton may yet employ this campaign season.

The senator relented for the little girl. According to the Associated Press, Obama “suggested to the first-grader that wealthier people should help those who are less fortunate.
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00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Media Bias - President - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

Where is the News of Clinton Planting Questions at Appearances?

November 11, 2007 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Major Garrett of Fox News broke a story on the 9th that revealed that the Hillary Clinton campaign had admitted to planting questions at a Newton, Iowa town hall meeting. Garrett reported that the Clinton campaign promised that planted questions would not happen again, but this isn’t something new for the Clinton campaign. Hillary has controlled the media with an iron fist yet few from the media have complained about it. And now, only a few MSM sources seem interested in this tale. Why is this story being ignored by the major media outlets? Worse, why do they allow Clinton to hamstring their ability to cover her without complaint? And, remembering how they reacted in 2005 when they thought the Bush administration planted questions, why are they letting Hillary slip by untouched?

Shouldn’t it be big news that a candidate refuses to allow candid questioning on the campaign trail? Of the incident, Garrett says, “In a state where the caucus is held sacred and the impromptu and candid style of the town hall meeting is held dear, Clinton’s planted question may come as a great offense to Iowans.” But, Iowans shouldn’t be the only ones who should find Clinton’s actions disturbing.

If that weren’t bad enough, on the 10th, Garrett found another Democrat that reported to him that back in April he had also been approached by the Clinton campaign to ask a canned question at an appearance.

This is a rather unseemly action by the Clinton campaign and a perfect example of her desire to control every aspect of her image and her desire to squelch any sort of independent questioning, even from her supporters, that she has no control over. This is part and parcel to her ruthless control of the media as reported before on Newsbusters (See Here) and as has been seen since she first began to run for Senate. Clinton rarely allows candid interviews, nor submits herself to open forum questions unless she knows the questions ahead of time.

So, the question is, why is the media letting her get away with this? Few of the other media outlets out there are going with the Garrett story and they certainly aren’t complaining about her tight control over her appearances and the questions she is asked by the media. In fact, some of them have expressed their admiration of her manipulation of the media. (See this Anne Kornblut storyHere)

Continue reading “Where is the News of Clinton Planting Questions at Appearances?”