SoCalPundit.com - Conservative News & Views

Big Labor will kill the Water Bond

2009-11-09T10:53:00.000-08:00

It is clear to me that the Water Bond recently approved for the voters’ approval is a piece of proposed legislation whose ultimate cost and even its ability to be completed is not really known. I’d like to think that more than just the $1 billion set aside for water recycling and other dithering on the issue will actually get built. But in California, no high profile Public Works construction project can be expected to sail through construction without the special interest groups getting their piece of the action. I speak specifically about LABOR UNIONS. For more than a decade, a suedo-environmental group of Big Labor activists, represented by a powerful San Francisco law firm have filed repetitive and erroneous environmental objections against power and infrastructure projects to the end of securing union-only Project Labor Agreement (PLA).

PLA’s are under indictment for being wasteful and discriminatory but that has not stopped Big Labor from utilizing their endless supply of money (derived from union membership dues) to force contracting bodies in California to sign these agreements. The Merit Shop community in California is opposed to PLAs because they require all labor on a construction project to pay dues and be registered with the union, even if the workers are with a non-union firm. We are not talking about the State Prevailing Wage and the benefits that come along with it. A PLA is an additional bureaucratic tool that unions use to keep non-union contractors from bidding and to fill the coffers of their bankrupt Pension Plans.

California desperately needs a solution to the crisis it now faces, but water recycling programs are not the answer. They are simply a small part of what must be a comprehensive plan for getting water where it is needed. California Labor Unions are more concerned with hegemony over public works than they are with solving California’s water crisis.

UPDATE: Several hours after I wrote this blog post, a friend sent me a link to this Los Angeles Building Trades publication where BIG LABOR'S efforts to pass the Bond through the California Legislature is revealed. From the article, one can only come to the conclusion that BIG LABOR wants this water bond to pass. What is implied but not overtly sited is the fact that Labor will require that the projects be built under union-only Project Labor Agreements. PLA's raise the cost of construction projects and discriminate against those that choose to work non-union. If the union insist on PLA's, there going to get some pretty significant push-back from the non-union construction industry.

Orange County Board of Sups Votes 5-0 To Ban union-only Project Labor Agreements

2009-10-27T14:48:00.000-07:00

The Associated Builders & Contractors (ABC), Coalition for Fair Employment in Construction (CFEC) and the Western Electrical Contractors Association (WECA) are proud to report that open competition in public works construction got a huge boost in Orange County California today. Supervisoe John Mo0rloch was key to the success. Here is the OC Register article. From Eric Christen, executive director of CFEC:

With over 100 merit shop employees, contractors, and association reps in attendance, the Orange County Board of Supervisors in a 5-0 vote banned Project Labor Agreements with an ordinance. This precedent setting vote puts into law the Supervisors' stated support for open competition, non-discrimination, and the best quality construction at the best price for taxpayers.

Please email the Orange County Board of Supervisors and thank them for their vote!

OC Supervisor Janet Nguyen - janet.nguyen@ocgov.com
OC Supervisor John Moorlach - john.moorlach@ocgov.com
OC Supervisor Bill Campbell - bill.campbell@ocgov.com
OC Supervisor Chris Norby - chris.norby@ocgov.com
OC Supervisor Patricia Bates - patbates@ocgov.com

You can be sure this is just the beginning!

Here is a pro-building trades article leading up to today's unanimous vote in favor of open competition.

Frank Luntz on Language

2009-09-18T11:08:00.000-07:00

I am listening to Polster Frank Luntz who is right now speaking to Merit Shop construction contractors about the vocabulary they use when battling the unions. The polling his firm did just prior to this event clearly shows that Americans find little or no value in organized labor unions today. He also found that more Americans can name one of the Three Stooges than can name a Supreme Court Justice.

Other findings...

More people would rather be mugged than would like to be audited by the IRS.

Slightly more people would undergo an IRS audit before they would undergo a root canal.

A Liberal Questions, A Conservative Answers

2009-09-05T12:39:00.000-07:00

A friend who runs the Santa Clarita Republican website forwarded these comments received by email.

I am ashamed to admit that I was a Republican, the way Republicans such as you are acting about President Obama's speech to our school children. He is urging them to study hard and do well in school. What's wrong with that? Did you react this way when other Presidents gave similar words of encouragement to our children? We should be teaching our children to respect our President. Actions such as you are trying to take here will only confuse children or turn them against our President. But I guess that's your object, right?

This speech is intended to be a positive message. Please see it that way. Your calling it a 'highly intrusive Federal manipulation of our local school curriculums" (sic) makes me sick!

- Laverne B

Here was my response:

Hello Laverne,

I believe you may be missing a few points of considerable importance in your analysis. Presidents have spoken to school Children since Jimmy Carter. Reagan and George Bush Sr. both have had addresses to school children. What is different about this case is the unprecedented participation by the national education apparatus. The existence of this lesson plan should concern everybody. There is absolutely no justification for mandating the buy-in for Obama's message. Depending on what that message will be (political or not) will determine if I support my children hearing it, but I cannot abide the exercise that the Educrats have devised to support it. That is what separates this address from Presidential Addresses of the past. Furthermore, it may in fact be against Federal law for the Department of Education to create lesson plans for students. This needs to be verified but if true, it reveals a particularly disturbing lack of judgment on the part of the Secretary of Education.

While we're on the subject of Presidential Addresses, what is with the joint session of Congress on Wednesday? Past Presidents have saved this forum for the delivery of much-needed attention by the President such as following national disasters or to declare war. It is also the place where the President goes to give his annual report to the American people. Obama has already broken with tradition in this by being the 1st President (I think, so let me know if this is inaccurate) to hold a state of the union-like address in the year he takes office. And will he say anything new? Will he announce a re-commitment to including conservative solutions in the package?
Or will he continue to use more carefully chosen words of spin and misdirection? This is all quite overwhelming to me. What do you think?

BTW: I wrote down 5 of my favorite conservative health care solutions here: http://socalpundit.blogspot.com/2009/09/real-healthcare-reform-options-are.html

Regards,

Real Healthcare Reform Options Are Available

2009-09-02T10:20:00.000-07:00

The problem that President Obama and Democrats have is that very few people believe that government run health insurance will solve any of the problems that plague the delivery of medical services in America. It is pretty much and unspoken truth that the so-called "public option" is nothing more than a Big Government plan to grab another 1/6 of the economy.

So what can Congress do to make health care more affordable in America?

HEALTH SAVINGS ACCOUNTS

The number one option that small, medium and even large businesses have employed for years is employee health savings accounts. While employers contribute to these accounts, it is really employees own money that fuels the growth of the size of the accounts. The employer and employee contribute to the account before taxes, are not taxed when the money is spent and can only be used to pay deductibles and other a few other health services not covered by high deductible health plans. It is the perfect way keep people invested in their own health care without requiring them to shoulder costs on the fly.

LOCAL CLINICS FOR THE POOR

It is an absolute shame that the poor in America use the emergency room for all of their health care needs. Not only is the ER the most expensive way to deliver health services, but it is also the method least capable of affecting a patient's overall health standards. Small, government and health insurance company subsidized clinics located in poor communities would not only be able to deliver all emergency health services that do not require hospitalization, but could also be clearance houses for education and tools for healthy living. Non-Governmental Agencies have been proving the value of local clinics in other countries for decades. But as a matter of politics, the idea has not caught on here in the U.S.

TORT REFORM

It is worth noting that the "public option" does offer one benefit to the American people. If the government is delivering your health services, you have no right to sue the plan if the quality of health care sucks. Rather than going to that extreme, limits should be placed on the awards that judges and juries can deliver in the case of successful litigation. Changes to what types of incidents that would qualify for litigation would also be advisable. It is a shame that OBGYN's can be sued for millions of dollars, simply because complications during child birth led to issues with the baby’s health. Limiting the scope of issues that could be litigated would go a very long way to bringing down the cost of Doctor's liability insurance. Liability insurance is one of the leading reasons that the delivery of health care in America continues to rise.

CREATE MORE COMPETITION IN THE HEALTH CARE INDUSTRY

One of the siren calls of the need for the public option is that insurance companies are only in it for profit. But the truth is, that because of onerous government regulations, health insurance companies are protected from any meaningful competition. Health insurance costs in states where competition is robust are much less than in states where regulations have limited competition. If consumers could buy insurance from any company in any state, as opposed to being limited to companies in their own state, competition would be energized and costs would ultimately go down.

INSURANCE PORTABILITY

One of the historical errors on the health insurance industry is that policies are tied to employment. Whereas employers should definitely be involved in subsidizing health insurance costs, there is no reason why employers should be hosting health insurance plans. Like Health Savings Accounts, health insurance policies would be tied to the individual rather than the employer. In this manner, consumers would retain their insurance even if they change employers. This is after all, how we purchase our auto and home-owners insurance and it works pretty well.

The bottom line is that there are many options for health care reform. A Phony Health Insurance Replacement Program is not a solution. If the President and Congress are serious about reform, they must drop the talk about a plan centered on a public option and begin dealing with the Republicans on real reform options.

Socialized Medicine

2009-04-19T22:03:00.000-07:00

I scanned this cartoon from the February 2007 issue of World Magazine. It only becomes MORE apropos as time goes by! Click to enlarge.

Santa Clarita Tax Day Tea Party Videos

2009-04-18T14:21:00.000-07:00

First, here are 3 videos that I produced.

The first video depicts an incident of Chase Bank having a Tax Day attendees car towed.

Here is a video montage I made of the Santa Clarita Tax Day Tea Party.

And for my last video, an interview with liberal blogger Jeff Wilson of http://www.scvtalk.com.

Alternately, you can watch Jeff interview me!

Democrats' Misleading Claims On the Financial Crash

2009-04-04T14:54:00.000-07:00

My recent Letter to the Editor discusses which party is primarily responsible for the breadth of damages that the financial crash caused on the broader economy. Read it here.

PS: I am going to try to remember to post up here more often, at least until I find a new blogging home. I am considering several such offers for new blogging homes.

Media Touts Evidence of It's Successful Campaign Against Religion

2009-03-09T12:07:00.000-07:00

In my home, we share our religious and political beliefs with our children. Meanwhile, Educrats that run our schools and the Hollywood & Media Elite work every day to instill upon our children that religion is dead and Republicans are evil. This has been going on for the better half of the last 50 years.

Lo and behold, CNN touts a study today identified as the American Religious Identification Survey from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut that allegedly shows that religious affiliation in America is decreasing at a pretty dramatic rate.

Three out of four Americans call themselves Christian, according to the American Religious Identification Survey from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. In 1990, the figure was closer to nine out of 10 -- 86 percent.

This is not surprising given the media and Hollywood's pernicious attacks against religion. Coupled with the anti-religious bigotry taught in college universities, it is a small miracle that faith still exists at all.

But what was actually surprising (to liberals I think but not to me) about this study was this finding.

The survey also found that "born-again" or "evangelical" Christianity is on the rise, while the percentage who belong to "mainline" congregations such as the Episcopal or Lutheran churches has fallen.

So religious groups that tend to lean to a more liberal interpretation of faith and the Bible are loosing attendance to more evangelical faiths. If we are to take the survey's findings at face value, it would appear that while many who practiced a watered-down form of their faith or did not practice their faith at all seem to falling away from churches, those that are truly finding God and seek to use His word as road map for how they should live their lives is increasing.

“to really see what is going on down at the facility”

2009-02-18T21:14:00.000-08:00

That is what attorney general Eric Holder said he was going to do when he visited Guantánamo Bay on Monday. What a moron, being led by a moron. Pray for your country America.

Breeder Tax Contained In CA Proposed Budget

2009-02-12T11:32:00.000-08:00

Once again, working families will get hosed so that liberal special interest groups can continue to receive funding.

Reduces the amount taxpayers can claim on dependent care credit to the federal level of $100 instead of $300.

The LA Times agree with the move in an article they call: California tax hikes long overdue - Los Angeles Times

Below is the post I made on January 7th describing the removal of the child tax credit in the CA tax code.

Among the 8 tax raising proposals contained in the Governor's Budget 2008-09 is this little gem:

Reduce the personal income tax dependent exemption credit to equal the personal exemption credit. I will pay an extra $400 in breeder tax even though we are simply propagating the species at current levels.

The current dependent exemption is $294 per child. The current personal exemption is $94 per adult.

Gee, I wonder who is going to get their butt's kicked the hardest with this one. According to my friend:

In my church there is one family with 12 children, one with 9, two with 7, one with 6, one with 5, three with 4, and eight with 3 children. That’s $16,400 per year in additional taxes from 17 families with 82 children.

And they are not even Mormons!

I'll personally also suffer to the tune of $400. While my ex, who takes the deduction on my 3rd child will take the additional $200 hit.

Folks, we have got to let the Governor know that it is unacceptable that, in this time of shrinking salaries and growing debt, he would even consider settling the state's financial crisis on the backs of hardworking parents. Use this link to find relevant contact information for the Governor.

Meg Whitman Is Running For Governor of California

2009-02-09T11:42:00.000-08:00

And this pundit is pleased. Meg has already sealed up a couple of really important endorsements. according to the press release.

SACRAMENTO – Republican Meg Whitman, former President and CEO of eBay, today announced the formation of an Exploratory Committee to seek the nomination for Governor in 2010. Former California Governor Pete Wilson will serve as Campaign Chairman joining Exploratory Committee Co‐Chairs House Chief Deputy Republican Whip Congressman Kevin McCarthy, Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack, State Senator Tony Strickland, Assembly Republican Whip Nathan Fletcher and former State Assemblywoman Sharon Runner. In the coming weeks, through speeches in Silicon Valley, Orange County and at the California Republican Party Convention in Sacramento, Whitman will offer a vision for the Golden State.

“After careful consideration and with tremendous loyalty to our Golden State, I have formed an Exploratory Committee, the first step in the process of running for Governor in 2010,” Whitman said. “California faces challenges unlike any other time in its history – a weak and faltering economy, massive job losses, and an exploding state budget deficit. California is better than this, and I refuse to stand by and watch it fail. Now is the time for people across the state to join in a cause for change, excellence and a new California.”

Whitman, 52, retired from eBay in March 2008 following a decade with the company. Under her leadership, eBay grew from a startup with 30 employees, $4.7 million in revenues, and 300,000 users to a global ecommerce leader with operations in 38 countries, more than 15,000 employees, almost $8 billion in revenues, and more than 300 million registered users. There are more than 12 million eBay users in California alone.

Jeff Randle, President and CEO of Randle Communications, is Whitman’s senior advisor and has worked with her since 2007. Randle joins Henry Gomez, one of Whitman’s closest advisors during her tenure at eBay. Together, Randle and Gomez are developing a campaign organization that includes some of America’s most respected campaign professionals. (Please see the following list).

“Meg Whitman is a tremendous leader and team‐builder,” Randle said. “California today has serious problems, but Meg is committed to working to restore the state’s greatness. With new leadership and a new direction, Meg will forge a new California, which will once again be the number one state in economic growth, job creation and quality of life.”

Watch this blog for more information in the coming weeks and months!

All Stimulus Construction Will Be Done Union-Only Under Executive Order

2009-02-07T22:53:00.000-08:00

Be sure to read my commentary that expands on the effect this action will have on the American workforce and Barack's chances of getting re-elected.

Lost in the Stimupalooza going on around the conservative blogosphere this week has been Obama's rescission of Bush Executive Order 13202 which banned discriminatory, union-only Project Labor Agreements.

Executive Order 13202 prohibited federal agencies and recipients of federal financial assistance from requiring wasteful and discriminatory union-only PLAs on federal and federally funded construction projects. Construction contracts subject to union-only PLAs are almost always awarded to unionized contractors and their all-union workforces.

A union-only PLA is a contract that requires a federal construction project to be awarded only to contractors and subcontractors that agree to recognize unions as the representatives of their employees on that job; use the union hiring hall to obtain workers; pay union wages and benefits; and obey the union’s restrictive work rules, job classifications and arbitration procedures.

This is the latest controversial Obama policy released late on a Friday afternoon. Hope, Change and Transparency at work.

UPDATE: Here is a good Star Tribune Commentary on the subject.

45% of Americans Think Stimulus Plan Will Help The Economy

2009-01-31T12:15:00.000-08:00

Which basically means that 45% of Americans are either uninformed as to what is contained in the stimulus plan or stand to benefit directly from the massive amount of pork contained in it.

# $30 billion on federal government building improvements

# $1.5 billion for homelessness prevention

# $650 million for digital TV coupons

# $650 million for wildlife management

# $600 million for the federal government to buy new green cars

# $570 million for climate change

# $75 million for smoking cessation activities

Among those that support the Bill because they will benefit from it is the son of one of the Bill's primary authors David R. Obey (D - WI) whose employer will receive $2 billion.

Craig Obey, a senior vice president of the National Parks Conservation Association, is a top lobbyist for the nonprofit group, which made public appeals for funds to repair and maintain national parks in the weeks before the House passed the bill Wednesday.

There is no evidence that a stimulus Bill that spent 100% of its funds on infrastructure improvement would actually aid the economy, let alone this Bill of which just $30 billion or roughly 3% of the spending is earmarked for construction.

This is my opinion and may not be shared by my employer or anyone else with good taste :0)

Teachers' Union Answer To Budget Crisis? Stop Testing Students

2009-01-28T09:21:00.001-08:00

This has been the mantra from the Educrats in California for time immemorial. The logic originally used to justify mid-year assessment testing has been that minorities do worse on testing than white students do (its unfair) and that teachers are forced to teach to the test rather than 'expanding young minds'.

It's all a bunch of crap. The union does not want periodic assessment testing because it reveals how poorly education is being administered in the state.

So now, having failed to convince enough suckers that not testing throughout the year will lead to better scores on advancement testing (huh?), the LA Teachers' Union has proposed the end to assessment testing as a means with which to correct the state budget deficit!

Axing these district assessments would spare jobs by saving millions of dollars -- and would improve instruction at the same time, said A.J. Duffy, president of United Teachers Los Angeles.

So what have the tests themselves achieved?

The union's call for a boycott of the tests has emerged as an early trial for new Supt. Ramon C. Cortines, who took over Jan. 1.

Cortines asserted that the assessments are part of teachers' assigned duties -- they are not optional. He also said he has and will amend aspects of the tests that need fixing. But he won't toss them out because, he said, they have contributed strongly to rising performance on the state's own annual tests.

He may be right, based on a Times' analysis of last year's improved state test scores in 10th-grade English and Algebra 1.

The Times found that greater participation in the district assessments was associated with better scores. In 10th-grade English, the correlation was fairly strong, accounting for nearly half the improvement.

The link was more moderate in Algebra 1, explaining about one-third of the gains for high school students in that subject.

The Times looked at these two subjects in part because the data were available -- it isn't for all subjects -- and also because of importance of these courses. Algebra 1, for example, is considered a "gateway" course to academic success.

In my mind, the LA Times' findings end the debate. But not for the union cronies that run our education system.

"The pig does not get fatter when you weigh it 10 times a day," Duffy said. "And if the test scores do go up, isn't it phony? Because what you are doing is teaching to the test, teaching a subject that has been narrowed down radically. We're not creating smarter kids. We're creating smarter test takers."

Duffy announced the boycott Tuesday at Emerson Middle School on the Westside, where teachers said the district tests were too burdensome on top of already mandated state and federal testing.

"We are supposed to be teaching, not testing," said Emerson English teacher Cecily Myart-Cruz. "We can come up with our own assessments in our classroom, and we do -- every day."

Top officials, however, had concluded that too many instructors failed to enforce high standards or didn't focus properly on teaching the specific skills and knowledge required by the state.

I love the pig analogy! The only pigs I see around here are the educats that feed at the trough of the American tax-payer, getting fatter and fatter and fatter and...

Did You Hear The Credit Markets Have Been Unfrozen?

2009-01-26T09:38:00.000-08:00

As a matter of fact, every single Republican that has tried to convince me that the TARP bailout was a good thing, leads with this argument. I have pointed out to them that propping up failing banks with taxpayer money is wrought with a great deal of risk to the health of the economy down the road. What if the banks that TARP bailed out fail anyway? Worse still, what if the Obama Administration keeps bailing out bank after bank, over and over again? What then? And what about deficits? Have we completely lost our collective mind on deficit spending?

But I digress. The proof is, as they say, in the pudding. In 2005 a borrower that could not prove where their income came from, had a high debt to income ratio and with a FICO score under 680 (considered "B" credit) could get a 30 year adjustable rate mortgage with NOTHING DOWN.

FLASH to today. I, with my salaried position showing consistent and healthy raises each year, my 25% back end ration and 770 FICO score cannot get a home loan for less than 3.5% down, and that is for an FHA loan that will carry a higher rate than a conventional loan.

You may quibble with this, but I think that 100% purchase financing has gone away not because it was a bad idea, but because the credit markets are still really shaky. If the $1 trillion TARP bill accomplished the stated task of "unfeezing the credit market", then why did the Federal Government need to give GMAC and other lenders additional money to extend to borrowers for auto loans?

Nope, TARP is a failure and the stimulus bill working its way through Congress will be even worse. Meanwhile, renters like me that did not dive into the overinflated housing market (and still have our shirts to show for it) are screwed out of home ownership in the short term unless we can pivot from paying credit cards off monthly to buying on credit and then socking the money away to save for the down payment.

Unintended Consequences of Reverse Racism Meet Robert Reich

2009-01-24T13:07:00.000-08:00

It would appear that former Secretary of Labor under President Clinton, Robert Reich fancies himself a member of the Race Police.

"if construction jobs go mainly to white males who already dominate the construction trades, many people who need jobs the most -- women, minorities, and the poor and long-term unemployed -- will be shut out."

These people who 'dominate the construction trades' are the type of professionals that one would want working on expensive and critical public works projects. The fact that they are both trained to do the work and are struggling in this flailing economy seems to have no weight as far as Mr. Reich is concerned. His only concern, one can extrapolate, is to take jobs from trained construction workers and give them to untrained minorities.

But what is so bizarre about Reich;' comments is that they should be causing alarm bells to sound within the Democrat Party's most supportive special interest group, Big Labor.

It is just this kind of thick-headed bumbling that is going make a stimulus package that is more likely to stimulate graft and cronyism than jobs, a bigger problem for Obama. Barack Obama, by all realistic accounts must be able to point to an improving economy as we head into the mid-term elections in 2010. If he cannot, Americans might get it into their heads that perhaps one-party rule, regardless of which party is doing the ruling is just a bad idea.

Interestingly, if Reich is serious about using "other than white" but still trained labor, the non-union building associations have been making serious progress in this area though not all trades are yet represented. Anyone interested in learning more about non-union construction training should search "merit shop apprenticeship" in their favorite browser.

Yet Another Reason I Am Glad I Did Not Go Back To School

2009-01-19T15:06:00.000-08:00

A few months ago, I flirted with the idea of going back to school for a degree. After discussing the idea with my peers, I came to the conclusion that the ROI (return on investment) for a 4 year degree would not have been worth the cost in time and money. As a result of that decision, I was available to accept a very lucrative promotion that going to school part-time would have prevented me from accepting.

Now it turns out that the student grants that I would have applied for through the state might have been another reason not to go back to school.

Reporting from Sacramento -- The state will suspend tax refunds, welfare checks, student grants and other payments owed to Californians starting Feb. 1, Controller John Chiang announced Friday.

Chiang said he had no choice but to stop making some $3.7 billion in payments in the absence of action by the governor and lawmakers to close the state's nearly $42-billion budget deficit. More than half of those payments are tax refunds.

I can afford to wait for my state tax return for a few extra months, but the payments on that education would have been due and payable immediately.

I pity some state contractors that will undoubtedly be among those that do not get paid in a timely manner. Those people can look to Democrats in the State Legislature if they are seeking to place blame. Instead of seriously negotiating with the Governor and Republicans to solve the impasse, they chose a failed Hail Mary pass with an illegally derived tax increase

How To Talk Politics & Influence People

2009-01-19T14:48:00.000-08:00

Because of the wide variety of friends that I have made over the years, I often find myself in the company of people that do not necessarily agree with me politically. Whether it is hanging out and having beers & BBQ at a Super Bowl party or at fund raising events for elected officials, I always seem to attract people to conversation about politics. And many times these people are my political opposites.

In the early days of my involvement in politics I reacted to people who disagreed with my (far superior) opinion on the issues by picking a verbal fight. I soon began to learn that I would walk away from these conversations with the feeling that I had done more to solidify my opponents lack of faith in the politics I subscribe to than I did in informing them about them. It has been through self-introspection and trial and error that I have learned how to use common ground and fact-based reason when debating people about politics.

Since employing a few simple rules for the discussion of politics, I have had meaningful dialog about a whole host of leading issues and have actually received praise from my adversaries for my level-headed approach to conveying the facts and opinions I hold to be true. The best example of of an issue that I feel I have truly changed hearts and minds over is the issue of Iraq.

One must remember (I tell my debate opponent) that American got into the Iraq because of the United Nations failures to hold Saddam Hussein accountable for the terms of the ceasefire he signed onto when hostilities ended against him following Operation Desert Storm in 1991. 13 Security Council Resolutions warned, in increasingly dire language, that Saddam Hussein must account for ALL of his weapons programs. The final resolution, designated 1441 laid out the unmistakable threat of ending his regime should he yet again refuse to come clean. In the wake of a post-911 world (a world that we now know harbored regimes that were capable of quietly organizing dramatic attacks against us) Iraq's decision not to come clean about what materials it did and did not possess had to be construed as Saddam's intention to use the materials that he still possessed.

Now stop right there. In reminding my opponent of the facts of the case, I have thwarted any possibility that the “unnecessary” or “illegal” war rhetoric can be successfully deployed in the debate. That is not to say that my debate opponent could not still try to use this argument, but because I have laid out the facts of how we ended up in Iraq. I then go on to admit that although the initial invasion of Iraq was a brilliant piece of military ingenuity, the follow-up was not so much. The chaos and anarchy created a vacuum that was quickly filled by Al Qaeda, a fate that was determined by the Coalition's lack of a plan for how to handle Iraq after the fall of the regime.

But the situation on the ground today is much different than that of circa 2006. Because of a change in strategy and an increase in troop presence, Al Qaeda has been defeated militarily and the stage is set for Iraq to complete the business of setting up its government. By admitting that mistakes were made (as mistakes are made in all wars) but pointing out that we may yet be able to declare (this time rightfully) MISSION ACCOMPLISHED, I steal away the opportunity for my opponent to rest their case on the horrific headlines of 2006. Rather, I challenge my opponent to imagine a scenario where it would be in anyone's (other than Al Qaedas') best interests to unilaterally withdrawal from Iraq at this time.

The basic premise of the example I show you is simple. Present emotionless facts about your position, admit the errors that your position may present (thus creating common ground) and then show how your position is more likely to lead to a better result than that of your opponent. Which reminds me, have you ever asked a proponent of legalizing marijuana what they think of anti-tobacco laws? Regardless of your position on marijuana, I bet you can use the fact that most liberals and Libertarians that support legalization also support laws against smoking to your advantage.

Now go forward and draw some unsuspecting person into a political debate. But remember that placing emotion into the debate (anger, frustration or even glee) will have the result of weakening your argument and will starve off your ability to inform your opponent in the course of debating them.

Originally published in the Santa Clarita Signal in 2008

Did Bush's "Compassionate Conservatism" Disable Republicanism?

2009-01-16T21:51:00.000-08:00

I believe that of all the questions we will ask and answer about Bush's 8 years as President, it is the answer to that question that will begin the healing. In my mind, Bush's entire 2nd term was a miserable failure and endangered America almost as much as the decisive action he took after 9/11 saved it. President Bush was re-elected because he had the resolve and the moral fortitude to risk his legacy to save America from a real and dangerous threat. Sept 2001 until January 2005 were the days when President Bush good for the Republican brand and could have been called a Conservative even though not everything he did was conservative.

But beginning in early 2005, maybe even as early as Inauguration Day, a new and much less decisive President Bush emerged. Throughout the remainder of his days in office, Bush became more liberal and more of a capitulator with every day that pased. From his continued insistence that he and no one else knew what was needed to correct his own administrations shortsightedness on Iraq to the insentience (via Condi Rice) that North Korea could be reasoned with and Iran deterred if Europe united in opposition to their nuclear program, Bush lost sight to the Conservative inside him that caused him to fight the war on terror with such accuracy and passion that the the remaining 7 years on his watch America was not attacked again.

I don't want to spend much more time pondering what went wrong or what could have been, but had Bush practiced just a little fiscal restraint during his first 6 years in office, it is unlikely the Country would be led by Democrats and facing a National Depression.

The Republicans (the party in which I grudgingly admit I am registered to vote) is damaged beyond the ability for it to heal. It is certainly not dead, but in its current form and under current control, it will limp along in minority obscurity for decades to come. The party cannot and will not become a viable player again until it get's back to the roots of Conservatism that ushered in Ronald Reagan and fueled the take back of the House of Representatives in 1994.

Pork barrel spending addicts that practice knee-jerk reactionary governance is how I would describe the Republican Party today. It's amazing how far down the crapper a political party can go in 14 short years.

With every ounce of energy and all the credibility i can muster, I pledge I will work tirelessly to do what little I can from my little corner of the county, to bring back the principles of Reagan and practices of Gingrich to mend our broken party. But in order to remake the party, the current establishment fools that control it need to be thrown out on their ears. From what I can tell from reading the pundits that agree the current leadership got us into this mess, there does not seem to be the level of outrage necessary to kick these jerks off their lofty perch.

I don't have the answers as to what we should do next. I'm frustrated and a little bit depressed in my powerlessness. We have a lot of work to do.

Statement from Kevin D. Korenthal on Resignation from Republican Central Committee

2009-01-14T12:36:00.000-08:00

On Monday January 12, 2009, the 38th Assembly District Republican Central Committee voted to accept my resignation as an elected member. I have always deemed myself to be a Conservative first and a Republican second. As we have all witnessed in recent years, the two are not always intrinsic. This fact has led to the realization that I can be a better advocate for Conservative values by working outside the political establishment, partnering with the establishment when our priorities meet. Also see Luke 16:13.

I plan to continue to work to insure that the Democrat Party’s plans to payback Big Labor for their assistance in the big wins they achieved in this past election are thwarted. I will also be volunteering on individual candidate and initiative campaigns in the coming year.

I am grateful to all who voted for me and to some of my former fellow Central Committee members for the faith they have and continue to have in me and send my deepest hopes and prayers for the future.

CA Governor Considers "Breeder Tax" It's Not What You Think!

2009-01-07T12:37:00.001-08:00

I'll tell you right now, this is not a tax that will be opposed by The National Kennel Club. By breeder, Schwarzenegger is referring not to those that breed dogs but those that breed children.

Among the 8 tax raising proposals contained in the Governor's Budget 2008-09 is this little gem:

Reduce the personal income tax dependent exemption credit to equal the personal exemption credit. I will pay an extra $400 in breeder tax even though we are simply propagating the species at current levels.

In my church there is one family with 12 children, one with 9, two with 7, one with 6, one with 5, three with 4, and eight with 3 children. That’s $16,400 per year in additional taxes from 17 families with 82 children.

The Year Of Living Interestingly

2009-01-01T15:11:00.001-08:00

2008 will go down in the annals of my personal and family history as one of the most frustrating yet consequential years of my life thus far. At nearly 37 years old, I am sure many more years will come along that rival that of 2008. But here are a couple highlights that at least mostly took place in 2008 and contributed to making this year the year of living interestingly.

At the end of 2008, I was able to say that I was now on target to double the income I made in 2007. Through hard work and some really excellent breaks that were given to me by some totally awesome people, God was able to deliver a higher quality of life to me and my family. Praise to Him.

The complexities of the relationships I have with the family outside of those that live in my home became a lot more complicated. I think my brother and I have grown closer together while my relationship with my father, with whom I once had a very close relationship, has declined in quality. Meanwhile the relationships with the people that live in my home have improved. For those of you that did not know, my family is made up of one child that my wife brought to the marriage, one that I brought and one that we had together. This mixed family situation has offered its share of complexities that really began to shake out in 2008. I love you Des and now I think you really know that to be true!

God has tested my integrity and set up opportunities for me to prove I have matured beyond my reckless and dangerous youth. Some of those incidents are from the points made above and below but there were plenty of other opportunities that I faced where I would say I did the right thing and acted correctly about 60% of the time but will go unmentioned for various reasons.

The Lord sought that in 2008, I would become an association executive. The honor and responsibility of heading up a non-profit association will never cease to leave me in awe of His power to work in my life. In 2009, I will endeavor to take the opportunity that has been afforded me and make something really great of the organizazation I have been tasked with administering.

2008 was the year that SoCalPundit.com (not this blog which is a blogger.com blog) was hacked beyond repair. This is sad, but also fortuitous in a way. The time it was taking to update that blog everyday was becoming a strain with the increasing demands of my job and family life.

In 2008, in large part due to my improving physical condition and desire to rise above my disability, I completed my first ever 65 mile organized bicycle ride and finished a 4.5 hour stationary bicycle event. The culmination of fund raising for the 2 events raised $1500 for my favorite charity, The Challenged Athletes Foundation. The same group gave me the bike that got me started down the path that led to completing the events.

In 2008 I began to see home ownership in my near future. Now if the great Obama will use his powers of Hope & Change to unlock the home lending industry, I'll be a home owner in 2009.

Watching my party, The Republican Party, make example after example of blundering decisions has been painful to watch and 2008 was a year where the chickens came home to roost. The 2008 Presidential elections may have sealed permanent minority status for the Republican Party. With the old guard, wine-sipping Party leaders unwilling to relinquish the party to a generation better able to meet the needs of the base and a growing libertarian-edged middle America, I am afraid that I see no significant gains for Republicans in the near future.

So, its been an interesting year. A year of tests and of gains for The Korenthal Family and maybe for the nation. If Barack Obama is even a minimally better leader than I am willing bet he will be, the nation will not crumble under his watch. Let's just say that on that front, we're in wait and see mode.

God Bless all of you that have been following along. I love you!

Republicans That Did Not Support Bailout To Enact Resolution Against Those That Did

2008-12-30T18:57:00.000-08:00

It was a rude awakening for many party faithful when on October 3rd, many of us were jolted by the revelation that our own Republican Congressmen and women had voted for the bailout of companies that had irresponsible lending practices and those that got in over their heads. To you who were sickened by the socialization of our financial markets I say fear not, our day is coming:

Republican Party officials say they will try next month to pass a resolution accusing President Bush and congressional Republican leaders of embracing “socialism,” underscoring deep dissension within the party at the end of Mr. Bush’s administration.

Those pushing the resolution, which will come before the Republican National Committee at its January meeting, say elected leaders need to be reminded of core principles. They said the RNC must take the dramatic step of wading into policy debates, which traditionally have been left to lawmakers.

“We can’t be a party of small government, free markets and low taxes while supporting bailouts and nationalizing industries, which lead to big government, socialism and high taxes at the expense of individual liberty and freedoms,” said Solomon Yue, an Oregon member and co-sponsor of a resolution that criticizes the U.S. government bailouts of the financial and auto industries. Republican National Committee Vice Chairman James Bopp Jr. wrote the resolution and asked the rest of the 168 voting members to sign it.

“The resolution also opposes President-elect Obama’s proposed public works program and supports conservative alternatives,” while encouraging the RNC “to engage in vigorous public policy debates consistent with our party platform,” said Mr. Bopp, a leading attorney for pro-life groups who has also challenged the campaign finance legislation that Mr. Bush signed.

Another Downside To A Bolstered Big Labor - No Flexibility To Deal With Economy

2008-12-22T10:42:00.000-08:00

If Big Labor is able to convince Congress and the Obama Administration to enact The Employee Free Choice (or no choice) Act and other pro-Big Labor policies, companies will not have the flexibility to do this:

Even as layoffs are reaching historic levels, some employers have found an alternative to slashing their work force. They’re nipping and tucking it instead.
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A growing number of employers, hoping to avoid or limit layoffs, are introducing four-day workweeks, unpaid vacations and voluntary or enforced furloughs, along with wage freezes, pension cuts and flexible work schedules. These employers are still cutting labor costs, but hanging onto the labor.

The New York Times article does not mention unions or Big Labor even once, which again draws the question; is the NYT purposely not mentioning union reaction or are they too stupid to have asked anyone in Big Labor about this?

A Time For Merit

2008-12-22T09:59:00.000-08:00

In my line of work the term "merit" is used almost as a moniker for the industry we serve. The "Merit Shop" refers to any organization that competes with union companies but is not itself unionized. I have come to refer to merit this way: On the merit on the man and not on the company he keeps shall he earn his keep. There are other ways to say it but the bottom line is that we believe that the artificially inflated wages and gold plated benefits that the unions offer are inferior to the requirement that each pay raise and promotion proceed a relevant escalation in the quality of ones work.

I think unions do the society an injustice by offering an unyielding structure for raises and promotions. It furthers the sense of entitlement that breeds laziness and malcontent. Upon merit should a man be judged. Keep that in mind as Barack Obama proceeds into his presidency and lays down his ideas for solving the crisis this country now faces.

Reducing The Size of Government The Hard Way

2008-12-20T12:06:00.001-08:00

Arnold Schwarzenegger is "terminating" jobs.

Reporting from Sacramento -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday ordered mass layoffs and unpaid furloughs for state workers starting in February to address California's growing fiscal crisis.

Under his executive order, 238,000 employees will be forced to take off two unpaid days per month through June 30, 2010. Managers will receive either the furlough or an equivalent salary reduction during the same period.

It's a little ironic that today's layoffs and furloughs are a direct result of California unions' fight against the fiscal discipline that Arnold brought to Sacramento when he arrived in 2003 but summarily backed down from after the defeat of his initiatives in 2005.

Big Labor has only itself to blame.

Flashreport contributor Jill Buck updates us with the response from the SEIU:

Then I turn from the Business Section of the paper to the front page where I encounter the remarks of a spokesman of SEIU, representing 235,000 state employees (whose paychecks come from the same taxpayers who are getting laid off left and right) who will keep their jobs, but have to take some reductions in pay. Here is what SEIU had to say, “ We are reviewing our legal options at this time. We definitely think we have grounds for filing an unfair labor charge.”

Read the great post and comments here.

Those That Voted For The Financial Bailout Are Responsible For Auto Bailout

2008-12-19T12:56:00.000-08:00

It gives me great pleasure to yet again say, I TOLD YOU SO. When the Congress and The Senate voted back in October to allow the FED to buy into banks, both those solid and those on the brink of collapse, it set the stage for a new way of thinking about failed or failing industries

Whereas in the past, bankruptcy was the path for struggling companies or industries, today it is bailout. But don't take my word for it. Here is an expert opinion.

Gordon Bethune, the former CEO of Continental Airlines (NYSE:CAL), now a CNBC contributor, told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Dec. 19 the political process is being substituted for what otherwise should be a bankruptcy judge in determining the fate of the big three automakers.

"Wow, what makes them exempt from reality? What are the bankruptcy laws invented for?" Bethune asked. "I mean - if it works in airlines, works in steel - what's the matter with these guys? Why not have a judge decide instead of the political process? And, you know - you get some fairness in the federal court, so there's no excuse for this whole debacle I don't think."

Bethune is famous for saving a beleaguered Continental Airlines from near liquidation after it had filed for bankruptcy several times, giving him a different perspective on how to turnaround a failing corporation.

"The status quo is preferable to an unknown future and what a federal judge may kind of slice and dice you up to," Bethune said. "Here's - you know they got competitors, like a horse race, right? These guys got a 300-pound jockey on their butt. I don't care how good of a car they make, that's too damn heavy of a jockey. They got to clean it up and the only place they can do it fairly is in the courts."

So gone are the days of allowing companies to fail. From now on if it looks like that failure will have even the slightest negative impact on the economy, it's tax dollars to the rescue.

I place blame for this catastrophe at the feat of President Bush, John McCain and all of the Republicans in Congress that voted for the bailout of the financial markets. If time would have been taken to craft real repair instead of political season panicking, we would not be watching President Bush push us closer to Socialism with the $14 billion he gave to auto manufacturers that everyone knows are as dead as dinosaurs.

Thanks a lot guys.

Big Labor Gets Big Time Payoff With Obama Appointment

2008-12-19T09:52:00.000-08:00

Or is it really that big of a payoff?

Of course, the big picture is that Solis will be a lightweight in this Administration, stuck overseeing the DOL bureaucracy while the big guns like Summers, Volker and Geithner continue the crushing restructuring that is killing the once proud American worker and their labor movement.

But what I find most shocking about Ms. Solis is her apparently contradictory views to the union mantra of higher wages. Or maybe the message is higher wages for some but not for others.

Solis’ real claim to fame probably lies in her interest in immigration issues and that’s likely why she and Andy Stern of SEIU are so cozy. SEIU has used a low wage immigrant organizing strategy over the last two decades.

As detailed at some interesting posts at GangBox, a rank and file website run by a construction worker, SEIU was unable or unwilling to stop the shift in their industry from highly skilled service workers at apartment and office buildings when those buildings put in place modern HVAC equipment and displaced largely African American union members. This was part of the battle to defeat construction workers, too.

Instead they began to orient towards much lower paid hispanic, largely immigrant janitors who were brought in to replace those displaced black workers through outsourcing and SEIU was willing to offer cut rate contracts to secure employer contracts for them.

Read the whole piece here.

Not surprisingly, Ms. Solis subscribes to the ideology of the most militant in the Labor Movement. In 1999 Assemblywoman Solis defended AB 1268—Condoning Violence in Labor Disputes (yes I'm serious - click the link).

A non-union Construction contractor pointed out that current law was well-balanced and AB 1268 would encourage more violence. Committee Chairwoman Hilda Solis responded, “Well, I don’t agree with what you say.”

Representatives of the California Chamber of Commerce, California Manufacturers Association, and Associated General Contractors all spoke against the bill.

The bill passed the committee 4-2 on a party-line vote. Democrats support; Republicans oppose.

California Legislature Illegally Votes To Raise Taxes

2008-12-18T14:14:00.000-08:00

What you need to know here is that here in California voters passed Prop 13 a bunch of years ago which requires a 2/3 vote to raise taxes. So in order to raise taxes on gas, income and sales, the Democrat-controlled California legislature has simply begun calling them fees and was able to vote in a tax-hiking budget that may very well violate the state constitution... WITHOUT A SINGLE REPUBLICAN VOTE IN FAVOR.

SacBee article.

UPDATE from The Flashreport:

Jon Coupal, President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, in a column featured on the FlashReport this morning, makes it clear that this proposal is the equivalent of "shredding the State Constitution" -- and says that these end-runs to Proposition 13 will end up being challenged in court.

Don Perata Rips Off Union To Pay His Own Corruption Charge Legal Bills

2008-12-18T13:00:00.000-08:00

And the whole affair is perfectly legal.

Perata raised about $2.7 million to fight Proposition 11, including $602,000 from the California Correctional Peace Officers Association. The day after the redistricting measure was approved, the Oakland Democrat moved $1.5 million from his No on 11 fund to a legal defense fund to pay bills he's run up fighting a corruption investigation.

Doh! Obviously the Big Labor bosses of the union are tickled pink that they get to subvert union money to help defend a corrupt politician. But not all the rank and file agree.

On PacoVilla's Corrections Blog, a Web site popular with state correctional officers, one user wrote: "Not only did we (CCPOA) back the wrong horse (No on 11) but now we're paying for Perata's corruption defense and from Lance's comment … it sounds like we're very happy to be privileged to do so."

This is happening in light of the Dem controlled Legislatures attempt to override the will of the people that voted for Prop 13 and change the term "tax" into "fee" in order to avoid the 2/3 votes necessary to pass new taxes. Why do Californians keep voting these ass-wipes into the majority?

"Change To Win" Union Denies Job Offered To Governor Blagojevich

2008-12-10T18:20:00.000-08:00

Time will tell if this statement is more than just wishful thinking on behalf of the biggest of the Big Labor instruments.

The following is a statement from Change to Win
communications director Greg Denier on the federal investigation involving
Governor Blagojevich.

"No one connected with Change to Win ever considered, discussed or promised any
position at Change to Win to Governor Blagojevich, his staff or his advisers. In
the affidavit released by the United States Attorney, a position at Change to
Win is discussed only in conversations between the governor and his advisers.
The first time Change to Win learned of any of the matters raised in the
criminal complaint was with today's public release of the affidavit."

I don't trust Big Labor bosses and neither should The Justice Department and The National Labor Relations Board.

UPDATE: According to The Washington Post, contained in the complaint against Blagojevich is:

a description of an official with the Service Employees International Union acting as an apparent intermediary between the governor and Barack Obama's camp in discussions over Obama's Senate seat.

[...]

The U.S. attorney's complaint states that Blagojevich mused aloud with his advisers about the possibility that he could seek a high-paying job with Change to Win, the coalition of seven unions -- dominated by SEIU -- that broke away from the AFL-CIO in 2005. Blagojevich and his chief of staff wondered aloud about a "three-way deal" in which he would appoint Obama confidante Valerie Jarrett, a Chicago businesswoman believed to be the woman identified in the complaint as "Candidate 1," to Obama's Senate seat; Blagojevich in return would become Change to Win's executive director; and Obama would reward Change to Win with pro-labor policies.

Not Much interest In Calling in Gay Today

2008-12-10T17:04:00.000-08:00

So says the Mercury News

This doesn't surprise me. The whole Gay Marriage battle is based a lazy sort of "its all about me" mentality. Few beyond committed homosexual activists are going to put their livelihoods on the line over this silly fight.

Proof The Media Doesn't Like The War In Afghanistan Any Better

2008-12-10T16:59:00.000-08:00

Another frightening omen for Barack Obama, this time in regards to any plans he may have to increase efforts to win the War in Afghanistan.

It's in regards to this AP headline you may have seen today:

US Special Forces mistakenly kill 6 Afghan police

Read about it here.

My Seat Is For Sale

2008-12-09T18:28:00.000-08:00

The couch I am sitting on will go to the highest bidder. I want a cushy job in the Union or an appointment in the Obama Administration. And should you think you can get away with ignoring me, f**k you.

Back Again

2008-12-09T13:31:00.001-08:00

In case you didn't know, SoCalPundit.com was born of Blogger and back to Blogger it goes. I'll post here from time to time.

-Kevin

The SoCalPundit Connection To The Anti-War Rallies That Went On Today

2005-03-19T19:39:00.000-08:00

For whatever reason, the liberals in my town announced the time and location of their anti-war rally in the local newspaper. So SoCalPundit, with an impressive email list of good conservative Americans put out word that we would like to counter their efforts to show that many of us here in Southern California support our troops by supporting the mission they are on.

We were outnumbered by the leftists 4-1 but that did not hold back our spirit or the gratitude we saw in the eyes of the motorists that passed by and thanked us for standing up for their beliefs.

The sign I held up read simply: "Iraq Can Vote" and had a "Viva Bush" bumper sticker at the bottom.

As usual I tried to engage a few of the "Blame America First" protesters to answer some questions I had (such as; What question is war not the answer too?) but was answered with either silence or meaningless platitudes.

Interestingly, it had been raining cats and dogs all day until about half an hour before the protest was to begin and stay chilly but dry for the remainder of the afternoon.

Terri Schiavo Receives A Stay of Execution

2005-03-19T19:32:00.000-08:00

I must say that I thought it was curtains for Terri this time but that does not look like it is the case. From The Associated Press:

Congressional leaders announced a compromise between Senate and House Republicans that would allow the brain-damaged woman's case to be reviewed by federal courts that could restore her feeding tube. Opposition waned after House leaders agreed to give up broader legislation and accept a narrowly crafted bill that applied only to Schiavo's case.

Senate convened briefly Saturday evening to give formal permission for the House to meet Sunday, when it otherwise would be adjourned for the Easter recess.

The plan is for the House to act on the two-page bill Sunday or just after midnight Monday morning. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said the Senate then would act on the House legislation, assuming it passes the House as envisioned, and rush the bill to the president for signature into law.

President Bush changed his schedule to return to Washington from his Texas ranch on Sunday to be on hand to sign the legislation.

"We should investigate every avenue before we take the life of a living human being," said House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas. "That's the very least we can do for her."

I agree. There are many unanswered questions about what Terri might or might not have wanted as well as the circumstances surrounding the events that put her in her current state.

President Bush Is Strongest When Liberals Complain & Obstruct

2005-03-19T09:54:00.000-08:00

Consider this: The vast Republican activism that re-elected the president and increased Republicans hold on the house and the senate was in part a result of frustration with the Democrats on Capital Hill. Conservative Activists made much of the Democrats habit of obstructing Bush's nominations and complaining when they should have been offering solutions of their own.

Democrats continue to filibuster and Activist Judges continue to change the American moral landscape by forcing the Progressive Agenda of Socialism on America. By continuing to make hay over these issues while also casting Democrats as naysayers on solving the Social Security issue, he continues to motivate the base to support him, his ideas and the Republicans in Congress that tow the conservative American agenda.

Peter Brown writes in an Orlando Sentinel Opinion Piece that this ingenious plan will work because Democrats continue to ignore the will of America out as they continue to implement the Progressive Agenda:

Politics is a funny game. A win can turn out to be a loss, or sometimes you can lose by winning.

The betting here is a California judge's decision to legalize gay marriage there will eventually fall into that category.

In the long run, those unhappy with the ruling may come to view it as a catalyst that advanced their overall agenda -- and not just when it comes to same-sex marriage.

Gay-rights proponents may well wonder, as they did after last November's election, whether court victories are worth the political cost.

That's because the decision likely will help President Bush win the upcoming war over judicial confirmations about to engulf Washington, D.C. Such a victory could tilt the national verdict on many issues.

So by simply allowing Democrats to continue their habit of effecting change through the courts rather than the ballot box, Bush is taking advantage of the current political majority in America that simply hates being told what to think and how to act by "installed for life" judges.

UPDATE: It is likely that brain damaged Terri Schiavo will die a painful death because Democrats refuse to join Republicans in Congress to stop the forced starvation of a woman that you can clearly see from TV is not in a "persistent vegetative state". When all is said and done this decision by Democrats will be yet another nail in their coffin.

North Korea Confirms Bush's Choice For Ambassador To UN Is A Good One

2005-03-18T17:31:00.000-08:00

North Korea's mouthpiece Newspaper, Choson Sinbo blasted President Bush's choice for Ambassador to the United Nations, Josh Bolton. Bolten you may remember...

... took a vehement stand against North Korea when he was serving as undersecretary of state for arms control. He once described North Korea's leader Kim Jong-Il as "tyrannical" and called the life in the Stalinist state a "hellish nightmare."

Bolton also blasted North Korea as "the world's foremost peddler of ballistic missile-related equipment, components, materials and technical expertise," saying the Bush administration would push for the UN Security Council to urge North Korea to drop its nuclear programs.

North Korea, in return, referred to Bolton as "human scum" and a "bloodsucker."

About Bush's choice, the Stalinist regime said:

"The most undesirable person was named U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, thus raising tension in the United Nations and international community," said Choson Sinbo, the newspaper run by a Pyongyang-aligned organization of ethnic Korean residents in Japan.

"Bolton's speaking style is so violent the North has labeled him as human scum," said the paper, considered a mouthpiece of the communist regime in Pyongyang. "He is the worst UN envoy," it declared.

Anything North Korea says is a bad thing is, in fact, a good thing. But try and get a Democrat to believe that!

Terri Schiavo Now Starving To Death

2005-03-18T13:20:00.000-08:00

Read Statement from Family Nurse, HERE.

Those in favor of murdering Terri Schiavo do not want you to know that it is very possible and in fact likely that she will feel the pains caused by death by starvation.

According to medical experts, after her feeding tube is removed, Mrs. Schiavo will experience extreme pain and significant psychological distress during the two weeks that her starvation-execution is expected to take.

Her skin, tongue and lips will crack due to dehydration. Schiavo will likely suffer chronic nosebleeds as mucous membranes dry out, followed by heaving and vomiting as the stomach lining dries out.

Her mouth is expected to develop painful ulcers. As Schiavo's brain is deprived of fluid, she is expected to suffer grand mal seizures.

Cheryl Ford, a former oncology nurse-turned-Schiavo activist, says that doctors supervising Schiavo's starvation-execution plan to take extreme measures to mask her physical agony, including the regular application of skin moisturizer and pain-killing drugs.

Because the 41-year-old woman is in good health, with a normal body weight of 138 pounds, she could linger longer than a terminally ill patient.

If Terri is indeed "brain dead", why do they need to administer pain-killers?

Great Commentary on what The Schiavo Case Means In Terms of "Torture".

A Prayer For Terri Schiavo

2005-03-18T11:36:00.000-08:00

Oh dear Lord we ask you to hear this prayer and if it is your will Lord that you grant us our request.

Dear Lord your servant Terri Schiavo faces a painful and unnecessary death at the hands of man this day. For reasons only you can understand Lord, some have sought to murder this woman that can not speak to save her own life. Dear Lord we do not ask You to judge those that make this decision but rather that, if it is your will Lord, that You intervene to save her from this torturous death.

We ask this in your name and in the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Related story.

Will Terry Schiavo Begin To Die Today?

2005-03-18T07:49:00.000-08:00

Remember, the sentence is that her feeding tube be removed and that she be dehydrated and starved until she dies. All of this ruled on based on statements made by Schiavo's estranged husband SIX YEARS AFTER SHE BECAME MEDICALLY DEPENDENT!

Working against the clock, House lawmakers tried to prevent doctors in Florida from removing the feeding tube Friday from a severely brain-damaged woman.
In a two-pronged approach, a House committee was issuing congressional subpoenas to stop doctors from disconnecting the tube, while an attorney for the parents of the woman, Terri Schiavo, said he would ask a federal judge in Tampa to block the removal and review the actions of state courts.

Such habeas corpus appeals seek to require the government to justify its actions."We are going to ask him to issue a stay because in this case, state action would be used to end the life of an innocent, disabled woman," the attorney, David Gibbs said.

Pro-life supporters are expected to rally outside of the hospital where Terri now is and an investigation into the actions of the state is underway:

Police in Pinellas Park, Fla., meanwhile, readied for the hundreds of protesters expected to show up outside Schiavo's hospice as the hours slipped away before the scheduled 1 p.m. removal of her feeding tube.

The Florida House on Thursday passed a bill 78-37 to block the withholding of food and water from patients in a persistent vegetative state who did not leave specific instructions regarding their care. But hours later, the Senate defeated a different measure 21-16, and one of the nine Republicans voting against indicated that any further votes would be futile.

In a last-ditch attempt to stop the court-ordered removal, a House committee on Capitol Hill here decided early Friday morning to start an investigation into Schiavo's case and issue subpoenas ordering doctors and hospice administrators not to remove her feeding tubes and to keep her alive until that investigation was complete.

How The Left Bought "Reform" Through McCain-Feingold

2005-03-17T15:04:00.000-08:00

A "mass movement" in America was faked to push campaign finance reform that would (supposedly) help Democrats win elections by handicapping the GOP's ability to out-raise them in campaign contributions.

As Ryan Sager of The New York Post discovered recently, the efforts that led to McCain-Feingold, Campaign Finance Reform was funded by Left-wing special interest groups. But worse than that, the funding went into setting up fake pro-reform groups, with Orwellian names you may have heard in the press: the Center for Public Integrity, the William J. Brennan Center for Justice, Democracy 21 and so on. Sager writes:

CAMPAIGN-FINANCE reform has been an immense scam perpetrated on the American people by a cadre of left-wing foundations and disguised as a "mass movement."

But don't take my word for it. One of the chief scammers, Sean Treglia, a former program officer of the Pew Charitable Trusts, confesses it all in an astonishing videotape I obtained earlier this week.

In the video tape, reglia admits that he can tell the story of how the American Left duped the country into passing Campaign Finance Reform because he no longer works for Pew research:

That story in brief:

Charged with promoting campaign-finance reform when he joined Pew in the mid-1990s, Treglia came up with a three-pronged strategy: 1) pursue an expansive agenda through incremental reforms, 2) pay for a handful of "experts" all over the country with foundation money and 3) create fake business, minority and religious groups to pound the table for reform.

"The target audience for all this activity was 535 people in Washington," Treglia says 100 in the Senate, 435 in the House. "The idea was to create an impression that a mass movement was afoot that everywhere they looked, in academic institutions, in the business community, in religious groups, in ethnic groups, everywhere, people were talking about reform."

He went on to explain that almost $140 million was spent to lobby for changes to our country's campaign-finance laws.

But this money didn't come from little old ladies making do with cat food so they could send a $20 check to Common Cause. The vast majority of this money $123 million, 88 percent of the total came from just eight liberal foundations.

These foundations were: the Pew Charitable Trusts ($40.1 million), the Schumann Center for Media and Democracy ($17.6 million), the Carnegie Corporation of New York ($14.1 million), the Joyce Foundation ($13.5 million), George Soros' Open Society Institute ($12.6 million), the Jerome Kohlberg Trust ($11.3 million), the Ford Foundation ($8.8 million) and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation ($5.2 million).

The Left-Wing of America tried to wrap up elections in campaign finance reform that benefited them. What they did not count on was groups like The Swiftboat Veterans For Truth that were able to off-set the limits posed on the election camapigns and use the money for to buy Kerry-busting political ads that contributed to a Bush re-election, all thanks to McCain-Feingold, Campaign Finance Reform.

FoxNews' John Gibson & SoCalPundit See Eye To Eye On Gay Marriage. Big Surprise!

2005-03-17T12:24:00.000-08:00

From the 3-17-05 episode of "The Big Story w/ John Gibson":

A word about gay marriage: As you might have heard, a judge in San Francisco has ruled that it is unconstitutional for the state of California to ban gay marriage (search). That means all those same sex couples who were married by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom can go back to thinking they are married.

Now, just to be clear on this, those same sex couples are something, but I am quite sure it is not married.

Why? Because marriage is something men and women do. They don't always do it well — you only have to look at the divorce rate, or the number of pregnant women killed by their spouse to realize that. But, nonetheless, for all its imperfections, for all the gory fun of divorce court, it is something that men and women do.

Why is it just men and women? Because since history has been recorded, chipped in stone, inked onto papyrus, scribed into great books or printed on your ink jet, the basic idea behind marriage has been to set up a system for the raising of kids.

The first knuckle-dragging people recognized they didn't want to raise their kids like the monkeys, so they set up another system.

Gays can't have kids — other than going to the abandoned kids store and getting one or two, or borrowing sperm from someone with more sperm than brains — so by definition they're out of the marriage game.

In theory, so would couples who get married in their eighties. Chances are good that no kids come out of that holy union. But it is at least theoretically possible. Not so with gays.

Now, gay couples should have certain rights of marriage — inheritance, insurance, visitation — all that lawyerly stuff.

But they should take the advice of a friend of mine who said he'd defend gays against any form of discrimination, but they had to pick a new word — marriage is taken.

Now what about this ruling that gay marriage is legal from the judge in San Francisco?

Well what about it? He's a judge in San Francisco — of course he says gay marriage is constitutional. You think he could live there if he said otherwise?

As they say in Jersey: "Fuhgedaboutit!"

That's My Word.

Watch John Gibson weekdays at 5 p.m. ET on "The Big Story" and send your comments to: myword@foxnews.com

Palestinian Terrorists Agree To Halt Attacks Through 2005

2005-03-17T12:18:00.000-08:00

I guess they are calling this a "cease-fire" but I don't think that term really applies. Regardless, this is indeed a big step on the long road to solving the Israeli/Palestinian impasse.

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Palestinian militant groups agreed Thursday to a truce with Israel until the end of this year on condition that Israel halts violence against Palestinians and frees prisoners, participants at a meeting in Cairo said.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called the statement by Palestinians "a positive first step." A statement from Sharon's office said he made the remarks to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who called Sharon to fill him in on the talks between the Palestinian factions.

FL. House Moves To Block Forced Starvation of Terri Schiavo

2005-03-17T11:47:00.000-08:00

According to The Associated Press:

The state House passed a bill Thursday that could keep Terri Schiavo alive, less than 24 hours before the severely brain-damaged woman's feeding tube is scheduled to be removed.

The Senate began debating a more limited version of the bill as lawmakers rushed to beat the scheduled removal of Schiavo's feeding tube.

The Federal Government is also getting involved along with The Whitehouse:

Late Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation that would delay removal of the brain-damaged woman's feeding tube by moving such a case to federal court. Federal judges have twice turned down efforts by the parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, to move the case out of Florida courts, citing a lack of jurisdiction.

On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., urged his chamber to save Schiavo.

"If we don't act or if somebody does not act, a living person who has a level of consciousness, who is self-breathing will be starved to death here in the next two weeks," Frist said.

At the White House, press secretary Scott McClellan said the case raises "a lot of complex issues" and declined to comment on specific legislation. But he said Bush "stands on the side of defending life."

Also, Schiavo's parents filed an emergency motion at the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the removal of her feeding tube so lower courts can consider whether their daughter's religious freedom and due process rights have been violated.

The MSM Declares That America Does Not Want "Personal Accounts" In Social Security

2005-03-17T08:45:00.000-08:00

The usual suspects from the MSM continue to tell America that Americans don't want private accounts as part of the overhaul for Social Security. The MSM refers to recent polls that they say suggest this is the case. Well, it isn't:

The Washington Post reported this poll result yesterday:

Would you support or oppose a plan in which people who chose to could invest some of their Social Security contributions in the stock market?
Support: 56%
Oppose: 41%
No opinion: 3%

Its pretty clear by this poll that Americans are interested in investing a portion of their Social Security taxes in private accounts that will yield a much higher rate of return on investment versus the present system. Thanks to Powerline for hitting us to this polling data.

UPDATE: Brendan Miniter of Wall Street Journal Opinion Journal writes this very compelling case for Private Accounts in Social Security.

Iraqis Hopeful About The Future

2005-03-16T21:52:00.000-08:00

USA Today seems almost surprised to learn that more Iraqis believe their country is headed in the right direction and fewer think it's going wrong than at any time since the U.S. invasion two years ago, according to a new poll.

The poll, by the International Republican Institute (IRI), due to be made public Wednesday, also found that nearly half of Iraqis believe that religion has a special role to play in government.

The survey of 1,967 Iraqis was conducted Feb. 27-March 5, after Iraq (news - web sites) held its first free elections in half a century in January. According to the poll, 62% say the country is headed in the right direction and 23% say it is headed in the wrong direction. That is the widest spread recorded in seven polls by the group, says Stuart Krusell, IRI director of operations for Iraq. In September, 45% of Iraqis thought the country was headed in the wrong direction and 42% thought it was headed in the right direction. The IRI is a non-partisan, U.S. taxpayer-funded group that promotes democracy abroad.

I am not surprised and neither are many pundits that just a few weeks ago were predicting civil war in Iraq. Just a thought: You know a war is going well/better when The Associated Press and the rest of the MSM don't lead off their news feeds with "...Dead After Suicide Bomber..."

One Step Closer To Reducing Dependence On Foreign Oil

2005-03-16T13:19:00.001-08:00

The Senate has voted to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration. The portion that will be open to drilling (assuming the Senate approves its budget and the House goes along) is a largely barren coastal section about the size of a regional airport in a refuge the size of the state of South Carolina. Drilling will occur only in the winter, when the place is frozen solid, using sophisticated technology that will scarcely leave a footprint come spring, when the single caribou herd that grazes in the refuge comes calling.

The vote was 51-49.

Via Powerline.

Hijacking Marriage for Societal Homosexual Acceptance

2005-03-16T08:43:00.000-08:00

By Kevin D. Korenthal - SoCalPundit.com

When San Francisco trial judge Richard Kramer said in his March 14, 2005 ruling that it is unconstitutional for California to have a law banning gay marriage, he was framing the issue as one of civil rights. Marriage is not a civil right and even if it was, no one person is being denied marriage. Indeed homosexuals are still free to marry… persons of the opposite sex.

One only has to look at what California law has offered to gay couples in place of gay marriage to see that the rights and privileges given to married couples is not their main motivation for their activism. In California, Civil Unions provide rights and protections to gay couples that were previously reserved for those that legally marry. The only real right refused is the right to use the term “marriage” to legally describe the relationship. So why are the liberal judges and gay activists resisting Civil Unions? What Judge Kramer and the gay lobbyists really want from the legalization of gay marriage is the credibility that the term marriage offers to those that are homosexual.

In gathering quotes from both sides of the issue, it becomes clear that both sides agree on one thing. If gay marriage is defeated in California, it will be difficult for the Gay Lobby to move forward elsewhere in the country. By the same token, a win in CA will bolster efforts to undue anti-gay marriage legislation in any state where it exists. Attorney Bill Lockyer (who personally supports homosexual marriage) believes the issue should be decided by the voters, not the courts. "The more appropriate way to enact a change in policy that's this basic is to go to the people," Lockyer said, speaking to reporters in Washington, D.C. "This issue probably will wind up before the people in one way or another eventually." So the question now is will the vote turn out like it did 5 years ago when California passed a definition of marriage in the law.

In a National CBS News/New York Times Poll taken at the end of February, a full 2/3 of respondents said they preferred Civil Unions (34%) or no legal recognition (41%) for gay couples over redefining marriage to include same-sex couples. Nearly 23% of those who voted for George W. Bush in the 2004 election said they did so based on a set of moral principles that did not include gay marriage. Indeed, the MSM has pointed out Karl Rove’s masterful plan to get anti-gay marriage initiatives on as many ballots as possible being one reason President Bush won the election with a clear majority.

The Gay Lobby has used the court system to advance their cause for this very reason. Most Americans reject a redefinition of marriage and if given the chance to vote on it, will defeat it every time. "The gay community constantly beats the drum of, 'We will get gay marriage through the Legislature or the courts.' They're not going to the people because they know they will never get it at the ballot box," said Benjamin Lopez, a lobbyist for the Traditional Values Coalition, a church-based group that is spearheading efforts to get such an amendment voted on in California. "The public is wholeheartedly against this concept." But that is exactly where groups like the TVA want to wage this war and if recent history is any lesson, the activists on the right will prevail in their endeavor to make that happen.

Mr. Korenthal is a California-based Conservative Activist and runs a blog at www.SoCalPundit.com. He can be reached at right_on@warpmail.net.

THERE IS NO WMD IN IRAQ! YES THERE IS! WHICH IS IT?

2005-03-15T16:08:00.000-08:00

Well according to a story that was front page of The New York Times last week, there indeed was WMD in Iraq and it was stolen as U.S. troops moved in to secure to occupy the country. According to an eye-opening article featured in today's Slate.com:

"Looting at Weapons Plants Was Systematic, Iraqi Says." This was how the New York Times led its front page on Sunday. According to the supporting story, Dr. Sami al-Araji, the deputy minister of industry, says that after the fall of Baghdad in April 2003, "looters systematically dismantled and removed tons of machinery from Saddam Hussein's most important weapons installations, including some with high-precision equipment capable of making parts for nuclear arms."

...It was eye-rubbing to read of the scale of this potential new nightmare. There in cold print was the Al Hatteen "munitions production plant that international inspectors called a complete potential nuclear weapons laboratory." And what of the Al Adwan facility, which "produced equipment used for uranium enrichment, necessary to make some kinds of nuclear weapons"? The overall pattern of the plundered sites was summarized thus, by reporters James Glanz and William J. Broad:

The kinds of machinery at the various sites included equipment that could be used to make missile parts, chemical weapons or centrifuges essential for enriching uranium for atom bombs.

My first question is this: How can it be that, on every page of every other edition for months now, the New York Times has been stating categorically that Iraq harbored no weapons of mass destruction? And there can hardly be a comedy-club third-rater or MoveOn.org activist in the entire country who hasn't stated with sarcastic certainty that the whole WMD fuss was a way of lying the American people into war. So now what? Maybe we should have taken Saddam's propaganda seriously, when his newspaper proudly described Iraq's physicists as "our nuclear mujahideen."

So there were no WMD in Iraq yet a "munitions production plant that international inspectors called a complete potential nuclear weapons laboratory" was found by the terrorists and looted of its contents. Interesting...

Terri Schiavo To Begin Starving To Death On Friday

2005-03-15T13:34:00.000-08:00

Political commentator David Limbaugh (brother to Rush) writes an "all you need to know up till now" article that can be read here.

Just a few of the questions Limbaugh asks but receives no answers to:

Do you really believe that Terri's husband, Michael, who is living with another woman with whom he sired two children, is refusing to relinquish guardianship of Terri to her parents because he is irreversibly committed to carrying out Terri's wishes?

Do you believe that disabled, but conscious and self-breathing people who can't physically feed themselves or verbally express their desire to live, but who have left no written legal directions as to their destiny in such circumstances, should be starved to death?

How likely is it that Terri, now only 41 years old, would have discussed her wishes as to life support with her husband in 1990, when she would have only been in her mid-twenties and with no inkling of life-threatening or disabling medical conditions?

Mel Gibson came out on Friday is support of saving Terri from this horrible death. His statement was as follows:

"I fully support the efforts of Mr. & Mrs. Schindler to save their daughter, Terri Schiavo, from a cruel starvation. Terri's husband should sign the care of his wife over to her parents so she can be properly cared for."

I believe, based on the evidence I have seen, that Terri does not qualify for the "persistent vegative state" lable that she has been given. More info can be founf here and here.

When Is "At All Costs" Too High A Price To Pay?

2005-03-15T13:01:00.000-08:00

Here is an interesting scenario. You have the fuel you need to keep things moving in Iraq but it is in Kuwait and in order to get it to the troops and Iraqi people that need it, you will lose lives and spend 150% more in travel costs as than you would if there was no security risk involved.

Iraq needed fuel. Halliburton Co. was ordered to get it there quick. So the Houston-based contractor charged the Pentagon $27.5 million to ship $82,100 worth of cooking and heating fuel.

In the latest revelation about the company's oft-criticized performance in Iraq, a Pentagon audit report disclosed Monday showed Halliburton subsidiary KBR spent $82,100 to buy liquefied petroleum gas, better-known as LPG, in Kuwait and then 335 times that number to transport the fuel into violence-ridden Iraq.

Pentagon auditors combing through the company's books were mystified by this charge.

"It is illogical that it would cost $27,514,833 to deliver $82,100 in LPG fuel," officials from the Defense Contract Audit Agency noted in the report.

This looks bad for KBR. The numbers simply don't add up. But are we looking at these number in context?

Halliburton spokeswoman Wendy Hall said the figures were taken out of context.

"The implication is definitely misleading," Hall said. "Transporting fuel into Iraq was a mission fraught with danger, which increased the prices that firms were willing to offer for transportation."

Halliburton has seen 61 of its workers and subcontractors die in Iraq and Kuwait, many while delivering fuel.

Army officials were desperate to get fuel into Iraq, fearing the lack of such basic necessities as cooking and heating fuel would lead to greater unrest and support for the insurgency.

But efforts to truck in fuel were hampered by repeated attacks on fuel convoys, delays organizing military escorts, supply route closures and changing delivery points, company officials said. Security was so dicey, in fact, that tanker trucks were lucky to make two round trips per month.

And because neighboring Kuwait had few trucks available to transport fuel, Halliburton had to bring in trucks from neighboring countries and contract for a barge, Hall said.

So although the numbers still don't add up, it is hard to say for sure that Haliburton/KBR spent more money than was necessary based on the risks involved at the time.

You No Longer Have To Wonder Why Labor Unions Have Become Irrelevant

2005-03-15T12:48:00.000-08:00

As I always pause to say before I blast the process of organized labor, they had their place in history and are responsible for many reforms to labor pay and conditions. But the Unions have outlived their usefulness and when something is no longer useful, it becomes useless or worse, dangerous. Today labor unions are simply political workhorses for the Democratic Party. Case in point:

The United Auto Workers union waved a white flag Monday in its parking skirmish with neighboring reservists, but the 1st Battalion, 24th Marines are not accepting surrender.

Facing intense criticism, UAW President Ron Gettelfinger reversed his decision to ban Marine Corps reservists driving foreign cars or displaying pro-President Bush bumper stickers from parking at the union's Solidarity House headquarters in Detroit.

"I made the wrong call on the parking issue, and I have notified the Marine Corps that all reservists are welcome to park at Solidarity House as they have for the past 10 years," Gettelfinger said in a statement.

Wounded by what they consider an unpatriotic ambush, the Marines rejected the union's olive branch and secured an alternative parking lot.

"I talked to Ron; I let him know that I understand he has rescinded his decision," said Lt. Col. Joe Rutledge, a top-ranking officer at the reserve infantry rifle battalion. "However, I've made my decision -- either you support the Marines or you don't."

The Detroit News reported the controversy Sunday.

The UAW has a longstanding policy prohibiting nonunion-made vehicles from the parking lots at its plants and meeting halls.

STOP RIGHT THERE! They ban vehicles not made in conjunction with organized labor? What kind of fascist regime are these unions trying to emulate anyway?

Until last week, the union made an exception for the Marines who parked at Solidarity House on the weekends. The battalion's headquarters is nearby on East Jefferson.

While both sides say the dispute has been overblown, it revealed the depths of the UAW's antipathy toward the Bush administration and its concern over the rise of foreign automakers in the U.S. market.

Ok. So what we have here is a failure to agree with President Bush. As is the tell-tale sign of any good left-wing organization, a loathing of President Bush is the key indicator of their ideology.

UAW leaders backed Democratic challenger John Kerry and his running mate John Edwards in last year's election.

The UAW's reversal Monday followed a barrage of criticism from both union members and nonunion members. The dispute became instant fodder for such Web sites as The Drudge Report and various radio programs.

The News received hundreds of e-mails Sunday and Monday about the controversy, the majority criticizing the UAW's decision.

"I have never belonged to the unions, but I've always bought (domestic) brand cars," Jenny Pulcerm 74, of Harrison Township. "Right now, I'm driving a Chrysler. But the next car will definitely not be union-made."

And just like the Democrats, the Union leaders continue to institute processes and policy that, in the end, make them less popular. This affair is proof that we need to separate politics from the workforce more than we need to separate church and state.

Those That Are Against Free Elections Continue To Belittle Them

2005-03-15T11:38:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to point out these quotes from An Associated Press story talking about Egypt's attempts to create free elections:

But experts at a three-day conference on Arab reform warned that putting the amendment into practice may be difficult. For one thing, Egyptians are not used to having a voice at the ballot box and may not see it as a civic duty, said Osama el-Ghazali Harb, editor of the quarterly International Politics magazine at Egypt's Al Ahram Center for Strategic and Political Studies.

"The family, the school, the mosque all emphasize obedience. Many people are too busy to make ends meet, and for them voting is a luxury," Harb said Monday at this Mediterranean gathering, which ends Tuesday.

Others may be unconvinced that their vote will count, which could also lead to a low turnout that could discredit the election, scheduled for September.

"Most elections in the Arab world are rigged," said Al Ahram center analyst Mohamed el-Said Idris. "More people will go to the polls when they feel they can bring down the government or can bring a government to office."

Yet despie the same being true in Iraq, half the voting population came out to cast their ballot. When are the purveyors of tyranny going to learn that they can not "talk down" the desire for Democracy?

Common Sense On Drilling In ANWR

2005-03-14T21:11:00.000-08:00

I covered this issue last week and until now found very little else new, written on the subject. This analysis from the OpEd Page of The New York Times goes into the fact that technology has changed the way we look for and get the oil from the ground.

In past decades, Arctic oil development involved huge amounts of equipment that had to be moved over gravel roads and laid upon large gravel pads. The machines that transported this equipment often scarred the land, especially in spring and summer.

American ingenuity has tackled this problem. Today, oil exploration in the Arctic occurs only in the frozen winter. Workers build roads and platforms of ice to protect the soil and vegetation. Trucks with huge tires called rolligons distribute load weights over large areas of snow to minimize the impact on the tundra below.

Meanwhile, innovations in platform development and directional drilling mean that we need fewer and smaller pads to tap into oil and gas reserves. From a single platform, we can explore an underground area nearly the size of the District of Columbia.

Likewise, satellite infrared imaging helps energy companies to avoid key wildlife habitat and environmentally sensitive areas while 3-D seismic data imaging improves the chances of drilling a successful well by 50 percent, meaning fewer wells.

What of the 1980's legislation that created the ANWR region to be slated for oil production?

In 1980, when Congress created the refuge, it set aside the 1002 area for possible future energy development. To date, Congress has not approved this development because of environmental concerns. In the meantime, America's domestic production of energy has declined and we have become more and more dependent on imported oil.

As part of a comprehensive energy strategy of promoting conservation and reducing dependence on foreign oil, we must increase our energy production here at home. The 1002 area is potentially the largest untapped source of oil and gas on American soil. While we cannot promise that there will be no impact on the wildlife and habitat of the 1002 area, we can promise no significant impact.

In fact, legislation to open up the area passed last year by the House of Representatives laid down the strictest environmental standards ever applied to energy development and flatly stated that development must "result in no significant adverse effect on fish and wildlife, their habitat, subsistence resources, and the environment."

We can meet this standard because of the extraordinary advances in oil field technology. If approved by Congress, the overall "footprint" of the equipment and facilities needed to develop the 1002 area would be restricted to 2,000 acres, an area about the size of a regional airport in a refuge the size of South Carolina.

Like I have said in previous interviews and articles, the area needed to look for and get from the ground the oil that will one day amount to 1 million barrels per day would take up the area comparable to a postage stamp on a standard size piece of paper. Furthermore, the areas around the drill site would be more inhabitable than almost any other part of the region due to the supply of warmth the rigging would produce.

This all speaks nothing of the support the project has from the Eskimos in the area. In fact poll after poll has shown that a full 2/3 of inhabitants that would be affected approve of the drilling project.

A Major Set Back For Married Couples

2005-03-14T15:00:00.000-08:00

They have successfully turned the right to marry into a "civil right" which it is not. Once again, the tyrannical judges of San Francisco have pushed their own personal beliefs on the rest of us. This news makes me sick to my stomach.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A judge ruled Monday that California's ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional - a legal milestone that, if upheld on appeal, would open the way for the most populous state to follow Massachusetts in allowing same-sex couples to wed.

Judge Richard Kramer of San Francisco County's trial-level Superior Court likened the ban to laws requiring racial segregation in schools, and said there appears to be "no rational purpose" for denying marriage to gay couples.

The ruling came in response to lawsuits filed by the city of San Francisco and a dozen gay couples a year ago after the California Supreme Court halted a four-week same-sex marriage spree started by Mayor Gavin Newsom.

The opinion had been eagerly awaited because of San Francisco's historical role as a gay rights battleground.

This is not about wanting "marriage" this is about giving gays and lesbians a greater level of legitimacy by equating them to mainstream institutions such as marriage. The people of California have made it clear they do not want marriage to define a gay union but the judges care not about what the majority want. They care only for their own ideology and that they can force it down the throats of regular folks like you and me. I am back on board for a Constitutional Ammendment banning gay marriage.

The Associated Press story wraps with the most telling proof that this issue is about legitimacy rather than rights:

California has the highest percentage of same-sex partners in the nation, and its Legislature has gone further than any other in providing gay couples the benefits of marriage without being forced to do so by court order.

An Apple (truck) A Day Keeps The Hatred Away

2005-03-14T14:29:00.000-08:00

I had read of the interesting trade agreement between Syria and Israel in the past and am happy to see that it has actually bore fruit (pun intended):

Six trucks carrying dozens of cartons of apples grown by Syrian farmers in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights passed through a border point in this town Monday in the first commercial traffic here in more than three decades.

The first-ever business between Syria - an arch foe of Israel - and residents of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights was seen by many as a gesture by Damascus toward the possibility of resuming peace talks with Israel.

But a Syrian lawmaker insisted the move had no political purpose, and Israeli political analysts played down its significance.

Damascus agreed this month to let Druse farmers in the Golan sell their Golden Delicious and Starking apples - renowned as particularly delicious because they are grown on high ground - inside Syria.

Since Israel and Syria last fought over the plateau in the 1973 war, the crossing essentially has been used only by Syrian brides marrying into Druse families and Druse students studying in Syria.

But the U.N.-monitored business transaction, carried out by Kenyans driving trucks with the Swiss license plates of the International Committee of the Red Cross, may be a one-time affair. Since Israel occupied the plateau during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, there had been no business previously between both sides.

A U.S.-brokered troop separation deal returned Quneitra to Syrian rule in 1974 but not before retreating Israelis bulldozed hundreds of houses. Israel now holds two-thirds of the Golan, or about 450 square miles, and formally annexed it in 1981.

Some 17,000 Arabs following the Druse religion - an offshoot of Islam - live on the Israeli-occupied side with 15,000 Israeli settlers. Nearly all the Arabs have rejected Israeli citizenship and retain strong feelings for Syria, which provides free university education.

About 220 tons of apples from a total of 7,700 tons will cross daily into Syria in the next several weeks, ICRC delegation head Jean-Jacques Fresard told reporters.

"It took us several months until we had an agreement in principle on the operation itself," he said, adding the transaction was a "one-time operation only."

The apples are expected to be sold for about 29 cents per pound, and some might be exported. The trucks carried the fruit across the border and passed them to Syrian trucks waiting a half-mile away.

Syria and Israel have not reached a peace deal, and Damascus said it was making the purchase to help its Syrian brethren on the other side of the border.

Ismail Mer'i, a Syrian parliamentarian waiting for the trucks with U.N. team members, said the "operation is ultimately humanitarian and has no political connotations."

Yoel Chen, an Israeli Agriculture Ministry official who watched the apples cross, said the shipment had business benefits for the Golan.

"The intention is that in the end we will open some kind of route for large quantities of fruits to travel through Syria to markets in the Gulf states," he told Israel's Channel 10 TV.

Some Israelis did not see much political impact.

"I do not think it is that important - it is just a gesture from the Syrians to the Druse who are their citizens. It is a way for the Syrians to keep in touch with them," said Shlomo Brom, a Syria expert at Tel Aviv University. "If anyone is looking for signs of impending peace between Israel and Syria, I wouldn't recommend looking there."

Syrian President Bashar Assad has said that although Damascus was ready to resume negotiations with Israel where they left off in 2000, there was no hope for peace talks for now because Israel would not agree to that condition.

Nevertheless, Assad - under intense pressure over Lebanon - has made several conciliatory moves in recent months, including agreeing in principle to withdraw Syrian troops from Lebanon. A key Iraqi insurgent, who was a half brother of Saddam Hussein, also was captured recently with apparent Syrian help.

Last month, Syria's Foreign Ministry said the apples would enter Syria through Quneitra on the Golan border, 40 miles southwest of Damascus, under the supervision of the U.N. Disengagement and Observer Forces.

In explaining the decision, the ministry said the fruit was "Syrian, grown on Syrian land and owned by Syrians." The objective was "to meet the pressing demands of Syrian citizens languishing under occupation and to help alleviate their suffering."

All things being equal, the tyrants in The Middle East (Hezbollah and Bashar Al-Assad to mane 2) are not done obstructing Democratic developments in that region. But we are seeing a true calling by the peoples of these war-torn lands for reform of their governments. These small gestures, like apples are merely micro-cogs in a process much larger and vast in scope than any one person is capable of explaining. No longer can the anti-Democratic rhetoric passed on from such places as the United Nations win the ears of all the people. Slowly but surely, one person and then two and then three are coming to realize that what we are offering is not "Americanization" but rather a key to a future much brighter than that offered by folks like Saddam Hussein, The Mullahs of Iran and Bashar Al-Assad.

Democrats Stick Their Heads In The Sand Again - This Time On Social Security

2005-03-14T12:42:00.000-08:00

A fine article was written in today's Washington Post regarding Democrats refusal to offer a counter to Bush's plan for personal accounts. As Sebastian Mallaby reminds us:

Last year Democrats impaled themselves on the Iraq war. They were so anxious to denounce the invasion that they failed to acknowledge the most basic point of all: that, having waded into Iraq, the United States could not leave prematurely. By attacking the Bush policy relentlessly, Democrats sounded negative. By refusing to say clearly that they would finish the Iraq job, they sounded irresponsible.

It's not difficult to see where Mallaby is going with this:

Now Democrats risk making the same mistake on Social Security. They are so anxious to denounce private accounts that they fail to acknowledge the most basic point: Social Security has a serious deficit. The Post reported Friday that nearly every Democratic senator refuses even to contemplate the Bush proposals. But the Democrats have no proposal of their own. They sound negative and irresponsible.

I have been simply astounded at the way Democrats have been behaving since their loss of the Whitehouse in 2000. It is as if their situation has become so grim that they no longer feel it necessary to act like responsible politicians. Mallaby agrees that it is irresponsible for Democrats to simply stick their heads in the sand over Social Security:

This is a mistake, first, because it's bad for the country. Social Security's deficit does need to be fixed, and the fix will be harder if we miss the current opportunity. Whatever one thinks of President Bush's personal accounts, he's out there touring the country, trying to open people's minds to the necessity of reform; meanwhile, Republican members of Congress are sticking their necks out with detailed overhaul proposals. If this moment is squandered, it may be years before any politician musters the courage to tackle Social Security.

Those are years we can't afford. As the debate illustrates, reform is salable only if it exempts people near retirement. The oldest baby boomers, those born in 1946, are already almost 60. With each year that passes, the cohort of politically inviolable near-retirees expands sharply -- meaning that the burden of remedial tax hikes and benefit cuts on younger workers will have to be that much heavier.

I for one actually hope Democrats continue their habit of obstruction and naysaying. I left the Democratic Party for one that sees the issues for a realistic point of view rather than forcing an idealistic agenda on America regardless of the consequences.

It Makes A Pretty Picture For Sure!

2005-03-14T12:34:00.000-08:00

From The Daily Star of Lebanon:

BEIRUT: Mobilization for the opposition parties' demonstration Monday continued over the weekend despite calls from President Emile Lahoud and Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir to limit shows of force.

Commemorating the passing of one month since the killing of former Premier Rafik Hariri, opposition movements have used all ways, including leaflets, statements and gatherings around the country in an attempt to reach large numbers of people and encourage them to participate in what appears to be a counter demonstration.

Last Tuesday, at the call of pro-Syrian resistance group Hizbullah, half a million gathered in Downtown Beirut to show loyalty to Damascus which is blamed by the international community and the local opposition for Hariri's killing.

Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir, the spiritual leader of the Qornet Shehwan opposition movement, said during his Sunday sermon that: "If shows of forces continue in the streets, no one knows where this will lead us to and this is what spiteful people are looking for."

On Saturday, Lahoud had warned that continued protests could lead to disaster in a country once ravaged by civil war. Lahoud said: "If they want to continue demonstrating, a little firecracker will lead to a catastrophe."

The threat pronounced there was not lost on anyone. The Freedom-haters attempts to stiffle Democratic reform is floundering. Expect they will fight to re-institute their Gestapo-like control of Lebanon.

Those For Freedom From Syria Launch Biggest Street Protest To Date

2005-03-14T07:48:00.000-08:00

Now this is the throws of Democracy. Like a baby coming into the world, it's dirty yet awe inspiring.

Hundreds of thousands of opposition demonstrators chanted "Freedom, sovereignty, independence" and unfurled a huge Lebanese flag in Beirut on Monday, the biggest protest yet in the opposition's duel of street rallies with supporters of the Damascus-backed government.

Crowds of men, women and children flooded Martyrs Square, spilling over into nearby streets, while more from across the country packed the roads into Beirut - responding to an opposition call to demonstrate for the removal of Syrian troops from Lebanon.

"We are coming to liberate our country. We are coming to demand the truth," said Fatma Trad, a veiled Sunni Muslim woman who traveled from the remote region of Dinniyeh in northern Lebanon to take part.

The assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri exactly one month ago sparked the series of protests against Syria, the dominant power in Lebanon.

So 1st the anti-Syrians launched a protest and it was big. Then the terrorist group Hezbollah and pro-Syrians launched an even bigger protest. And now we have this one, the biggest of them all put on by the people of Lebanon that want to design their own future! I love it!

UPDATE: The Associated Press seems to believe that completely withdrawing all troops and intelligence assets from Lebanon will not get Bashar Al-Assad off the hook completely:

Even if Syria does in the end fully withdraw from Lebanon, Syrian President Bashar Assad may not be off the hook. Instead, U.S. pressure is expected to shift to issues of reform, cross-border infiltration into Iraq and Syrian links to militant Arab groups.

Squeezing Assad further could present the young Syrian leader with serious domestic problems at a time when some question the extent of control he has over his Arab nation.

"The pressure will continue until Syria achieves every U.S. goal," said Ayman Abdel-Nour, a prominent member of Assad's ruling Baath party. "Syria will be left alone only when it no longer has a regional role, its influence in Iraq is gone, it severs links with Hamas, Jihad, Iran and Hezbollah," he said from Damascus.

Here's hoping and praying!

Is The United Nations Committed To Transparency and Getting Along With The US?

2005-03-13T17:11:00.000-08:00

Watching Fox News Sunday today, I was taken by the candor and conciliatory tone as well as the "get along" attitude of Mark Malloch Brown the new chief of staff to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Brown countered the opinion of liberals here in the states by practically signing off on President Bush's new choice for ambassador to the UN, Josh Bolten when he said:

People forget a little bit more than 10 years ago he was a very effective assistant secretary of state in the State Department dealing with the U.N.

Second, you know, a U.S. ambassador to the U.N. has to be very effective in New York, but he also has to be very effective in Washington. And, of course, that's where there's a real silver lining to John Bolton's appointment, because if he can corral the different congressional points of view and the administration's point of view into a single set of recommended reforms for the U.N., which we can respond to, that's good news for us.

Next we finally note the UN sounding the alarm over proven allegations of prostitution, child sexual abuse and rape by UN troops towards innocents in Africa's Congo and elsewhere:

Well, it's devastating. It's a terrible set of allegations, that peacekeepers sent to keep the peace in poor, weak countries with vulnerable people who have not been able to have their rights protected for years, that some of them behave in this way. I mean, it completely undercuts our mission, and we recognize that.

And the secretary-general has made it clear that use of prostitution, sex with under-age children, that fraternization beyond strict limits, all of this is not allowed and will be a cause for peacekeepers to be sent home and, in some cases, to make them criminally prosecuted.

So he's coming down on it hard, and he's sent the equivalent of his vice president, the deputy secretary-general, out to the main missions over the last few weeks to lay down the law, make sure everyone understood it.

But host Chris Wallace doesn't let him off the hook with that mere platitude and presses Brown on the fact that abuses have been attributed to the UN before:

But why over the last few weeks? The fact is, in Cambodia, in the early 1990s, there were allegations of this, and a top U.N. official said at the time, "Boys will be boys."

This isn't a recent incident. This has been going on for more than a decade. Why are you sending officials out in recent weeks saying this will not be tolerated?

And Brown responds:

Because it's happened in some missions, and when it happened in Cambodia, it was attacked there, and we tried to address it.

But I think the problem is, we are dealing with something which in some ways is as old as soldiering itself. And the difference is that the U.S. military or my own military, the British military, have in recent decades invested a huge amount of leadership and resources to break these old habits of occupying military groups, to make them realize that this abuse of women in the community is utterly unacceptable.

In our case, our very underfunded peacekeeping missions, with soldiers stitched together from Bangladesh, Jordan, many other different countries, all under their own different commands and without the resources to give them the other recreational options, that the standards of behavior have not been modernized in the same way that has happened with the American or the British military, and we've now got to tackle that.

And the governments who support us in the Security Council have to help us do it by improving the lines of command and putting the resources in it to give soldiers other options.

But then Wallace finally gets to the meat of the matter, the Oil for Food scandal:

There's also -- and I don't want to pass over this, and we're starting to run out of time -- the Oil-For-Food scandal, in which billions of dollars were skimmed off.

U.N. investigators found that the U.N. director of that program, Benan Sevan, had a grave and continuing conflict of interest. They're still investigating whether Annan's son, Kojo, made money off this deal -- very serious allegations.

And yet, when Kofi Annan wrote an article in the Wall Street Journal just a few weeks ago, his first response to the investigation by Paul Volcker was to say that the charges were overblown and a hyperbole.

Depending on your political leaning, Brown's answer for this might leave much to be desired:

Well, look, you know, I think that sometimes the U.N. is like the sort of Washington politician who says, "Yes, I may have been in the midst of a scandal, but look at the other guys." Because it is a fact that, you know, a lot more money went missing from the sanctions that the U.S. and other Security Council members turned a blind eye to, when the oil was smuggled out, money went missing after the U.S. occupation. So it is the case that our bit of this is a part of a bigger scandal.

But having said that, for the U.N. to have had management breakdowns that led to this kind of abuse, even if it's on lesser scale than sometimes FOX and others implies, is a terrible problem. And it's why we're introducing a whole set of management reforms over the coming months, to make sure something like this could never happen again.

So indeed it appears that The United Nations is finally admitting it has problems but Kofi Annan will remain the head of the UN and there is some question of whether or not the United Nations is taking full responsibility. Those like me might still say, "Get the US out of the UN."

Iraq, Niger, Wilson, Plame & 16 Little Words

2005-03-13T13:58:00.000-08:00

Powerline has been covering the hoax perpetrated by Joseph Wilson upon the American Voter during the run up to the 2004 election. They reveal that when all the evidence and information was out in the open, the only charactor caught lying about what was and was not said and done was Joseph Wilson, the man who said Bush lied.

One of the most stunning revelations contained in the Senate Intelligence Committee report on the CIA is that virtually everything Joseph Wilson has said about his trip to Niger, and the report that Iraq tried to buy uranium from Niger, is a lie.

First, contrary to what Wilson has said publicly, his wife, CIA employee Valerie Plame, did recommend him for the Niger investigation:

The report states that a CIA official told the Senate committee that Plame "offered up" Wilson's name for the Niger trip, then on Feb. 12, 2002, sent a memo to a deputy chief in the CIA's Directorate of Operations saying her husband "has good relations with both the PM [prime minister] and the former Minister of Mines (not to mention lots of French contacts), both of whom could possibly shed light on this sort of activity." The next day, the operations official cabled an overseas officer seeking concurrence with the idea of sending Wilson, the report said.
Confronted yesterday with the Senate report, Wilson could only offer a non sequitur and a lame denial:

Wilson stood by his assertion in an interview yesterday, saying Plame was not the person who made the decision to send him. Of her memo, he said: "I don't see it as a recommendation to send me."
Further, the Senate report indicates that Plame and Wilson, from the beginning, had an absurdly biased view of the subject Wilson was supposed to be investigating: "The report said Plame told committee staffers that she relayed the CIA's request to her husband, saying, 'there's this crazy report' about a purported deal for Niger to sell uranium to Iraq."

Further, the Senate report indicates that Plame and Wilson, from the beginning, had an absurdly biased view of the subject Wilson was supposed to be investigating: "The report said Plame told committee staffers that she relayed the CIA's request to her husband, saying, 'there's this crazy report' about a purported deal for Niger to sell uranium to Iraq."

As has been widely reported, Wilson conducted a half-baked investigation into the uanium report. But here is the most astonishing fact uncovered by the Senate Intelligence Committee: in his book and in countless interviews and op-ed pieces over the past year, Wilson has been lying about the contents of his own report to the CIA!:

The report also said Wilson provided misleading information to The Washington Post last June. He said then that he concluded the Niger intelligence was based on documents that had clearly been forged because "the dates were wrong and the names were wrong."
"Committee staff asked how the former ambassador could have come to the conclusion that the 'dates were wrong and the names were wrong' when he had never seen the CIA reports and had no knowledge of what names and dates were in the reports," the Senate panel said. Wilson told the panel he may have been confused and may have "misspoken" to reporters. The documents -- purported sales agreements between Niger and Iraq -- were not in U.S. hands until eight months after Wilson made his trip to Niger.

Wilson's reports to the CIA added to the evidence that Iraq may have tried to buy uranium in Niger, although officials at the State Department remained highly skeptical, the report said.

Wilson said that a former prime minister of Niger, Ibrahim Assane Mayaki, was unaware of any sales contract with Iraq, but said that in June 1999 a businessman approached him, insisting that he meet with an Iraqi delegation to discuss "expanding commercial relations" between Niger and Iraq -- which Mayaki interpreted to mean they wanted to discuss yellowcake sales. A report CIA officials drafted after debriefing Wilson said that "although the meeting took place, Mayaki let the matter drop due to UN sanctions on Iraq."

According to the former Niger mining minister, Wilson told his CIA contacts, Iraq tried to buy 400 tons of uranium in 1998.

So: what Wilson actually told the CIA, contrary to his own oft-repeated claims, is that he was told by the former mining minister of Niger that in 1998, Iraq had tried to buy 400 tons of uranium from that country, and that Iraq's overture was renewed the following year. What Wilson reported to the CIA was exactly the same as what President Bush said in his 2003 State of the Union address: there was evidence that Iraq had tried to buy uranium in Africa.

Recall Wilson's famous op-ed in the New York Times, published on July 6, 2003, which ignited the whole firestorm over the famous "sixteen words" in Bush's State of the Union speech. In that op-ed, Wilson identified himself as the formerly-unnamed person who had gone to Niger to investigate rumors of a possible uranium deal between Iraq and Niger. Here are the key words in Wilson's article:

[I]n January, President Bush, citing the British dossier, repeated the charges about Iraqi efforts to buy uranium from Africa. The next day, I reminded a friend at the State Department of my trip and suggested that if the president had been referring to Niger, then his conclusion was not borne out by the facts as I understood them.
It was this flat-out lie about what Wilson learned in Niger, and what he reported to the CIA upon his return, that fueled the "sixteen words" controversy and led to the publication of Wilson's best-selling account, titled, ironically, The Politics of Truth.

One can only conclude that Joseph Wilson has perpetrated one of the most astonishing hoaxes in American history. But here is what I really don't get: didn't the administration have access to all of this information about Wilson's report? And if so, why didn't they use it when Wilson was dominating the news cycle with his lies?

Where SoCalPundit Readers Visiting Oregon Will NOT Want To Stay

2005-03-13T13:46:00.000-08:00

I thought this article from NewsMax.com was too funny to not share.

Inn Bans Bush-Voting Guests

An Oregon inn that offers what it calls "nature friendly lodging" has banned guests who voted for President Bush.

"No Bush Voters," the Web site for Ocean Haven demands, explaining that the policy is a result of the president's "environmentally destructive policies [such as] nonparticipation in Kyoto Treaty, The Clear Skies Act, [and his] continuation of naval sonar in marine mammal habitats."

Although Oregon Haven management boasts, "WE WELCOME DIVERSITY," it maintains that the no-Bush-backer rule is part of the resort's commitment to "limiting human impact on nature."
Also banned at Ocean Haven: pets, phones, TVs and "Hummers" [no other SUVs are mentioned].

A spokeswoman for Ocean Haven confirmed the Bush-backer-ban to Fox News, saying the policy has generated a lot of response.

Democrats are mostly freaked out and embarrassed by the Bush ban, she explained, while Republican voters are proud.

Bionic Soldiers Return To The Battlefield

2005-03-12T20:49:00.000-08:00

As a below-knee amputee (as of 12-15-04) I have a bit of experience in the area of prosthetics. I was fitted in February with my first prosthetic leg and have not looked back. Although I have still not been fitted for a running leg, I can already see how far I can go. For some of our wounded soldiers, allowing the little issue of real limb or fake will not stop them from valiantly continuing to serve their country.

From The Times of London Online:

A cavalry officer, Rozelle lost his right foot in 2003 in Iraq when a mine planted in a dirt road exploded under his Humvee. After a gruelling recovery, he is the first amputee to return to combat duty in Iraq.

He is proud to be pioneering a route back to active service for seriously wounded soldiers. “I didn’t want the terrorists to decide for me whether I stayed in the army or not,” he said.

“I hope I’m going to break the ice for others to follow. It’s not easy but I’m going to prove it can be done.”

With the help of a C-Leg, a prosthetic limb with electronic sensors that gives him a normal gait, Rozelle, 33, can outrun most men under his command. “There are a few young bucks who can beat me,” he admitted ruefully, “but not many.”

Egypt Shows Real Desire To Be Democratic

2005-03-12T12:24:00.000-08:00

Egypt has sent a number of mixed signals about it's willingness to Democratize. First they arrest a key opposition to the current administration then they indicate they will hold (for the 1st time) elections with More than just one state-backed candidate. But today The Associated Press reports that Egypt appears to be righting a real wrong:

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Opposition leader and presidential hopeful Ayman Nour walked out of Cairo's central security headquarters Saturday and was whisked to the shoulders of his supporters after posting bail in a case that angered Washington and undermined Egypt's talk of democratic reform.

Nour, in a white prison jump suit, stepped out looking frail, but blew kisses to the crowd of supporters. He flashed a V-for-victory sign from over their heads.

Judicial authorities announced earlier Saturday that bail had been set at $1,725.

"I am so happy. Ayman is of the people, for the people. He was never a stooge of the authorities," his wife, Gamila Ismail, said.

Nour was arrested on Jan. 29, accused of presenting fraudulent signatures in order to win the license for his party - but he was never formally charged and he and his supporters say the detention was political, aiming to eliminate him as a rival to the ruling party.

Washington had joined the calls for his release.

Democracy is on the march in the Middle East.

Democrats Forced To Throw Up Pro-Life Candidates In 2006

2005-03-12T11:01:00.000-08:00

Some still say the Democrats are not learning from the mistakes they made in the last 3 elections. Indeed, the bread & butter of the Democratic Party, "The Liberals" still seem to be in denial about the losses and the cause for those losses.

Recently, pro-abortion Senator from New York and new chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Charles Schumer has come under fire from his liberal constituants for supporting pro-life Democrats for spots running in the 2006 elections.

The Washington Post reports today:

Sen. Charles E. Schumer, a New York Democrat, is a close student of these events. As the new chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, his job is to elect more Democrats. He's ruffled some feathers by thinking the way Karl Rove does, searching for the strongest Democratic candidate in a contested state and trying to prevent divisive primaries.

Schumer's initial salvo, ironically, involved a quest for a candidate to run against Santorum in 2006. According to Schumer, "it turned out that the strongest candidate in Pennsylvania, according to everyone we talked to, was Bob Casey." That would be Robert Casey Jr., the state treasurer whose name may sound familiar because his father, a pro-labor liberal, became a hero to the right-to-life movement when the Democrats denied him platform time at their 1992 convention. The son, like his father (who died in 2000), is pro-life.

The article also speaks to a change of heart by the Democratic Leadership in regards to Hollywood political activism:

Enter Hollywood. Virginia Hopper, wife of actor Dennis Hopper, organized a letter with her pro-choice allies urging financial support for Brown: "This is even more important than one precious Senate seat; it is a fight to protect women and families, and a fight for the core and soul of our party." In a rather graceless warning, the Hopper letter declared that "money is the biggest and loudest message." Langevin deserves a writing Oscar for his tart reply: "I find it hard to believe people in Hollywood can relate to the struggles of working families in Rhode Island."

A Very Fine Tribute To Our Troops

2005-03-12T10:02:00.000-08:00

WARNING: There is an audio track that you must be able to hear to get the full effect. The full effect will induce tears so be prepared. It is the best tribute I have seen yet - SoCalPundit

Friends,

This is VERY moving and something I thought some of you make like to see. It really puts a lot of things into perspective.

Click on Link Below:

http://www.armedforcestribute.com/

Someone put together a flash presentation with music from Ricky Skaggs with an overlay of a little girl talking to her Dad who is a soldier. Whew! This is very touching and really puts things into perspective. This is one of the best done pieces I have seen. Make sure your speakers are turned on. It takes a few minutes to load but it is well worth the wait. Click Here To View. Armed Forces Tribute

Thanks to John Kehrli for sharing this.

Crashed UAV Reveals Change of Hearts & Minds In Iraq

2005-03-11T20:06:00.000-08:00

Every once in awhile you can find The Associated Press being "fair and balanced". This is one such time:

MUQDADIYA, Iraq (AP) - When an unmanned U.S. spy plane crashed in a farmer's onion field in central Iraq, his first instinct was to bury it.

He was afraid that if he helped the U.S. military recover the aircraft, insurgents in the area might see him as a collaborator and kill him, according to a U.S. soldier involved in the recovery operation.

The circumstances may be unique - after all it's not every day that a plane crashes in one's backyard - but the farmer's dilemma was not. As militants press their violent campaign against the American military presence, Iraqis must often choose whether to risk running afoul of U.S. troops or attack by insurgents. Complicating matters, they don't always know which side their neighbors are on.

U.S. forces lost radio contact with the plane late Tuesday. It wasn't immediately known what caused the crash in Muqdadiya, about 60 miles northeast of Baghdad.

The crash set off an intense hunt - not just by American troops. U.S. officials said insurgents were also combing the area for the plane, which was loaded with sensitive observation equipment.

"Some other people were also looking for the (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle), not necessarily friendly people," said Lt. Col. Roger Cloutier of the 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, who commands U.S. soldiers in and around Muqdadiya.

The farmer was aware the search was on. Knowing he could not keep his unwanted treasure a secret long, he sought help from the local governor, Abdullah Hasan Rashid al-Jabouri, the self-declared survivor of 14 assassination attempts by insurgents.

Al-Jabouri suggested the two visit U.S. troops at Camp Normandy, just outside of Muqdadiya, and tell them where the plane was. The farmer agreed.

U.S. soldiers quickly arrived at the crash site and asked the farmer's son about it. The son, unaware his father had asked U.S. forces to come, played dumb, and was detained.

He wasn't held long.

As the farmer, dressed in tribal garb, sat in Cloutier's office late Wednesday, his son, visibly nervous, arrived to a warm welcome, bashfully nodding at soldiers in the room.

"It was a big misunderstanding," Cloutier said apologetically. He said the family had provided assistance "at great peril to themselves."

Al-Jabouri said the farmer did not go to the Iraqi police in Muqdadiya because he feared possible double agents who work with the insurgency.

Cloutier said the farmer's help was "really an indication of the shift of the mind-set of the (Iraqi) people" since the Jan. 30 national elections.

Miles away, U.S. soldiers dug up the destroyed plane.

Robert "KKK" Byrd's Senate Seat To Be Challenged

2005-03-11T18:37:00.000-08:00

RadioBlogger hits us to this report from The Hill that says Republican Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito of Virginia will challenge the 87 year-ancient Bobby Byrd in 2006.

Beyond Capito's qualifications, The Hill speaks of Republicans hopes that Byrd is out of step with the state he purports to represent:

"The National Republican Senatorial Committee [NRSC], they’ll try and twist and turn Senator Byrd’s long record on its head and convince West Virginia voters that red is blue and blue is red," Gavin said.

NRSC spokesman Brian Nick said that West Virginia "has moved out from under Senator Byrd" and that the senator is ="way out of touch with the mainstream

...and Democrats counter:

Phil Singer, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesman, said of Capito: "She’s wasting her time and money if she is thinking about taking on Senator Byrd."

In my opinion Byrd should pack it in and Democrats in the state should put up a moderate to keep the seat on their side of the isle. But hopefully they won't listen to me.

Great Interview On K-TALK

2005-03-11T18:21:00.000-08:00

After an initial technical glitch was resolved, the interview flowed through all the info on and related to drilling for oil in ANWR. Kyal 2K is a consumate interviewer and just as informed on ANWR as anyone I have come across before. Thanks to Kyal and the crew for the great plugs for this blog.

www.K-TALK.com

Interesting Headlines.....

2005-03-11T13:50:00.000-08:00

I will try to do a general news post like this once per day, schedule allowing. Click on the link of the headlines that interest you.

Yahoo! News - Harvard in Lather Over Campus Maid Service

Blogging Clicks With Colleges (washingtonpost.com)

Desperate to be housewives: young women yearn for 1950s role as stay-at-home mums

Actress Dies of Pneumonia Complications: Actress Nicole DeHuff, who memorably took a volleyball in the face from Ben Stiller in the 2000 hit movie "Meet the Parents," died of complications from pneumonia. She was 31.

Don't Let Our Servicemen Suffer The "Dead-beat Dad" Moniker

2005-03-11T13:32:00.000-08:00

If a reservist takes a lower salary as a result of their extended service, should they still be required to pay the same amount of child support even though they make less money?

Most of the reservists called up to serve in the Iraq war have paid a big price: a significant reduction of their wages as they transferred from civilian to military jobs, separation from their loved ones, and of course the risk of battle wounds or death. Regrettably, on their return home, those who are divorced fathers could face another grievous penalty: loss of their children, financial ruin, prosecution as "deadbeat dads," and even jail...

...These servicemen fathers cannot get relief when they return because federal law forbids a court to reduce the debt retroactively. Once the arrearage reaches $5,000, the father becomes a felon subject to imprisonment plus the loss of his driver's and professional licenses and passport.

Thanks to BlogsForBush for the tip!

One Female Guard Responsible For Defendant

2005-03-11T13:09:00.000-08:00

Here in lies the problem: The multicultural-corrective agenda of today's government agencies is putting lives at risk. We must not allow this huge mistake to be repeated.

Of course I can find no media reports to link to that talk about the propriety of assigning a woman to guard a 210 lb. violent criminal.

Read the Associated Press account here.

MEDIA ALERT: Kevin Korenthal To Appear On Radio Program

2005-03-11T10:05:00.000-08:00

AM 630 K-TALK will be interviewing SoCalPundit.com founder Kevin Korenthal at 4:15 PM Pacific Time. K-TALK is based out of Salt Lake City, UT but thanks to the web, you can listen in from anywhere in the world by going to www.k-talk.com and clicking on the link in the upper right hand corner of the page.

Host Kyal 2K will be interviewing Kevin on his recent article "President & SoCalPundit: Open ANWR To Drilling For Oil" (see previous SoCalPundit post).

President Bush & SoCalPundit: Open ANWR To Drilling For Oil

2005-03-09T15:03:00.000-08:00

The Alaskan Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is indeed a desolate and virtually unihabitable region of Alaska. You may have heard that drilling in this area will "kill the caribou", that is total hogwash. The people responsible for the region in question say that only a small stamp of the entire ANWR region will be used to drill. It is not a situation that will kill any animals but rather this is a political issue.

Oddly, it was President Jimmy Carter's administration that originally signed over hundreds of acres of the region for oil drilling, before Democrats realized the only prayer they had to hold on to power was to oppose Republicans on the environment.

The fact is, America can n o longer afford to rely on places like Venezuela and Saudi Arabia for oil. The Democrats know this and are using their ban against drilling in ANWR as a way of keeping President Bush and The Republicans from solving the problem.

As President Bush said today, "Developing small section of ANWR would not only create thousands of new jobs, but it would eventually reduce our dependence on foreign oil by up to 1 million barrels of oil a day". Bush also said oil exploration can be limited to a 2,000-acre site -- "the size of the Columbus airport" -- and could be done "with almost no impact on land or local wildlife."

He said drilling in ANWR should be part of an overall energy bill that would promote conservation, increase domestic energy production and modernize infrastructure such as power grids and pipelines.

The vote on this energy policy is expected as early as next week and with increased majorities by supporters in the House and Senate, it is expected to pass and the issue will be solved. Thank God because gas will be at nearly $2.80 per gallon this summer if we do nothing.

UPDATE: Friday's (3-11-05) close: Oil Back Over $54 as IEA Ups Demand View

UPDATE 2: Poll: Eskimos Back ANWR Drilling

Deja Vu All Over Again

2005-03-09T13:00:00.000-08:00

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Incumbent Mayor James Hahn survived a close call, making it into a May runoff against a Hispanic city councilman after the third-place candidate conceded defeat Wednesday.

The outcome of Tuesday's primary election sets up a rematch of the 2001 runoff, pitting Hahn, who has been weakened by corruption and other problems, against councilman Antonio Villaraigosa, who is seeking to become the first Hispanic to win the mayoralty in the nation's second-largest city in more than a century.

Nearly 24,000 absentee and other ballots remained to be counted, but candidate Bob Hertzberg trailed second-place Hahn by 5,800 votes, a margin his campaign concluded was too great.

"I called Mayor Hahn this morning and congratulated him on his victory," Hertzberg said during a morning news conference.

Delayed because of foggy weather, the vote tally had continued into early Wednesday.

In 2001, Villaraigosa, a high school dropout who went on to become speaker of the California Assembly, was also the top vote-getter in the primary, but he lost the runoff to Hahn, 53 percent to 46 percent.

With 99 percent of precincts reporting early Wednesday, Villaraigosa led with 124,561 votes, or 33 percent.

The mayor tallied 89,189 votes, or 24 percent, while Hertzberg, also a former Assembly speaker, had 83,420 votes, or 22 percent.

Villaraigosa would have had to get more than 50 percent to have won the election outright.

"L.A. is ready, and we're ready," Villaraigosa told cheering supporters at a Hollywood club Tuesday night.

Election officials blamed the weather for unusually slow returns. Evening fog forced organizers to abandon plans to use two helicopters to ferry returns to the city's downtown election center. Instead, a fleet of cars was deployed.

No Los Angeles mayor has been bounced from office in more than 30 years. Hahn, whose family has been active in Los Angeles politics since the 1940s, has been beset by the corruption allegations at City Hall and his own drab image in the most star-studded city in America.

Villaraigosa and Hertzberg had pounded Hahn over ongoing investigations at City Hall that centered on allegations that members of his administration traded city contracts for campaign donations.

The Los Angeles Times posted on its Web site results of an exit poll of 2,789 voters that found the investigations appeared to make a difference. Nearly half of those surveyed said the corruption allegations affected their choice.

Running fourth in the counting was Councilman Bernard Parks, the black former police chief who was ousted in 2002 with Hahn's blessing. The Times exit poll found that, as expected, Parks siphoned off significant black support from Hahn.

Villaraigosa, 52, grew up in a broken home on the city's heavily Hispanic Eastside. His up-from-the-barrio story defines his political image - the son of a Mexican immigrant who rose from a gritty neighborhood to the halls of power in Sacramento and Los Angeles.

In other election results, Doris Matsui, a lobbyist and former Clinton White House official, handily won the special election to succeed her dead husband in Congress. Rep. Robert T. Matsui, who died Jan. 1, had served the House from a Sacramento district for more than 25 years.

Illegals: "Driving Privilege Cards Not Enough"

2005-03-09T12:16:00.000-08:00

You know, most countries arrest and deport illegal immigrants. Here, illegals practically expect legal citizenship after breaking our laws and sneaking through our borders. They expect full rights, protections, documentation, even government handouts, after violating our sovereignty. I say they ought to be grateful, take the card and be glad we don't kick them out of the "park" for "linejumping".

SALT LAKE CITY -- Gov. Jon Huntsman on Tuesday signed a bill replacing regular Utah driver's licenses for undocumented immigrants with driving privilege cards that can't be used as official identification to board airplanes or register to vote.

The move comes a day after hundreds of demonstrators gathered to protest the bill, arguing that the cards amount to second-class status for minorities.

The driving privilege card must be renewed annually. Undocumented immigrants must surrender their driver's licenses on their birthdays or on July 1, whichever is sooner.

Huntsman spokeswoman Tammy Kikuchi said the governor has been "pretty strong, from the beginning, in support of this bill" and was undeterred by opposition in the minority community.

The bill's Republican sponsor, Sen. Curtis Bramble, said the measure was a compromise, because it still allowed undocumented immigrants to drive.

"I don't believe that it's the role of the State of Utah to provide documentation or some type of ID so that someone who is illegal can travel with impunity," Bramble said.

Bob Gallegos, president of the Hispanic lobbying group RAZ-PAC, vowed Tuesday to seek legal action against the law, and said he and other minority leaders would organize a one-day strike to prove how important undocumented workers are to the Utah economy.

Democrats Should Rejoice In New Middle East Democracy!

2005-03-08T20:15:00.000-08:00

Why are Democrats hoping against new Democracies in the Middle East? According to Matthew Yglesias of The American Prospect, new Democracies help liberals!

Mainstream liberals should be celebrating every step toward democracy that occurs in the world over the next three years, for two reasons.

The first is that recent democratic gains, such as those in Ukraine, Egypt, and Lebanon, are not the fruit of neoconservative policies but of liberal ones. The United States did not invade these countries, nor did we threaten to do so. Instead, our influence was exercised by liberal means -- foreign aid, coordination with allies, and subtle diplomatic pressure.

Bloggers Scour The World For Democratic Reform So You Don't Have To!

2005-03-08T20:03:00.000-08:00

Fellow conservative blogger, Publius Pundit Has obviously put a remarkable amount of time and effort into outing new overtures of Democracy, Freedom and Human Rights around the world. Lot's of great pictures to go along with the stirring facts and commentary.

Who Is In Control of Syria?

2005-03-08T19:43:00.000-08:00

NewsMax.com in it's usual position of treading where others fear, asks the question that Middle East analysts have been asking for the last several years. But now it seems that it is Assad himself that is perpetrating the impression that others than he are in control of Syria. Here are the highlights:

Is Bashar totally in power? That is a difficult question to answer, but there certainly are centers of power around him, including some within the family," said Patrick Seale, a British expert on Syria who has written extensively about Hafez Assad.

The issue was thrown into stark relief in recent days, in part because Bashar Assad seemed at pains to paint himself as having limited power.

According to Saudi officials, Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah told Assad last week during a meeting in Riyadh that he must immediately withdraw Syria's 14,000 soldiers in Lebanon.

"Not everything is up to me alone," Assad's replied, according to the officials, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

In a Time interview published this week, Assad again hinted he was not responsible for some of Syria's policies. Told he had done the impossible by bringing the United States and France together in unity against him, Assad answered with a laugh: "It's not me, actually."

Asked why he had jailed human rights activist Kamal Labwani, Assad answered, "I don't do everything in this country." Labwani was released in September after three years in prison.

LA Mayoral Race Commentary From The Texafornian

2005-03-08T06:51:00.000-08:00

SoCalPundit's (soon to be) webmaster offers his insights on the pros and cons of each of the candidates running for this office.

Pro-Syrian Protesters: "No to foreign interference."

2005-03-08T06:30:00.000-08:00

Does anyone else find this statement a bit absurd? Afterall, Syria controls Lebanon under the guise of keeping the peace. In otherwords, occupation. In Thousands Answer Hezbollah Call in Beirut, AP lays out that the terrorist group Hezbollah organized today's rally.

SoCalPundit Prediction: All Hell Is About To Break Loose Over Lebanon Withdrawal

2005-03-07T21:02:00.000-08:00

Mark my words, Syria has no intention of leaving Lebanon 100%. And nothing less will satisfy the Bush Administration.

Call me a sadistic pundit but people like me live for moments like this. I pray GWB sticks to his guns. It has carried him to victory (and the US to world praise) thus far.

Left-Wingers Not At All Pleased W/ Bush's UN Appointment

2005-03-07T20:52:00.000-08:00

Of course not! Bush placed a person who has a history of "talking straight" into the position of UN ambassador. There is nothing the UN hates more than honest dialogue.

From THE LEFT-WING CYBER-RAG, SLATE.COM:

Just as it looked like George W. Bush might be nudging toward multilateralism, he goes and appoints John Bolton as his ambassador to the United Nations. There could be no clearer sign that the contempt for the international organization, which was such a prominent feature of Bush's first term, will extend into his second term with still greater force and eloquence.

So according to Slate, anyone that does not tow the globalization line of The United Nations, is a poor and "contemptuous" choice. Will the liberals never learn? Read the article.

Regretfully Remembering Dan Rather

2005-03-07T15:22:00.000-08:00

We'd rather not, but for the record, Media Research has compiled a list of most of Rather's left-wing comments, which is pretty much the only way he commented. Here are just a few:

"Have you ever had any anger about President Bush — who spent his time during the Vietnam War in the National Guard — running, in effect, a campaign that does its best to diminish your service in Vietnam? You have to be at least irritated by that, or have you been?”
— To Senator John Kerry in an interview shown on the July 22, 2004

“The Republican convention opens in New York to re-nominate George W. Bush and showcase the party’s, quote, ‘moderate side.’ Will voters buy it?”

— Opening the August 30, 2004 CBS Evening News.

Good riddance...

Satire: Interview With A Mass Media

2005-03-06T13:45:00.000-08:00

This ficticious interview with the ficticious "Dr. No" (representing the MSM) is hilarious. You can read it in it'd entirety, here.

I thought you did a nice job on the walk-up to the elections, about how the vote would be small and therefore illegitimate, the U.S. didn't have enough troops to guard the polls, mass violence would probably break out, and maybe we were headed for a theocracy or a civil war.

Thanks. Nobody works harder than us negativity professionals, though it's true that the actual voting turned out badly for us. The biggest blow was that the Arab press reported positively on the vote. As you know, previously the most recent positive reports in the Arab media were all in the eighth century. But we still had a big impact. I was particularly proud of one postelection newspaper report in New York, "Premature Jubilation as Iraqis Go to Polls." It complained that Shiites took voting instructions from their leaders, the Kurds had only one slate, and some association of Muslim scholars had declared the voting illegitimate. Everything that anybody could view as wrong was piled into one doom-and-gloom article. I loved it. Working to tamp down premature jubilation is what our profession is all about.

Tell us about some of your other efforts in Iraq.

Well, we recommended stressing the daily count of dead American soldiers. We also pioneered all those references to terrorist attacks as "the bloodiest since" some day or other--January 1, maybe, or any date picked at random, like Lincoln's Birthday or Groundhog Day. Nice. Nobody thought to make that "bloodiest since" comparison during World War II or Vietnam. It's been a big breakthrough. Now we're working on the theme that American soldiers murdered a lot of journalists in Iraq, but people tend to want evidence when you bring that up, so it's a problem. We've also generated two years' worth of claims that Iraqi women are no better off and in some cases worse off today than they were under Saddam. Of course under Saddam they were turned over to rape squads, sexually tortured, and beheaded. So we have some work to do there.

Weren't you afraid that the Iraqi vote would make Bush look good?

That's been a tough one. A lot of folks have been looking forward to a collapse in Iraq, so they could gloat over President Bush's failure. But rooting for your own country to lose a war doesn't seem to play well in the media for some reason. When the Soviet Union fell apart, to deny Reagan any credit, we pushed the idea that it would have happened anyway. Iraq has been a mess, but things seem to be going Bush's way, and we can't say he didn't shake up the Middle East just as he said he would.

Via RealClearPolitics & (they that always scoop us) Powerline.

So Much For Syria's Attempts To Use Violence To Remain In Lebanon

2005-03-05T18:16:00.000-08:00

Powerline and SoCalPundit agree that the (so-called) Pro-Syrian Demonstration in Lebanon was staged to justify a continued Syrian presence in Lebanon.

The following was copied from Powerline:

"Shooting Erupts in Beirut Christian Sector". But as the story makes clear, the shooting didn't exactly "erupt":

Volleys of gunfire were heard shortly after a convoy of cars carrying pictures of Syrian President Bashar Assad, which had earlier demonstrated in Muslim south Beirut, headed later to the Christian sector of Ashrafieh, a center of anti-Syrian sentiment.

People in the cars exchanged insults with about a dozen men. Gunmen then opened fire from the cars as they drove around, the witnesses said. There appeared to be no casualties.

The shooting appears to be a clumsy attempt to provoke violence that would justify a continued Syrian presence in Lebanon. I thought this was interesting, too. This AP photo news story says: "A pro-Syrian protester fires into the air, in the Christian sector of Ashrafieh, Beirut, during a convoy of cars carrying pictures of Syrian President Bashar Assad driving in Beirut, Lebanon." Here's the photo:

That's not a protester. That's a thug, and someone is paying him. These are protesters:

Today Syria's Assad promised a phased withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon; first they withdraw toward the border, then, at some unspecified time, across the border. His announcement was reportedly greeted joyfully by the anti-Syrian protesters in Beirut. But it's obviously inadequate. Let's hope the anti-Syrian movement in Lebanon isn't too easily satisfied. They, and we, need to keep the pressure on.

The Lone Republican Running For Los Angeles Mayor

2005-03-05T18:04:00.000-08:00

Walter Moore is a 45-year-old business trial lawyer; graduated with honors from Princeton and Georgetown Law; has a degree in Public And International Affairs; and was an Editor of the Georgetown Law Journal. Moore is not a career politician. Rather, like you, he's a taxpayer fed up with career politicians who cater to special interests rather than protecting the public interest.

I am not exactly endorsing this candidate, but as the only Republican in the race, if I could vote in this election (I live in Los Angeles County, but not The City of L.A.) I would vote for Walter Moore. Ok, I guess I did just endorse him!

His website says that if he got 150,000 votes, he could win the race because of how many candidates will split the rest of the vote. I estimate there are more than 300,000 Republicans in The City of Los Angeles. Not bad odds if he can get his name to enough of them.

MooreIsBetter.com

I have assigned one of my correspondents to do a write up on this guy explaining his background and plans should he be elected Mayor. Look for that towards the middle of next week.

Washington State Governor Race Update

2005-03-05T15:20:00.000-08:00

Via NewsMax.com:

Washington GOP Gives List of Felons Who Voted

OLYMPIA, Wash. -- Republicans have released 1,135 names of alleged felons who they say illegally cast ballots in the governor's race that Democrat Christine Gregoire won by 129 votes.

The list turned over to Democratic Party lawyers on Thursday contained the names and addresses of the alleged felons, along with 45 people who Republicans say died before the Nov. 2 election but who were listed as having voted.

"It's one more significant piece of evidence that this past election was not only deeply flawed but that we don't know who won," said Mary Lane, a spokeswoman for Republican opponent Dino Rossi, who is challenging the results in court. "Christine Gregoire is not the legitimately elected governor."
Democrats, who have intervened in the suit on the side of the state and argue the election should stand, said they doubt the accuracy of the list.

Republicans said they obtained a felon list from the State Patrol and compared it to a voter list from the secretary of state's office.

Rossi led after the first two vote tallies only to lose in a hand count of 2.9 million ballots cast. He and his supporters filed suit in Chelan County seeking to void the results, alleging widespread problems.

Democrat attorney David McDonald said he was "reasonably confident that list is not going to hold up to scrutiny.

"We will, among other things, check the factual basis for each of the claims," he said. "We're not going to take them at their word. We're going to double-check their work."

Discovery continues in the case and a trial date has not yet been set.

The Blogosphere Wonders: Is Bill Clinton Really That Stupid?

2005-03-05T15:00:00.000-08:00

Powerline, Little Green Footballs and our blog, SoCalPundit were caught scratching our heads Saturday morning at this article written by Amir Taheri of pro-western internet daily, ArabNews.com.

Mr. Taheri writes of insane comments made by former President Bill Clinton at last month's Davos World Economic Forum about Iran. Taheri writes:

Here is what Clinton said at a meeting on the margins of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, just a few weeks ago: Iran today is, in a sense, the only country where progressive ideas enjoy a vast constituency. It is there that the ideas that I subscribe to are defended by a majority.
And here is what Clinton had to say in a recent television interview with Charlie Rose:

Iran is the only country in the world that has now had six elections since the first election of President Khatami (in 1997). (It is) the only one with elections, including the United States, including Israel, including you name it, where the liberals, or the progressives, have won two-thirds to 70 percent of the vote in six elections: Two for president; two for the Parliament, the Majlis; two for the mayoralties. In every single election, the guys I identify with got two-thirds to 70 percent of the vote. There is no other country in the world I can say that about, certainly not my own.

So, while millions of Iranians, especially the young, look to the United States as a mode of progress and democracy, a former president of the US looks to the Islamic Republic as his ideological homeland.

UPDATE: Little Green Footballs has posted an audio clip of Clinton in Davos that is accessible here.

Anti-War Leftists Find New Ammunition In Accidental Shooting of Journalist

2005-03-05T14:36:00.000-08:00

I guess it was only a matter of time before an incident could be warped to the view of anti-Democratic Leftist pigs, hell-bent on stopping the spread of Democracy to the Middle East at all costs. However, I do not believe the liberals of Italy or anywhere else have the momentum. The momentum is on the side of the FREE!!!

Furthermore, the Democracy-haters have not responded to the claim..

..by US forces that the vehicle carrying former hostage Giuliana Sgrena was speeding as it approached a coalition checkpoint in western Baghdad on its way to the airport. American authorities said soldiers shot into the engine block only after trying to warn the driver to stop by "hand and arm signals, flashing white lights and firing warning shots.

The Associated Press mentioned in the article that Left-Wing radicals were on hand to in get their message out:

About 100 demonstrators outside the U.S. Embassy in Rome blocked traffic and one banner read: "USA, war criminals." A few dozen communist demonstrators at the U.S. Consulate in Milan handed out leaflets reading, "Shame on you, Bush."

The article wraps by explaining the previously captured journalists previous circumstances:

Sgrena was abducted Feb. 4 by gunmen who blocked her car outside Baghdad University. Last month, she was shown in a video sobbing, pleading for her life and demanding that all foreign troops - including Italian forces - leave Iraq.

Sgrena told colleagues from her newspaper, however, that her captors "never treated me badly," ANSA reported. She also said a woman was among the abductors and that she communicated with them in French and English.

The Leftists are "demanding answers" as to why this tragedy occurred. But are "facts" what they really want, or cover for their attempts to undo the great good that has occurred because Iraqi citizens are now free.

UPDATE: I was just thinking that given the fact that they had just gotten the journalist back from captivity, the coalition check point must have looked like a dangerous situation to drive into. It is fully w/in reason to expect the driver decided, for safety sake, to barrel through just in case....

You Talkin About Me?

2005-03-04T13:12:00.000-08:00

TechCentralStation.com offers an excellent essay about the value of the "Blogosphere":

Bloggers are the best thing that has ever happened to journalism.

They make a good reporter look better. They expose the phonies, the poseurs, the fast-writing conmen, with the speed of light.

They give the journalist a greater access to more information and informational context than ever before.

They provide swift exposure to varied points of view, and, most importantly, a constant, sometimes rough, but always important gauge of a reporter's skill, judgment, industriousness and integrity.

And now we give fringe media outlets like TechCentralStation some needed exposure!

Winning The Hearts & Minds of The Liberal Media

2005-03-04T12:36:00.000-08:00

Being an on-again, off-again viewer of Comedy Central's The Daily Show, I can tell you the show's host Jon Stewart is an unabashed liberal. But I have always found him to be at least principally honest about his politics. I can not however say the same for his guest from last Thursday.

On Thursday, Clinton aid, Nancy Soderberg was on the show to promote her book, "The Superpower Myth: The Use and Misuse of American Might." which as far as I can tell w/out reading it, blasts Bush's idea of bringing Democracy to the Middle East as a means to end tyranny and terrorism.

Jon Stewart, much to my shock and awe used the entire interview to undermine the entire premise of the book. According to The Washington Times:

One such moment came when Mrs. Soderberg said, "[A]s a Democrat, you don't want anything nice to happen to the Republicans, and you don't want them to have progress. But as an American, you hope good things would happen." To which Mr. Stewart replied, "Do you think that the people of Lebanon would have had the courage of their conviction, having not seen -- not only the invasion but the election which followed [in Iraq]? It's almost as though that the Iraqi election has emboldened this crazy -- something is going on over there. I'm smelling something."

But Soderberg continued:

"Well, there's still Iran and North Korea, don't forget. There's still hope for the rest of us ... There's always hope that this might not work."

There is a domino effect going on not only in the Middle East but in the studios of America's Liberal Media Outlets as well. Kudos to Jon Stewart for not being afraid to buck the talking points of the liberal media and putting to words his changing heart. Shame on Ms. Soderberg for making light of the incredible Democratic Reforms going on in the world.

Breaking News: Syria Not Committed To Full Troop Withdrawal From Lebanon

2005-03-04T11:57:00.000-08:00

According to the Associated Press:

Syrian President Bashar Assad was expected to announce a troop pullback to eastern Lebanon near the Syrian border - but not a full withdrawal - in a speech Saturday to parliament, Syrian and Lebanese officials said Friday. The move would fall short of U.S. and Arab demands for a full withdrawal.

This is crap. President Bush, France and Saudi Arabia must each follow this "speech to the Syrian parliament" with speeches of their own denouncing Assad's position as "way too little and too damn late". Anything else would be playing right into Syria's plan to get out from under this problem while saving as much face as possible thus undermining the reason Bush is pushing so hard to get Syria out of Lebanon in the first place. A forced Syrian withdrawal will undermine Bashir Assad's authority at home thus weakening his totalitarian regime, hastening its demise.

UPDATE: President Bush on Friday flatly rejected any partial withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon, saying he will not accept the kind of "half-measures" Damascus is expected to propose as a compromise.

IMPORTANT READER ALERT - FEC LAWS TRAMPLE FREE SPEECH

2005-03-04T11:29:00.000-08:00

Read SoCalPundit's writing on this from yesterday, HERE.

Edward Morrissey over at the blog, Captain's Quarters has penned a very good letter that he has sent to applicable lawmakers in Washington. Mr. Mossissey has asked that blog readers copy his letter and email it off to your representatives. Here are his specific instructions:

Here's where you can help me out. Please copy my letter above and paste it into a message with an introduction of your own and send it to both Senators from your home state. That way we can be sure that all 100 Senators not only see this letter but your endorsement of it.

At Town Hall, they have a Web form set up to do this, but many of the autoresponses indicate that they will not reply to messages sent from constituents outside their state.

Here is the letter that Captain's Quarters is asking you to copy/append/send:

To the honorable Senators McCain and Feingold, et al:

I have read with considerable dismay the effect that your recent lawsuit against the Federal Election Commission, upheld by Judge Colleen Kollar-Ketelly, will have on political speech on the Internet. I write a political media-watchdog blog, Captain's Quarters, which enjoys a not-insubstantial daily readership. No one pays me to do this; I operate my site and write on topics purely from personal convictions and a deep desire to improve the world around me and make the nation stronger. I can unequivocally say the same about my many colleagues in the "blogosphere", both liberal and conservative.

Now we understand from Bradley Smith, one of the FEC commissioners, that your lawsuit forcing them to regulate speech on the Internet will have the effect of turning our efforts into in-kind contributions, especially when we provide hyperlinks back to candidate sites for referencing their positions and excerpt text from their on-line documents. Hyperlinks allow our readers to check our references to ensure our accuracy and context, and perform the hygienic task of holding our politicians accountable for their campaign practices. All of this not only should fall under the protection of the First Amendment, but it should be the primary reason for the First Amendment -- to protect and encourage free political speech and foster genuine debate.

Your legislation and the accompanying lawsuit that forced the FEC to regulate Internet political speech threaten all of that. If my links to political sites such as Georgewbush.com and Johnkerry.com counted as contributions and I was forced to accept responsibility for the cash value that the FEC designated to them, I would have been charged with several misdemeanors and possibly felonies, as I provided many such links during the past election cycle. During this cycle, my blog published over 680 essays on the presidential election. In fact, I linked to Senator Kerry's site four times as often as President Bush's site, which would have meant to the FEC that I was a major contributor to his campaign -- when in fact I opposed Senator Kerry and supported President Bush. These regulations would have forced me to retain the services of a full-time accountant and retain an attorney to understand when and where I overcontributed. At the very least, the burden of proof would be on me to make the FEC believe that my blog does not constitute in-kind contributions subject to the limits imposed on both hard and soft money contributions.

The effect of this would have been to force me to shut down my blog, or convert it to something else. In fact, it would have caused me less legal heartache to convert my site to a porn blog and do nothing but post hard-core pictures all day long. In the twisted environment of the McCain-Feingold Act, that kind of website would enjoy greater First Amendment protection than my political speech, a result for which every single Senator should feel shame and outrage.

Each of you should read the Constitution you swore to uphold and defend, and reflect on the unequivocal language of our forefathers:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

We may debate about the effect of unregulated cash on our electoral system, but if this new FEC effort comes to pass, the only people debating will be the corporate-owned media and the politicians. The rest of us will have been effectively bound and gagged, unable to contribute in any way thanks to the efforts of those who fear their own constituents. You can be assured that none of us in the blogosphere will fail to recognize those who do not act to defend our rights to free and unfettered political speech, and regardless of political party, none of us will rest until those voices of repression are stripped of office by the voters they hold in such low regard.

I, for one, will not be daunted by your attempts to stifle us. My many friends and colleagues on both sides of the political aisle stand as ready as I to defend the Constitution. We demand a hearing on McCain-Feingold, with open testimony before the press and our colleagues, and we demand action to reform or repeal this dangerous and un-American muzzle on political speech.

We await your response, sirs.

Edward Morrissey
Captain's Quarters

It is vital that we not allow government to silence the blogosphere. Do your duty as an American, regardless of political affiliation.

Will A Judges Error Keep Terri Schiavo Alive?

2005-03-04T10:38:00.000-08:00

Judge Greer may have excuded oral arguments against removing Schiavo's feeding tube based on flawed information. The facts the judge got wrong surround comments reported to have been made by Schaivo in 1982 where Terri indicated she disagreed with a mother's decision to remove her child from life support. According to WND.com:

Parents Robert and Mary Schindler contend Pinellas County Probate Court George Greer made a "clear mistake" when he discounted the testimony of Diane Meyer, who said that in 1982 Terri Schiavo told her she did not agree with the well-known decision by Karen Ann Quinlan's parents to take their daughter off life support.

Florida law allows for consideration of oral expressions of end-of-life wishes. Husband Michael Schiavo claims his wife told him she would not want to be keep alive through artificial means, but her parents don't believe that.

Attorneys for the parents of Terri Schiavo filed a new motion claiming a trial judge made a reversible error that affected his determination of whether the brain-damaged Florida woman would want to be keep alive in her present condition.

Parents Robert and Mary Schindler contend Pinellas County Probate Court George Greer made a "clear mistake" when he discounted the testimony of Diane Meyer, who said that in 1982 Terri Schiavo told her she did not agree with the well-known decision by Karen Ann Quinlan's parents to take their daughter off life support.

Florida law allows for consideration of oral expressions of end-of-life wishes. Husband Michael Schiavo claims his wife told him she would not want to be keep alive through artificial means, but her parents don't believe that.

Terri Schiavo is not hooked up to any machines, but she requires a small feeding tube for nourishment and hydration. In 2000, Greer ordered that the tube be removed, and last week, denying a motion for a further stay, gave the Schindlers until March 18 at 1 p.m. to appeal before the order is carried out.

At the 2000 trial, Greer, although initially finding Meyer's testimony 'believable,' concluded that the conversation could not have occurred in 1982, because he believed Quinlan died in 1976. At that time, Terri would have been only 11 or 12 years old and, therefore, would not have made her end-of-life wishes as an adult.

So basically it is said that this false information led to a desision by judge Greer that is not legal. Thus it is necessary to hear arguments and for Judge Greer to issue a determination all over again.

Is The World Getting It Yet?

2005-03-04T09:29:00.000-08:00

I once asked this question of my readers and now it is being asked all over the world. In today's Times of London Online, Gerard Baker, in different words, asks the same question. He wonders, What have the Americans ever done for us?, and then proceeds to answer it by comparing the question to an old Monty Python skit:

ONE OF MY favourite cinematic moments is the scene in Monty Python's Life of Brian when Reg, aka John Cleese, the leader of the People's Front of Judea, is trying to whip up anti-Roman sentiment among his team of slightly hesitant commandos.
"What have the Romans ever done for us?" he asks.

"Well, there's the aqueduct," somebody says, thoughtfully. "The sanitation," says another. "Public order," offers a third. Reg reluctantly acknowledges that there may have been a couple of benefits. But then steadily, and with increasing enthusiasm, his men reel off a litany of the good things the Romans have wrought with their occupation of the Holy Land.

By the time theyre finished they're not so sure about the whole insurgency idea after all and an exasperated Reg tries to rally them: "All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?"

That is a brilliant comparison and the rest of the commentary follows along the same lines. America, under teh leadership of George W. Bush has ruffled a lot of feathers and may indeed be seen as the enemy, even by some of it's own people, but the contributions that this nation is making to the pursuit of Democracy around the world can not and must not be ignored.

Job Creation Exceeds Analysts Forcasts For February

2005-03-04T08:32:00.000-08:00

From The Associated Press:

The median forecast of Wall Street economists polled a week ago was for a nonfarm payroll gain of 220,000 jobs...

U.S. employers created 262,000 jobs last month, the biggest gain in four months and double January's pace, as auto workers returned from temporary layoffs and construction activity snapped back from a cold January, the government said on Friday.

In other Financial News:

U.S. factory orders unexpectedly rose 0.2 percent in January on electrical equipment strength while a gauge of business spending also posted solid gains, a government report showed on Friday.

The rise in factory orders to a seasonally adjusted $380.53 billion defied Wall Street expectations for a 0.1 percent drop.

UPDATE: The stock market has taken notice of the excellent data despite The Associated Press' attempts to downplay the good news with headilines like; Job Gains Strong, But Jobless Rate Climbs.

UPDATE: Oil Prices Cooling - A sharp rally in oil prices to near-record peaks stalled on Friday after OPEC-member Nigeria said the cartel may agree later this month to raise output to cool the red-hot market.

U.S. light crude was off 7 cents to $53.50 a barrel, after dropping as low as $52.90. A rally that started at midweek had prices briefly within 50 cents of last October's $55.67 record.