Can anyone tell me why this is no where on the MSM? OK, I know it’s because the Media are covering for their queen, Hillary, but, MAN does she have set of steel ones. She is guilty of the biggest campaign finance fraud in American history and the MSM remain silent.
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Even Good Iraq News Means War’s Loss to Media
-By Warner Todd Huston
What is it about leftist pundits and their singular inability to accept good news about Iraq — if they acknowledge any good news at all — or, when they bother to report good news, their inexcusable usage of that news to formulate illogical policy suggestions in order to prove the war in Iraq is lost? Of this no better example can bee seen than a recent column by Time Columnist Joe Klein, who, while duly reporting the extremely good news in Iraq, draws all the wrong conclusions from that info based solely on his desire to cut and run in his titled, “The Ramadi Goat Grab.” The MSM just cannot accept ANY good news from Iraq without spinning it as verging on failure.
Klein writes on how promising the national political situation is in Iraq in his piece revealing how, “the Ramadi goat grab may turn out to be a significant moment in the stabilization of Iraq.” Of course, he can’t resist adding a “… or, since this is Iraq, maybe not.” One can understand pessimism in matters Middle Eastern, but his usage of the word “may” was plenty enough qualifying language, wouldn’t you say? His addition of “maybe not” just screams of Klein trying to keep the hatemongers of the anti-war blogosphere off his rear end.
Still, Klein gives us some very good news:
The level of attacks against U.S. forces has fallen dramatically across the country. There have been days, in recent weeks, when even Baghdad approached a tolerable level of urban violence and criminality. “And the Ramadi meeting wasn’t at all unique,” a senior U.S. diplomat told me. “You’ve had mass meetings of tribal leaders from Anbar and Karbala provinces,” which are the Sunni and Shi’ite heartlands, respectively. “The governors of those provinces were literally building trenches on their border, and they are now meeting regularly. You had the highest-ranking Sunni politician in the country, Tariq al-Hashemi, go to Najaf to meet with the leading Shi’ite cleric, Grand Ayatullah Ali Husaini Sistani. All of this would have been unthinkable only a few months ago.”
So, what does Klein draw from this situation? Two questions (that turns out not to be two questions), the conclusions of which do not make too much sense.
Continue reading “Even Good Iraq News Means War’s Loss to Media”
What do Google’s earnings tell us about the FTC/EU review of Google-DoubleClick? and Google?
-By Scott Cleland
In addition to delivering another spectacular quarter of revenue growth, Google provided some new and current information that is highly relevant to the FTC and EU review.
First, compelling evidence of Google’s market power is mounting.
Google continues to take massive market share rapidly, which is evidence of market power and network effects
- Google’s over all revenue growth of 57% was more than double the already torrid 27% growth of the online advertising industry overall per IAB.
- Google’s revenue growth from its pure Google.com sites was even higher, 68%, or 150% faster than the industry at large.
- That amazing amount of out-performance and separation is far from normal and is not found in competitive markets of this size — indicating that market power and network effects are at work.
Google’s pricing power is increasing
Google’s reported numbers and answers to questions told us indirectly that Google is effectively raising prices on its Adsense customers. While Google uses the euphemism “Traffic Acquisition Costs,” TAC is also conversely a proxy for the price that Google extracts from its Adsense customers.
Google said in its earnings release and in Q&A, that TAC percent of revenue share fell — indicating that Google is having to share less of its collected revenue with its customers, in other words, Google’s Adsense price is going up. To take massive market share quickly like Google is currently doing, would normally require deep price discounts to accomplish.
The fact that Google is taking massive market share while it is also raising prices is pretty compelling evidence of Google market power.
Moreover, if you look at Google’s 3Q07 earnings slides they show that Google traffic aquisition costs have fallen 20% in less than 3 years; conversely that means the price they have been able to exract from their Adsense partners has increased 20% in less than three years.
FBI: LA State Senator is Money Laundering — Did AP Mention He’s a Democrat?
-By Warner Todd Huston
Today it’s being reported that Louisiana State Senator Derrick Shepherd stands accused by the FBI of money laundering. The AP duly reported the messy story surrounding this charge, of course. Their story was long and exhaustive for an AP report. Only one tiny, little thing seems to have been forgotten by the AP. They seem to have forgotten to mention that Shepherd is a Democrat. I know… shocking, eh?
This is just another in a long, long line of MSM reports — and AP reports in particular — where a report on criminal activity by an elected official seems to lack party identification… IF that criminal activity is perpetrated by a Democrat, of course.
The AP begins with:
State Sen. Derrick Shepherd helped a felon launder nearly $141,000 in bogus construction bond fees last year, keeping nearly half the money, an FBI agent said.
So, what was it that this State Senator did to assist this felon launder money?
According to an account of the hearing by The Times-Picayune of New Orleans, Smith testified that Shepherd, an attorney who often handles personal injury cases, wrote “settlement proceeds” on memo lines of checks to Moyo, but there is no evidence that he did any legal work for her.
Smith said Moyo signed five checks totaling $140,686 – two bearing notes that they were for bond fees – to Shepherd’s account. Shepherd kept about $65,000 of Moyo’s money and returned the remaining amount, the agent testified.
Nice scam, eh?
Continue reading “FBI: LA State Senator is Money Laundering — Did AP Mention He’s a Democrat?”
Senate Now to Attack OLMS, Too
First the left in the House led by Nancy Pelosi attacked the union watchdog group, the Office of Labor Management Standards, by trying to cut its budget. Even though it is one for the few successful government offices, prosecuting corrupt union officials, the Democrats in the House tried to cut its budget as a payback to unions that don’t like being held accountable. Now the Senate Democrats are getting into the act.
Amid debate on H.R. 3043, the FY2008 Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill, the Senate is patting itself on the back for providing in their version of the bill $9.6 billion more than president Bush requested. But there is one little area they want to cut: the OLMS.
While the both the Senate and the House are seeking to raise spending on all sorts of programs, including all those in this bill in question, the LOMS faces a 4 percent cut in its budget.
Gee, why do ya think that is? Why, its because the Democrats want to help unions escape prosecution for their wide spread fraud, of course.
As the NAM says:
Cutting the budget of OLMS will only serve to benefit union bosses at the expense of hard working, dues paying union workers. Again, we ask for your support of the Sessions amendment which would restore the much needed funding to OLMS so that this important agency can continue protecting America’s workers.
And who can argue with that logic?
Applying Christianity
-By Thomas E. Brewton
It has to be more than an intellectual understanding. We must strive to live it.
Pastor Steve Treash’s sermon at Black Rock – Long Ridge Congregational Church (North Stamford, Connecticut) was the last in a series on the practical application of Christian principles to family life.
Those sermons’ messages can be summarized under the headings of:
Love of God: Families must have a spiritual passion for God and godly life. They must converse about God and with God. They must pray together.
One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ (Mark 12:28-30)
Love for Other People: Jesus continued: The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these. (Mark 12:31)
Christianity is a positive, not a negative and critical faith. Other people must see in us the positive effect of the Holy Spirit. A cold and critical manner is the opposite.
Continue reading “Applying Christianity”
NYTimes: There’s Not Enough Taxes Out There
-By Warner Todd Huston
John F Kennedy once defended his stance on lower taxes with the phrase “a rising tide lifts all boats.” But, if the New York Times has its way they would change that to a “a rising tax tide swamps all boats.” Or at least one would be excused for thinking that upon reading an unsigned editorial that laments “A Dearth of Taxes” in the U.S. today. Stating that a “zeal” to cut taxes is “misguided,” the Times whines that the U.S. government doesn’t bring in the kind of tall cash in taxes that European countries do. But, this confiscatory policy that the Times pines for assumes one thing and one thing only: that government will spend that money well. And THAT is the main reason that Americans are against high taxes in the first place, government does NOT spend our money well and everyone but the Times seems to know it.
This is just one more example of how far out of the mainstream of American thought the folks at the New York Times are. In fact, it shows how downright unAmerican the Times truly is. After all, didn’t we start this country over a matter of disagreement on a 2 pence tax on tea? But, let’s not let any unAmerican attitude dissuade the New York Times from their desires to remake the country in their ideal socialist image, shall we?
The Times begins their paean to European anti-capitalism with a jab at the current field of GOP contenders for the White House.
Continue reading “NYTimes: There’s Not Enough Taxes Out There”
The AP Becomes Retiring Chinese Official’s Biggest Fan
-By Warner Todd Huston
Man, after reading this AP report on the retiring of a Chinese official, you’d think that the folks at the Associated Press were star struck by this communist oppressor. I mean, I’ve seen less adulation on a Britney Spears fan site! You wouldn’t expect to see more slobbering, sycophancy from a 12-year-old waiting in line to see the latest boy band to appear. Their adulation of vice premier Miss Wu Yi ranges from calling her a “master problem solver,” to saying she has “charm,” and an “unusual degree of personal warmth.” You’d think that the AP is ready to cast her as the new Aunt Bee in a remake of The Andy Griffith Show.
Starting out with obvious marvel at Yi’s indispensability for those lucky Chinese, AP seems to totally forget that she is part of an oppressive communist regime that kills people daily, oppresses all manner of religious sects, and withholds the basic freedoms from their people.
For the past decade, when Chinese leaders had a mission of national importance, they gave it to one woman.
Can’t you just feel them sighing with infatuation as they write?
And the AP is duly impressed with her list of recent duties.
Continue reading “The AP Becomes Retiring Chinese Official’s Biggest Fan”
Baltimore Teachers Union Protests Chief… Or Did They?
-By Warner Todd Huston
It was claimed that 150 members of the Baltimore teachers union had gathered to protest in front of school system headquarters to protest an issue the union has with school Chief Andres Alonso. The story in the Baltimore Sun tries its best to make it seem a united cause by teachers but one upon reflection it becomes obvious that the 150 protesters were not who they pretended to be. In a teachers union of 12,000 members a showing of 150 is bad enough a representation but when many of the 150 protesters aren’t even teachers, well, doesn’t that say how little support this union has on the issue? So, if many of the so-called protesters at this rally weren’t even members of the union in question… just who IS the Baltimore teachers union representing?
At issue is whether the schools should require teachers to spend at least 45 minutes per week in planning sessions with colleagues. The union says that teachers don’t have time for planning for their own class work, much less time to be forced to meet with colleagues. Alonso claims he won’t budge from his position and therefore the union wants him fired.
Not earth shattering conflict, to be sure and the fact that the issue isn’t moving too many of Baltimore’s teachers to protest shows that. Yet, even as they can’t get much support from their own members the union is still pressing forward with their own agenda.
Here is what the Baltimore Sun says about the makeup of the 150 protesters. Two of the 150 were a city councilwoman and a national union official, neither of whom represent the actual teachers of Baltimore.
Among those who turned out to support the union was Edward J. McElroy, president of the American Federation of Teachers, which has 1.2 million members. And City Councilwoman Sharon Green Middleton, who spoke at the protest, said she would introduce a resolution asking the council to intervene on behalf of teachers.
And here is the most telling paragraph in the story:
Last night’s protest attracted more than just teachers. Some education advocates used the rally to further their argument that the city should have an elected school board, rather than the current structure where the mayor and governor appoint the board jointly. Other unions, including electrical workers, sent representatives to show their support.
So, let’s consider this. There were only 150 protesters in the first place. If we take away the “other unions” and advocates for separate issues how many ACTUAL teachers union members were at this thing?
It seems that the original 150 out of 12,000 members is even smaller still.
Continue reading “Baltimore Teachers Union Protests Chief… Or Did They?”
Ethanol Conspiracy Theories Ignore Fuel’s Legitimate Shortcomings
IER Press Release
“Cellulosic ethanol is akin to the tooth fairy; it’s an entity that many believe in, but no one ever actually sees.”–“The Senate’s Ethanol Delusion,” by Robert Bryce, Energy Tribune
Washington, DC—Yesterday, Renewable Fuels Association President Bob Dineen issued a statement urging Congress to pump billions of subsidies into ethanol. Dineen’s rhetoric begs lawmakers to create an artificial market for ethanol, build the extra infrastructure needed for transport, and condemns anyone who speaks about its shortcomings as part of a “coordinated offensive of mistruths”. These statements undermine the effort to have a serious debate about the right way to diversify our energy sources and increase America’s energy security. The ethanol industry has been getting super-sized subsidies for more than two decades. Throughout that time, cellulosic ethanol has always been “right around the corner.” We should be looking to innovators and entrepreneurs to develop the next great technological breakthroughs in energy—not to lobbyists seeking more handouts in Washington.
Despite Dineen’s accusation of an “insidious campaign” by the fossil fuels industry against biofuels, there are a myriad of legitimate concerns about ethanol. Those concerns include, but are not limited to, ethanol’s effect on food prices, its huge water demands, and its overall financial cost. (For more on this see the recent Wall Street Journal editorial, “Ethanol’s Water Shortage”)
Continue reading “Ethanol Conspiracy Theories Ignore Fuel’s Legitimate Shortcomings”
Internet Tax Ban Extended for 7 Years
** UPDATE ** from my post from a few days ago.
Senate Passes Internet Tax Moratorium
The Senate on Thursday night approved a seven-year extension of a moratorium on state and local taxes on Internet access.
The Senate voice vote came a little over a week after the House passed a bill calling for a four-year moratorium. The tax ban, first approved in 1998, is set to expire Nov. 1.
Attempts in both the House and Senate to make the ban permanent in recent weeks were unsuccessful despite strong support for the idea.
Sens. Tom Carper, D-Del., and Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., in a joint statement called the agreement “a commonsense victory both for Internet users and for state and local governments.”
The two chambers will have to reach a compromise on the length of the ban and other differences before the bill can be sent to the White House for President Bush’s signature.
Too bad they let this pass without making it permanent. I guess it is too much to expect the Congress to let go a grip on even a possible future tax!
New News Agency Funded By Left-wing Billionaires, Bias Question Ignored by MSM
-By Warner Todd Huston
A new and supposedly nonpartisan news agency named ProPublica is about to start offering free of charge its “investigative journalism” created with “moral force” to newspapers and other news sources soon and so far the announcement has been met with favorable coverage by the MSM. But, ProPublica is being founded and funded by Herbert and Marion Sandler, a pair of left-wing billionaires responsible for funding such groups as the Center for American Progress and MoveOn.org and other far left Democrat backing organizations, yet the MSM seems unconcerned that highly partisan, left-wing backers are funding this effort. Somehow, the MSM can’t imagine that any leftist bias could possibly infect this new “news” agency.
Now, imagine how the MSM would be clicking tongues if a news agency were to be founded by a well-known conservative. Imagine how the MSM would be throwing around the word “bias” with abandon and how they would assume right off the bat that such a new news agency couldn’t possibly be a real news source because the founder of it was a conservative. Would the opposite situation elicit such clucking? Would the MSM scoff at the claim of non-partisan reporting if a left-wing activist started a news agency?
Well, we don’t have to ponder this as a hypothetical situation because both have come true with Fox News and ProPublica. How often do we see the MSM and other partisans attacking Fox News for being founded by Roger Ailes, a well-known conservative? Yet, the same is NOT the case for the founding of this new effort in “journalism.”
Continue reading “New News Agency Funded By Left-wing Billionaires, Bias Question Ignored by MSM”
Dems Sabotage War Effort
-By Nancy Morgan
Cemetery workers are the new victims in the war on terror. Oh, for the good old days when bodies were piling up and they could feed their families.
Last week saw a dramatic drop in Iraqi death rates, a clear sign the surge is working. America, the Iraqi people and the cause of freedom are prevailing against a foe that would have the world regress to the 6th century. How does the media report this spectacular news?
McClatchy newspapers on Tuesday reported:
As Violence Falls in Iraq, Cemetery Workers Feel The Pinch
“A drop in violence around Iraq has cut burials in the huge Wadi al Salam cemetery here by at least one-third in the past six months, and that’s cut the pay of thousands of workers who make their living digging graves, washing corpses or selling burial shrouds”
In an effort at balance and to remind the world that Bush’s war is still, well, pretty awful, the article continues, “Even with less violence, many of those buried here are victims of the war, and the tragedy of each loss offers a counterpoint to workers’ worries about money.”
This is what passes for fair and balanced in the mainstream media. Ya gotta admire their consistency, if not their world view. Faced with the uncontrovertible fact of progress in Iraq, the media still manages to make lemonade from lemons.
Continue reading “Dems Sabotage War Effort”
Gov’t Pork That Endangers Our Troops
-By Warner Todd Huston
Today’s pork report centers on the porcine efforts of Representative David Wu, Democrat from Oregon, who wrung out of the Congressional budget a $2 million earmark for T-Shirts that were supposed to go to the U.S. Marines. Of course, Wu forgot to notice that the very shirts he had surreptitiously appropriated Federal money for were deemed a danger to our troops health by the very branch upon which he had wished to bestow the fruits of his pork barreling.
According to the Associated Press:
PORTLAND, Ore. — Oregon Rep. David Wu fought criticism Monday following a report in the Seattle Times that he got the U.S. Marines to buy shirts that can melt in battle, causing severe burns.
Of course, this treasury raiding by Wu was to pay back a company that gave him campaign donations, the ol’ quid pro quo rears its ugly head.
Wu helped get a $2 million earmark in the 2006 budget for InSport, a Beaverton company in his district. The report found InSport, parent company Vital Apparel and executives from both companies donated more than $7,000 to Wu.
The problem is that the shirts that Wu set up as a mandate for the Marines to take delivery of were made of nylon and shirts made of such material have been deemed a danger to the troops seeing battle “after finding the fabric melts in intense heat, adhering to the skin” causing severe burns to our injured troops.
“This essentially creates a second skin and can lead to horrific, disfiguring burns,” Capt. Lynn E. Welling, the 1st Marine Logistics Group head surgeon, who conducted research in Iraq, told the Seattle Times.
Nice job, Wu. Glad you’re there for our troops.
Then, to make matters worse, Wu inserted another $1 million in at another time to purchase the very same shirts again!
Continue reading “Gov’t Pork That Endangers Our Troops”
Did the Resolution Condemning Turkey Create a Constitutional Crisis?
-By Frank Salvato
Recently, the House Foreign Affairs Committee, chaired by US Rep. Tom Lantos (D-CA), passed a resolution that recognized the killing of up to 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915 as genocide. While the circumstances surrounding the slaughter are disputed, the killings did occur. The larger questions this action presents could very well be as disturbing as the killings themselves. What was there to gain by issuing this non-binding resolution at this moment in time? And, did the issuance of the non-binding resolution usurp the Executive Branch’s authority to establish foreign policy?
Article II of the United States Constitution addresses the Executive Branch and in specific the powers of the presidency. Section 3 of Article II reads:
“He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper; he shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers; he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the Officers of the United States.”
It is the part of Article II, Section 3 that states, “…he shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers;…” that applies to the issue set forth here.
Continue reading “Did the Resolution Condemning Turkey Create a Constitutional Crisis?”
Internet Taxes to Come on Halloween?
-By Warner Todd Huston
You want scary? Try the fact that the moratorium on government taxation of the Internet comes to an end on October 31st. And, in true fright movie fashion, it happens at midnight. One expects a crack and flash of lightning to occur over the Capitol just as the witching hour tolls. But, will there be a wave of villagers with pitchforks to stop it? That’s up to all of us.
At midnight on October 31st, the temporary ban keeping local, state and Federal governments from taxing the Internet will lapse. The House of Representatives voted to extended the ban for four more years but the Senate has yet to act. But, rather than just extending this ban, Congress should rally to make the ban permanent.
This ban does not affect all taxes on the Internet, though. As the Heritage Foundation explains:
The extent of the moratorium is often misunderstood. It does not exempt Internet providers from most taxes of general applicability, such as corporate income taxes or property taxes, and does not exempt Internet sales from general state sales taxes, although the collection of such taxes from out-of-state vendors is problematic. It does prohibit all taxes on Internet access services–such as AOL accounts. Surcharges on Internet bills like those often present on cell phone bills, for example, are prohibited, as are “bit” taxes based on Internet usage. In addition, any taxes that single out Internet services or transactions for special or higher fees are also banned.
And this is just the thing. The Internet has been a source for great growth and wealth building as well as a source for news and information for the people, one that they can utilize to improve their own lives without the filter of a corporation, government or controlling entity upon them.
Should this tax lapse we will open the door to impose overburdening taxes on Internet service providers and consumers just at a time when we should be doing all we can to encourage growth. Taxes necessarily kills growth, to be sure, and now is not the time to begin hampering the growth of the Internet. Especially in light of the fact that the U.S.A. is falling behind in the availability of high speed, broadband Internet connections.
Continue reading “Internet Taxes to Come on Halloween?”
Restore Funding For Fighting Union Corruption
-By Warner Todd Huston
David Denholm of the Public Service Research Council gives us the update on the OLMS:
On Thursday, October 18 the Senate voted 47 to 46 to kill an amendment by Alabama Republican Senator Jeff Sessions to the 2008 Labor-HHS Appropriation Bill, H.R. 3043, that would have restored funding for the Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS) to its 2007 level.
Two Republican (In Name Only) Senators, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Ted Stevens of Alaska, voted with the Democrats to defeat this amendment.
The OLMS is the only government agency charged with monitoring labor union finances and rooting out union corruption. It has been doing an excellent job. So excellent, in fact, that the Union Bosses’ friends in Congress are reducing its funding, despite the fact that they found reasons to spend hundreds of millions of dollars more than the President requested in other parts of the Labor-HHS appropriation bill.
Now is the time to begin urging President Bush not only to veto H.R. 3043 but, just as importantly, to mention the need to restore OLMS funding in his veto message
My fear is that if he doesn’t make a strong point of this the Democrats will cut a few hundred million dollars of fat from the bill and return it to him without restoring OLMS funding.
Folks, we need to get our representatives in Congress to understand that we won’t allow the Democrats to cover for union corruption anymore. If the Dems want to claim that they are the ones that want to eliminate the so-called “culture of corruption,” then we must hold their feet to the fire and actually live up to their words.
But, the defunding of the OLMS that the Dems are involved in certainly makes the lie to their claims to care about fighting corruption!
Continue reading “Restore Funding For Fighting Union Corruption”
The Left Tries to Quash Free Speech
Once again, the fascist left tries to quash free speech on one of our oppressive University campuses. Here is a great report on it from some folks who banded together to record the event on video and photographs.
Nonie Darwish at Berkeley during Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week.
“Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week” is a nationwide series of lectures and presentations organized by conservative writer David Horowitz and his various organizations. On the evening of October 22, dozens of famous speakers gave lectures at universities around the country, mostly on the subject of Islamic extremism. The presenter at U.C. Berkeley that evening was Nonie Darwish, an Arab-American author and feminist who has become a Muslim apostate and vociferous critic of radical Islam.
Her appearance at Cal was sponsored by the Berkeley College Republicans, and strongly opposed by several left-wing groups and Muslim organizations, including World Can’t Wait, the Muslim Students Association, and Students for Justice in Palestine. Her speech was even condemned by the ASUC, the official student governing body at Berkeley.
Please, please go to the site and view the hate spewed by the anti-American left infesting our schools.
The report was created by a coalition of folks trying to get out the word.
This report is an experiment in collaborative online journalism. The photos on this page were taken by seven different photographers, each working independently and unknown to one another, who submitted their pictures, videos and observations to a central editor, where they were compiled into a single report. The online nicknames of the seven “citizen journalists” are: bbuck, Chicken Kiev, Dan K., Luvpotion v.9.0, Marwan’s Daughter, neocon hippie, and Temmy. The central editor who created this report — and who did not actually attend the event itself — was me, zombie, the proprietor of this site. I edited the images and videos, and wrote the captions and introduction; the citizen journalists took the photos and videos, and provided first-hand observations and notes, which are the basis of this report.
94% of Unions Fail OLMS Audits
-By Warner Todd Huston
Just a quick note about the “success” rate of unions and their audit compliance from Ed Morrissey.
The OLMS points out far too many “inconvenient truths”, as one Democrat might put it. For instance, it reported that only 43 of 643 union audits showed financial compliance. That’s a whopping 6%, meaning 94% of all unions can’t pass a financial audit. It doesn’t seem very surprising, since millions of worker dollars end up at the Democratic Party. If a group of publicly-held corporations had a 6% failure rate for their financial audits, the Democrats and unions would scream bloody murder, let alone a 94% failure rate.
Now, imagine how the left would be all over that if such a failure rate were to be had from groups supporting conservative causes. They’d be all over it with their “Republican culture of corruption” rhetoric, for sure.
Remember how the left was all up in arms about Enron? Amazing how silent they are about unions, isn’t it?
Continue reading “94% of Unions Fail OLMS Audits”
Why Do We Allow America’s Enemies to Run Schools Here?
-By Warner Todd Huston
With such a headline, you’d be excused for assuming this piece is just another attack on our failing schools, just another screed against the evils of teachers unions, or a whack against the left wing lunatics who run our universities. No, this time the title is no mere hyperbole. This time it says exactly what it means for in the state of Virginia a school is being run by radical Islamists, funded by a foreign nation, and under condemnation from the U.S. government. In this time of war, the State of Virginia really is allowing our enemies to run a school teaching Islamist hate to our children right in our midst.
A private Islamic school funded by the Saudi government is being accused by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom of teaching Wahhabi Islamism to 1,000 K-12 children in Fairfax County, Virginia. Wahhabism is the strict and hateful brand of Islam that buttresses the twisted ideas of people like Usama bin Laden and his al Qaeda organization and the Taliban extremists in Afghanistan and it is guiding the daily class work of some of Virginia’s children.
The Commission reports that the curriculum at the Islamic Saudi Academy reflects the religious intolerance taught at schools in Saudi Arabia where intolerance and bigotry against Jews and Christians is the norm. In part, the Commission’s report states that, “significant concerns remain about whether what is being taught at the ISA promotes religious intolerance and may adversely affect the interests of the United States.”
Naturally the school and its minders in the Saudi embassy profess shock and dismay that they’d be questioned about their efforts to teach their own brand of “truth” to American children. But, it isn’t just extreme Islamism that the school is faulted for. The Commission also warned that the close operational ties and funding scheme between the school, the Saudi embassy and the government of Saudi Arabia may violate U.S. law restricting the activities of foreign embassies.
This school was in the news once before, too. After the Sept. 11th attacks by radical Islamists, a former valedictorian of the school, Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, was convicted of, and is now serving a 30-year prison sentence for, plotting the assassination of president H. W. Bush in 2005. Ali became an al Qaeda member while attending college in Saudi Arabia after graduation from the school in Virginia.
Continue reading “Why Do We Allow America’s Enemies to Run Schools Here?”
Evil
-By Selwyn Duke
Man has long asked how a loving God could allow evil to exist in the world. It’s an age-old philosophical question that can cause those who want faith to doubt and those who want to doubt to mock faith. A Christian’s answer to this question is “free will,” a concept critics may regard as something reduced to a convenient cliché. The truth is, though, that this is a most fascinating subject to inquisitive minds.
The two qualities that make us like God are intellect and free will, despite the fact that the former can seem as lacking as the latter is abused. Why intellect has prerequisite status is obvious, but why free will? If God is omnipotent, He can prevent the immeasurable pain and suffering we inflict on one another with the blink of an eternal eye. Why doesn’t He do it? Perhaps this problem is what caused people such as Thomas Jefferson to embrace deism, the belief that God set the Universe in motion but then receded into the background, indifferent to our plight. So let’s examine free will.
Imagine you have a child, and technology has advanced to a point where you can implant a computer chip in his brain, one that would ensure he never acted wrongly. If everyone were thus controlled, we would have a world in which everyday transgressions were unknown. Yet, would you view this as an acceptable remedy for your child’s human frailty?
A good father certainly would not, for it would render the child something less than human. He would then be nothing more than an organic robot, an automaton, controlled by an outside agency whose will has supplanted his own. Just picture the Borg in Star Trek.
Continue reading “Evil”
Fallen Hero Marine’s Grave Desecrated in Texas
-By Warner Todd Huston
If this is how the memory of heroes gets treated in the U.S. today, then I wouldn’t blame any U.S. soldier if they would stop caring about their own country — not that any soldier has done so. I reported several months ago that a bunch of ignorant, ingrates in Colorado were trying to stop a memorial to a local hero from being erected where school kids could see the display. And now we have a story where a fallen Marine’s grave is desecrated.
Where is people’s shame? Where is their patriotism? Where is their common decency?
The Houston Chronicle reports that Marine Jeremy Burris’ grave was desecrated in Liberty, Texas this week.
An all-American kid from a little all-American town, the 22-year-old Marine lance corporal died heroically in Iraq. More than a thousand people turned out Wednesday as a white hearse carried his body to burial in the historic 1800s Cooke Memorial Cemetery.
Within hours, the grave was desecrated. About 30 sprays of flowers were ripped apart, petals strewn over the loose earth. Flags decorating the gravesite were also torn down and sentimental notes and posters shredded.
This young Marine is a true hero. He saved the lives of several people in the incident that took his own.
Burris was killed Oct. 8 by an explosive device in al-Anbar Province.
Minutes before his death, he rescued two soldiers wounded when a device exploded under their military vehicle. When Burris returned to the vehicle to retrieve some sensitive equipment, another bomb detonated, killing him, his family said.
This sort of thing seems to be happening increasingly and my guess is that it isn’t just kids out to be jerks, but an anti-war activist who has been driven insane by the hate that is spewed day in and day out by the left in the USA.
Things like this are the fault of people like Michael Moore, Kieth Olberman, or Air America — people who egg on this sort of hate.
We can only hope that the creeps that perpetrated this outrage are found and persecuted… not just prosecuted… but persecuted by all. They should be ostracized by polite, patriotic society.
Folks, THIS is the anti-war left in action.
Continue reading “Fallen Hero Marine’s Grave Desecrated in Texas”
CLC Podcast #2- Interview With J. D. Hayworth
-By Warner Todd Huston
I had an opportunity to interview former Congressman J.D. Hayworth as I attended the Conservative Leadership Conference on October 13th, 2007.
Congressman Hayworth had been involved in a bit of a row in the pages of the Wall Street Journal with a Mr. Richard Nadler over the question of just why Hayworth lost his House seat during the 2006 midterm elections.
I asked both Nadler and Hayworth similar questions, and it is interesting to hear their take on the issues. They seem closer together than either must realize.
The audio of the Hayworth interview can be downloaded by CLICKING HERE
The audio of the Nadler interview can be downloaded by CLICKING HERE
The transcript of the Nadler interview can be seen HERE.
To download a PDF document of the Wall Street Journal articles by both Nadler and Hayworth provided by Mr. Nadler, CLICK HERE
And, here is the transcript of my interview with J.D. Hayworth:
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CLC Interview with Warner Todd Huston interviewing J. D. Hayworth recorded by Avalon Podcasting at the Conservative Leadership Conference on October 13th, 2007.
WTH: Today we have visiting with us here at the Conservative Leadership Conference, J.D. Hayworth most recently an Arizona Congressman and current talk show host. Mr. Hayworth, I’d like to thank you for the many years of outspoken support for conservative values, your voice has always been reliable for Reagan Conservatism and I’d like to thank you for your years in service.
JD: Well, Warner Todd thank you, it was a tremendous opportunity and being part of this podcast is icing on the cake.
WTH: I’d like to start, if you would… wanted to have anything that you wanted to say to start with, this mic is open for you.
JD: Well, I was ah, in the speech that we just completed here at the Conservative Leadership Conference I was saying if you think that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, think again. For a guy out of office, supposedly bereft of ideas to be featured in the Wall Street Journal not once, not twice, but thrice in the last two weeks shows that our message of national security and border security, ah, the American people get it and sadly the malefactors of great wealth — or as we might say with the Fred Travalena game show of the 1980’s, the anything for money crowd — is desperately trying to change people’s minds. But the American people are having none of it.
Continue reading “CLC Podcast #2- Interview With J. D. Hayworth”
CLC Podcast #1- Interview With Richard Nadler
-By Warner Todd Huston
Richard Nadler is someone I was not aware of until Saturday morning on October 13th, 2007. While attending the Conservative Leadership Conference, I was scheduled to interview former Congressman J.D. Hayworth and it just so happened that Mr. Nadler had just that morning gotten printed a response to J.D. Hayworth’s criticism of Nadler in the October 9th edition of the Wall Street Journal, which was in itself, a response to an October 2nd Journal piece by Nadler criticizing Hayworth. It was only by coincidence that both Nadler and Hayworth were attending the CLC. At length, I was asked by the CLC folks to interview both men to get their responses to each other over their current tet a tet, as well as get their take on the issues of the dy.
As to the men’s conflict, at issue was J.D.’s loss of his House seat, Nadler pinning it to Hayworth’s too harsh position over the immigration issue. Hayworth took great exception to Mr. Nadler’s claims of why he lost his House seat and a war of Journal articles had ensued.
As I said, I was not aware of Mr. Nadler, so after I was asked to interview him, I boned up on him via the Internet. I discovered Nadler to be concerned with minority voting and the attempt to drag that voting block over to the GOP. He is president of America’s Majority Foundation.
Nadler’s Foundation webpage describes themselves this way:
Americas Majority was founded to increase the constituency for conservative causes: free market economics, international anti-totalitarianism, and morals based on Jewish and Christian scriptures.
Now, since I had the opportunity to interview both Nadler and Hayworth, I asked both of them quite similar questions and, to me, they seem closer together in opinion than I think either of them even realize.
The audio of the Nadler interview can be downloaded by CLICKING HERE
The audio of the Hayworth interview can be downloaded by CLICKING HERE
To download a PDF document of the Wall Street Journal articles by both Nadler and Hayworth provided by Mr. Nadler, CLICK HERE
The transcript of my Hayworth interview can be seen HERE.
And, here is the transcript of my interview with Mr. Richard Nadler:
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CLC Interview with Warner Todd Huston interviewing Richard Nadler recorded by Avalon Podcasting at the Conservative Leadership Conference on October 13th, 2007.
WTH- Hi, my name is Warner Todd Huston with the Conservative Leadership Conference. Today we’re talking to Mr. Richard Nadler who is the president of America’s Majority Foundation, am I correct?
RN: Yes
WTH: Very good. Mr. Nadler, do you have any opening statements you’d like to make?
RN: Yes, basically the stance that the conservative movement has taken towards immigration is rather like a man who would slit his wrists and then run a victory lap as he bleeds out on the pavement. Unless we pay some attention to the moral and economic claims of illegal aliens we are going to lose the Hispanic vote which is the fastest growing vote in the United States and with it the presidency and any possibility of governing for the next 25 years.
Continue reading “CLC Podcast #1- Interview With Richard Nadler”
Will US Survive Last 15 Months of Bush Presidency?
-By Warner Todd Huston
Rarely has a man made more of a fool of himself, than has Lou Dobbs with most of his recent post on his webpage on CNN.com. Rarely does one catch such a glimpse of self-importance, arrogance and assumptions of omniscience. It is so bad that Dobbs imagines himself enough of a soothsayer, enough of a scryer,* that he knows what Bush’s legacy will be even before Bush leaves office… if, according to Dobbs, the country is still even here when Bush steps down. Talk about wild-eyed, hyperbole. With people like Dobbs and Olberman, it is no wonder that no one believes what the MSM says. Their “act” is so outrageous, there is no way to take them seriously.
“Beware the lame duck,” Dobbs ominously warns with his headline in this piece, most of which is just a silly screed, where he worries that the country won’t last another 15 months.
Frankly, I spend more time worrying about whether or not the United States can survive the remaining 15 months of his ebbing presidency.
Oh, brother.
And in his arrogance, Dobbs assumes he somehow knows what Bush’s legacy will be with “historians” of the future.
Continue reading “Will US Survive Last 15 Months of Bush Presidency?”
Union Workers Compelled to Protest Army hospital
-By Warner Todd Huston
The folks over at FreeRepublic have reported that at one of their pro-troops vigils in front of Walter Reed Army Hospital, a union member told them that he was ordered by his union to attend the nearby anti-war protest.
WASHINGTON, DC, September 28, 2007— The DC Chapter has suspected all along that the dwindling handful of anti-war protestors outside Walter Reed are paid to show up. This week, one of their newbies came by our troop-support rally at the gates by mistake, and spilled the truth: a labor union had recruited this worker to show up at the lefties’ phony “vigil.” The worker’s remarks clearly revealed that standing outside the Walter Reed Army Medical Center with anti-war signs wasn’t a personal choice, but a workplace commitment demanded by a union representative.
Our rally must have looked a lot more attractive, even at a glance—in fact, that’s what this unionized worker said. I’m going to avoid describing this person’s looks or gender, to avoid making trouble. Why? Because this office worker’s confusion appeared sincere, revealing that the decision to be there wasn’t intentional; in fact, the person didn’t really seem to know what either demonstration was about.
The fellow that the Freepers spoke to was a member of the O.P.E.I.U., the Office and Professional Employees International Union, Local no. 2.
So, why, exactly, is a union forcing their members to attend anti-war rallies?
Is that truly union business?
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A biting assessment of socialized medicine
-By Michael M. Bates
Historian Will Durant wrote that first century Romans had access to dentistry, including “gold teeth, wired teeth, false teeth, bridgework, and plates.” Many 21st century Englishmen probably wish they had it so good.
CNN earlier this week reported some English citizens have resorted to pulling out their own teeth. In the land of the National Health Service aka socialized medicine, six percent of 5,000 people surveyed confessed to using pliers and glue to treat their own dental needs. Another three-quarters of those polled said they had been forced to opt for more expensive private treatment. A culprit is the rapidly decreasing number of dentists willing to participate in the assembly-line mechanism of the NHS.
According to an article in the New York Times last year, 2,000 dentists left for private practice in just one month of 2006. That might be expected in a system in which providers are required to perform in terms of “units of dental activity.” A former NHS nurse noted she’d worked with a dentist who completed cleanings in five minutes flat.
A problem for the British, as for almost everyone everywhere, is how expensive a dentist is. Rising to meet a need are companies that offer treatment packages overseas. One enterprise advertises that a patient, by going to Budapest or Prague, can save up to 70 percent on United Kingdom prices.
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The Entree Du jour of The Democrat National Party Is Its Attack Against Surveillance Programs
-By Marie Jon’
The Democrats have run on a campaign of defeatism in Iraq while undermining the president of the most powerful nation in the world. They have acted irresponsibly. The Democrats live in their own concocted world, devoid of reality. Common sense and truth seems to elude them at our country’s expense.
Hopefully, Americans will rise to the occasion and cause an appropriate political fallout for the outrageous charges made against our troops — calling heroes serving their country murderers. Remember the names of Congressman John Murtha, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Senators John Kerry, Dick Durbin, and Harry Reid. Too often, their controversial words recklessly impugn the honor of our troops. Harry Reid in particular should be held responsible for his reckless declaration of our loss in Iraq, when in fact we are winning the peace.
Democrats must be held responsible for all of their malicious, propagandistic lies. Vote wisely in 2008. Remember who was responsible for deliberately dividing our nation for their own political gain. Reject the Democrats the absolute power they seek.
Remember the “Drive-By Media” who have betrayed us all by trying to limit access to the information we need to maintain a free democracy.
Continue reading “The Entree Du jour of The Democrat National Party Is Its Attack Against Surveillance Programs”
Union Dues Meanstested? Organized Labor’s Organized Theft
-By Warner Todd Huston
What is your concept of a union dues payment? Is it a single, democratic fee paid at the same rate for all members, a payment that ensures the equal treatment of all union members? If so, you’d be wrong if you were an SEIU member. Because, for the SEIU, your dues are not a single standard payment for all your members, but it is a payment calculated on how much you make… just like income taxes are.
According to a blog about the nursing profession the SEIU district 1199 is violating one of the most dearly help ideals of any union; that it is interested in “equal treatment” for all.
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Pork report – Hippie Museum Gets $1 Mil From Taxpayers
-By Warner Todd Huston
Alan Gerry is far out, baby. He just got a cool $1 million for his Woodstock Concert hippie museum in Bethel Woods, New York. That’s hip, man.
Well, it might be cool except that the $1 mil came from our taxes courtesy of Senator Chuckie Schumer of New York.
So, what did Chuckie get out of it? A free pass to the exhibits of joints, flowers and torn blue jeans? Maybe some free parking? Perhaps just the warm knowledge that he helped memorialize for posterity the dirty kids who attended the Woodstock Concert?
Nope.
He got nearly $30,000 in campaign donations from the hippie museum’s foundation head.
Imagine that, eh?
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