## July 11, 2004

### The Report

Dan over at Winds of Change actually read all 521 pages of the Senate Intelligence Committee Report and has a preliminary analysis that explodes several media myths partisan lies on the subject of terrorism. Nice.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 11:21 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## July 09, 2004

### Goodbye, Ben

Ben Stein pens his last column for E! Online, in which he speaks about his transformation since he began writing the column. He no longer holds the "stars" in Hollywood in the high regard that he once did. Read the whole thing, but here's a taste:

> How can a man or woman who makes an eight-figure wage and lives in insane luxury really be a star in today's world, if by a "star" we mean someone bright and powerful and attractive as a role model?

> Real stars are not riding around in the backs of limousines or in Porsches or getting trained in yoga or Pilates and eating only raw fruit while they have Vietnamese girls do their nails. They can be interesting, nice people, but they are not heroes to me any longer.

> A real star is the soldier of the 4th Infantry Division who poked his head into a hole on a farm near Tikrit, Iraq. He could have been met by a bomb or a hail of AK-47 bullets. Instead, he faced an abject Saddam Hussein and the gratitude of all of the decent people of the world.

> A real star is the U.S. soldier who was sent to disarm a bomb next to a road north of Baghdad. He approached it, and the bomb went off and killed him.

> A real star, the kind who haunts my memory night and day, is the U.S. soldier in Baghdad who saw a little girl playing with a piece of unexploded ordnance on a street near where he was guarding a station. He pushed her aside and threw himself on it just as it exploded. He left a family desolate in California and a little girl alive in Baghdad.

> I no longer want to perpetuate poor values by pretending that who is eating at Morton's is a big subject. The stars who deserve media attention are not the ones who have lavish weddings on TV but the ones who patrol the streets of Mosul even after two of their buddies were murdered and their bodies battered and stripped for the sin of trying to protect Iraqis from terrorists.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 12:39 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

## July 02, 2004

### "Straight Up Nigger"

So we get out of the car to walk into a McDonald's (excuse me, I mean "Mickey D's") in BF Arkansas and there are three African-American youths (perhaps 14 to 16 years old) standing behind their car talking rather loudly.

"You gotta be a straight up nigger," I hear.

I'm sorry to be so totally not "with it", but I was (to say the least) somewhat shocked. Although I hear an endless stream of the word in in movies, on television, in songs and from the mouths of black comedians, I have never heard it while walking with my wife in public in a place where there are small children present. And even after the hundreds, if not thousands, of times that I've heard it, I was offended.

I never heard the word in my parent's house while growing up. I was raised in the military (which is highly integrated) and never heard the word used in school. I realize that I grew up in a more innocent time, but even so, I was somewhat taken aback by the strength of my reaction to the word.

I, middle age white male, was offended.

I looked over and saw a group of adults talking just a few feet away from the youths. The parents? I don't know, but I hope not. But even if not, why did they not say something?

It was repeated, louder and more emphatic. "You. gots. ta be. a. straight. up. nigger."

If the word has come to mean something less pejorative than when we were growing up, then fine. "Bitch" used to be a word that got your mouth washed out with soap, but these days it's someone who is being spiteful or difficult. Now everyone says it. "You bitch!" you can exclaim. There are worse things to say.

So if "nigger" is not the derogatory term that it once was, then everyone should be able to use it. I should have been able to turn to the kids and say, "He's right. If you're going to be a nigger you should be a straight up nigger!" and they would laugh and I would smile and wave. But I can't. Had I done so there may have been bloodshed. Because had I done so I would now be in jail for shooting one or two people as they would almost certainly have turned on me with hate-filled eyes, animus in their hearts and malice in their souls.

And rightly so, for it is a word filled with hate that should never be used.

It is a word filled with emotive historical context of which no one should be ignorant, and certainly not these youths, for if a word could ever be evil, then this one certainly is. Its mere utterance evokes imagery of separate water fountains and of stepping into the street with eyes downcast to give others the use of a sidewalk; of cross burnings and church bombings and lynchings in the dark of night; of wrongful arrests and beatings administered with barbaric cruelty in the name of order and justice.

It is a word which represents a concept that generations have fought and died to eradicate from our hearts and minds.

The abolition movement in this country started at least as early as 1688 and grew to include men like Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine and George Washington. John Brown led a botched revolution to end it and women like Harriet Tubman risked their lives working the Underground Railroad. Our nation endured unimaginable savagery during a long and bloody civil war. Fighting prejudice gave us great civil rights figures like Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks.

The fight to rid the world of prejudice produced many more courageous men and women willing perform heroic acts. Every time the word is used, it is an insult to the valorous men of the Tuskagee Airmen, to the intrepid pugnacity of Fannie Lou Hamer, and to the incalculable courage exhibited by a group of children who became known as the Little Rock Nine. But these youths have probably never heard of these brave individuals, which makes it all the sadder. They do not understand the centuries of struggle and how far we have come.

The word represents a malignancy that has been cut out of our souls by innumerable acts of bravery; excised through unimaginable passion and indescribable suffering; expunged by boundless determination and extraordinary sacrifice.

At least, it should have been. The battle for civil rights was won, but the greater war for equality has been lost; the proof lies in the continued use of the word. The evil still exists as long as the word is uttered. These youths are throwing away all the gains by perpetuating the word, and what the word represents. They do not know that their use of the word is a tragedy of enormous proportions.

There is a sickness in the soul of black America that is no less pernicious than the sickness darkening the heart of Islam. The sickness is evidenced by the rise of victimization and entitlement culture, the breakdown of morals and of family, and the denigration of women. It is a sickness perpetrated in the worst imaginable case of black-on-black crime in history.

People, if you don't want me to say it then don't use the word. More importantly, if you don't want your peers of other races to say it, then don't use it. You can't be mad if they do. You mustn't.

But you will, won't you? And the hatred, the divisiveness will grow.

Bill Cosby is offended, too. He presented this message for the second time, this time to Jesse "Shakedown" Jackson's Rainbow/PUSH Coalition.

> "Let me tell you something, your dirty laundry gets out of school at 2:30 every day, it's cursing and calling each other n----r as they're walking up and down the street," he said.

> Cosby continued railing about the state of black youth in America. "They think they're hip," he said. "They can't read; they can't write. They're laughing and giggling, and they're going nowhere."...He complained about rap music: "When you put on a record, and that record is yelling 'n----r this' and 'n----r that' and cursing all over the thing and you got your little six-year-old and seven-year-old sitting in the back seat of the car--those children hear that. And I am telling you when you put the CD on and then you get up and dance to it, what are you saying to your children?"

> And he also ripped into sitcoms targeting African-American audiences: "Comedians coming on TV [saying,] 'I am so ugly, you are ugly, yuck, yuck.' That's all minstrel show stuff. I am tired of it."

> In May, Cosby got in hot water with several civil rights activists when he criticized the lifestyle, education and speech patterns of his fellow African Americans, saying there is no excuse for ignorant behavior.

> "I can't even talk the way these people talk, 'Why you ain't,' 'Where you is'...and I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk," Cosby said in May. "And then I heard the father talk...Everybody knows it's important to speak English except these knuckleheads. You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth."

> On Thursday, Cosby further elaborated his thoughts on the subject, saying once again that white people aren't to blame for teen pregnancy and high-school dropout rates.

> "For me there is a time...when we have to turn the mirror around," he said. "Because for me it is almost analgesic to talk about what the white man is doing against us. And it keeps a person frozen in their seat, it keeps you frozen in your hole you're sitting in."

Indeed -- a return to conservative family values was a theme in Cosby's tirade:

> The more you invest in that child, the more you are not going to let some CD tell your child how to curse and how to say the word 'nigger.' This is an accepted word. You are so hip with 'nigger,' but you can't even spell it," an impassioned Cosby lamented.

> Whatever happened to 'Black is beautiful?' Well, it was replaced with 'nigger please,'" he said to laughter....

> "Education, ladies and gentleman, respect the elderly, respect for yourselves, respect for others," Cosby said.

> "These young girls have no business having sex!" he emphasized as the crowd clapped approvingly.

Columnist Dawn Turner Trice says, "Blacks neither elected Jackson, nor appointed him. He was a product of the media and the times." Yet she believes that there is still a need for black leaders, and wonders who they will turn out to be:

> One of the enduring hallmarks of a black leader, indeed any leader, is his or her ability to mobilize a mass of people. An effective black leader has to be able to reignite a fire under a community of disaffected people, but also those blacks with more education, more money and greater access to information than at any time in our history.

> Who will the black leaders be?

> Will they be community activists such as Rev. Michael Pfleger of St. Sabina Church, who isn't even African-American, but who has worked for years in impoverished black communities for change?

> What about prominent and powerful blacks who aren't widely considered black leaders? I'm thinking about National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State Colin Powell or even Time Warner Chief Executive Officer Richard Parsons.

Smart lady, this Ms. Trice. I hope the black community starts looking around for a new set of leaders.

Jesse may see this coming as well:

> Jesse Jackson, head of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, wipes a tear from his face in an emotional moment after listening to entertainer Bill Cosby address the civil rights organization's annual conference, Thursday, July 1, 2004, in Chicago.

Yep, Jesse has a tear -- because black America may finally be waking up to the fact that wallowing in the victimization and entitlement that "leaders" like Jackson dish out has been detrimental to the struggle, their lives, and the lives of their children.

How is black America receiving this message? For an answer I headed over to a discussion board at BET. I found that the vast majority of responses were along lines like these:

From sunshinegrl82:

> Thank you Dr.Cosby! His message is one of accountability. He should've touched on the poor's dependence on the government too.

> Since when did our government deserve our trust to the point where they are building our houses, feeding our children, building our apartments, giving us our money, handling our family business, and teaching our children what it means to be Black in America with the history books they distribute in public schools?

> Poor Black people are allowing the same government that enslaved us for hundreds of years, to run their lives(mental slavery). Let me tell you. Our government hasn't changed so much.

From Kenny997T:

> Dr. Cosby has said the same thing our mothers,father,grandparents have said all our lives get a good education work hard for what you want. Everything comes at some cost nothing comes for free! Today's youth glorify Basketball players,Football players, rappers and drugdealers its all in our face everywhere TV, Video and movies.
> they are our modern day Robin Hood.
> We make fun of the educated brothers and sistas we call them nerds. Its not hot to be smart, and get good grades respect your elders. It all begins at home. We our so quick to fault parents but the family structure has broken down completely.

From blkamazonqwn:

> All I can say is thank you Bill!!! Our culture has gone backwards.

From olatokslaw:

> not to boast, I remember my mother use to wake me up like 4.00am to study for exams that I have, while still at elementary/middle school.This was in NIgeria. I live alone now in USA for the last 4.5 yrs. I just graduated with 3.798 GPA in Biomedical engineering.she laid the foundation earlier. I work to pay bills and was going to school. If parents in America spend time with their kidds LIKE MY MUM did with me and my brother, then Cosby won't be saying this. his emphasis was not on using those words, but it would be better if they can speak English. I mean, I have a Black american friend who pronounces 50 as fity. she can't prounce it right in class. pretty sick. Coaby is plainly right.

From cannon07:

> I am only 14 years old and I agree with everything that he said. I often thought about what Bill said and it is true. Black people don't want to live up the truth and the truth is we need to wake up. Just like the Missy Elliot joint wake up "i love jacob, but jewelry won't fix my place up.." All i can say is god bless bill cosby for making a statement that has been hidden for years.

From LPskin:

> If racism died today, would we as African Americans immediately rise to prominence? Or how long would it take? 5yrs, 10? Would all of our AIDS problems, baby having baby issues and drug problems vanish? Truth is we?re all scared to say that if you erase racism as the sole cause to all of black Americas ills you would have to deal with issues that until now have been taboo in the black community.

There are dozens of messages like these. Some are negative, defensive, attacking, but they are few and far between.

These posts give me hope. Hatred, fear, ignorance -- these are things we should strive to leave behind. Billions for welfare and public education, and we are worse off than before. Please, please, let's start putting some thought into our policies instead of supporting the feel-good cause of the day.

The Jackson's and Sharpton's of the world are losing their importance as other leaders are standing up, other role models are stepping forward.

It's time to move -- not to move on, but to move forward. Together.

Update: The Boston Globe has an excellent take on why this is not just black America's problem:

> From a white perspective, it is easy to cheer on Cosby then smugly write off his words as a long-overdue wake-up call for black America. It's their problem, not ours, right?

> Their problem it may be, but the big issue -- declining values and standards -- isn't limited to one ethnicity or neighborhood.

> Today the American minivan is hip-hopping along the way to soccer games and baseball practice. The beat is a better pickup than caffeine, but listen to the lyrics and the message is a real downer. Not to sound like Tipper Gore, but after a while you realize you are singing about shaking your "tailfeather," "milking the cow," and "double-Ds," with the n-word thrown around as generously as the Beatles used "yeah, yeah, yeah." White boys can't jump, but many of them want to be Kobe Bryant or, short of that, Ja Rule. They want the money, the cars, and the bootylicious babes, and they see no connection between those goals and reading "A Separate Peace." (Incidentally, it is difficult to explain why a certain ethnic slur is unacceptable when they hear their rap idols singing it on their favorite CDs.)...

> The hip-hop generation is not all black. White America just likes to believe it is.

Read it all.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 11:13 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

## June 27, 2004

### Conservatives Fight Back

The universe is a wonderful system of balance. If something tips too far one way, things have a way of reacting and bringing it back. That's why the free market works.

Case in point: Hollywood.

Movies with transparent political messages are being made and are marketed as "entertainment", when in reality they are as poorly based in reality as the most loathsome Nazi propaganda film. Hollywood elites are giving each other awards for "best documentary" which are proven to be facts cunningly blended with fiction, lies and misrepresentations made by those who hate America.

It has gotten so bad, the films are so monumentally biased, that the ability to be shown during campaign season is being brought into question. [A tactic that I am opposed to. We don't need government regulation, we need the people with a stake in America to make a change.]

But the people are fed up. We've had enough of the lies and distortions.

Just as the liberal media gave rise to Fox and talk radio (not to mention more than a few blogs), so now is Hollywood creating an alternate film market.

The American Film Renaissance Institute is dedicated to helping filmmakers produce films that promote American values, rather than erode them. Their next film festival will be this September in Dallas and already has ten films lined up, two of which are aimed at Michael Moore.

The first is "Michael Moore Hates America" [two movie trailers available], a $200K documentary made by Michael Wilson who is looking to make a name for himself. Hopefully he will do so by keeping to the truth and not resorting the to the distortion tactics that has made Moore loved by the left (most liberals don't mind a con artist as long as he is their con artist -- I find that most conservatives are a little more principled [no Ann Coulter cracks please]).

The second is "Michael & Me," made by Larry Elder, is specifically aimed at Moore's "Bowling for Columbine" mockumentary.

> "My film is a defense of those who own guns and of the Second Amendment," said Elder, whose "The Larry Elder Show" from Warner Bros. Prods. starts Sept. 13 on CBS affiliates in most major markets.

As one would expect, the Global War on Terrorism will also be a subject of films at the Renaissance

> And the war on terror also is expected to be a dominant theme at the American Film Renaissance.

> "Liberal Hollywood has basically ignored the subject," filmmaker Jason Apuzzo said. His entry to the festival is "Terminal Island" and stars his wife, Govindini Murty, with a cameo from Irvin Kershner, director of "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Never Say Never Again." Kershner, who Apuzzo is careful to note that he doesn't share the same politics as Apuzzo and Murty, nevertheless mentored the couple in the making of their film.

> "Conservative messages don't have a chance in contemporary Hollywood," Apuzzo said. "But there's another side in Hollywood. We are small in numbers but passionate."

> "Terminal Island" is a black-and-white feature film about a woman being stalked by a Muslim terrorist who is himself being stalked by a bounty hunter.

> "When you shop a script like this around," said Murty, "studio execs say, 'Is this about Muslim terrorists? We don't want to touch it.' "

> So why have a couple of lawyers from Texas created a film festival? "I've always been interested in the cultural and political messages in film," Jim Hubbard said. "To be frank, whenever there is such a message, it's liberal. For 40 years the left has had a near monopoly, and we're going to counter that."

And that's what I love about America.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 10:53 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## June 21, 2004

### Sinking Opinion of Clinton

Gallup runs a retrospective poll on the Clinton eight-year reign of dishonor and depravity that will forever stain the history of a great nation presidency:

> Clinton scores relatively well in comparison with other recent presidents when Americans are asked how his presidency will go down in history. Still, Americans have rated Clinton's handling of the presidency slightly lower in recent years than right before he left office.

One would think that the myth would grow stronger as people forgot what a prick he was, but that is not the case. So much for that whole "legacy" thing.

> Clinton's retrospective job approval ratings in 2002 actually ranked toward the bottom of the list of the most recent presidents:

Goodness, ranked lower than Carter? I'd slit my wrists!

A couple of other tidbits:

1. Who do you think history will remember as the better president?
   - Former President Ronald Reagan, 69 percent
   - Former President Bill Clinton, 28 percent
2. Who do you think history will remember as the better president?
   - Former President Bill Clinton, 46 percent
   - Current President George W. Bush, 48 percent

Bush has another five years to build his legacy (and unlike Clinton these will not be one scandal-gate after another-gate) and he is already running ahead of Clinton.

But my favorite quote of this whole deal comes from a Dem:

> Andrea Parron, of Harmony, R.I., a self-described "bleeding-heart Democrat," said given the choice of Clinton or Bush, "I'd take Clinton back in a heartbeat. But I would kick him in the groin so he could keep his mind on business."

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 09:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### Today's Must Read

NYU history professor Mr. Ferguson authors a fascinating article about how a power vacuum may come about in the 21st century and the results that an apolar world would bring. It's too good to excerpt -- read it all.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 06:45 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

### Mailing: Dems Should Apologize

Florida Democrats are more than a little upset:

> Democrats in Sarasota and Manatee counties are seething over recent mailings that accuse Democrats of "historical atrocities and discrimination" against blacks to keep them in bondage.

> The four-page mailing, written by an organization calling itself the Black Political History Education Project, calls on Democrats to apologize for their party's actions dating back to the Civil War.

Heh. Sounds like a damn fine idea to me.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 06:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## June 17, 2004

### Local Poll

A local radio station (Rock103) has a poll that poses this question:

> They go in threes. Reagan, Ray Charles. Who would you LIKE to see third?

So far, the results look like this:

David Blane |  | 1.8%
The a--hole who cut me off in traffic |  | 5.4%
Britney Spears |  | 7.1%
Bill O'Reilly |  | 7.1%
Saddam Hussein |  | 21.4%
Ted Kennedy |  | 57.1%

Is it too tacky of me to think that sometimes the public gets it right? (Well, OK, at least the right-leaning listeners of one radio station.)
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 08:40 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

## May 27, 2004

### Bush to Finally Control Government Spending

> The White House put government agencies on notice this month that if President Bush is reelected, his budget for 2006 may include spending cuts for virtually all agencies in charge of domestic programs, including education, homeland security and others that the president backed in this campaign year. ...

> "Assume accounts are funded at the 2006 level specified in the 2005 Budget database," the memo informs federal program associate directors and their deputies. "If you propose to increase funding above that level for any account, it must be offset within your agency by proposing to decrease funding below that level in other accounts."

Even though the cuts are small (you have to start somewhere), the reaction has already set in and the rhetoric has begun:

> But the cuts are politically sensitive, targeting popular programs that Bush has been touting on the campaign trail. The Education Department; a nutrition program for women, infants and children; Head Start; and homeownership, job-training, medical research and science programs all face cuts in 2006.

> "Despite [administration] denials, this memorandum confirms what we suspected all along," said Thomas S. Kahn, Democratic staff director on the House Budget Committee. "Next February, the administration plans to propose spending cuts in key government services to pay for oversized tax cuts."

Look for this to be a huge campaign issue. After all:

> Federal agencies' discretionary spending has risen 39 percent in the past three years. "I think the public is ready for spending cuts," Riedl said. "Not only does the public understand there's a lot of waste in the federal budget, but the public is ready to make sacrifices during the war on terror."

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 01:01 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

## May 25, 2004

### Clarke Flip-flops

Ex-chief of counterterrorism and current Bush critic is changing his story:

> Richard Clarke, who served as President Bush’s chief of counterterrorism [and Clinton's!], has claimed sole responsibility for approving flights of Saudi Arabian citizens, including members of Osama bin Laden’s family, from the United States immediately after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The opening paragraph would lead one to think that Clarke is suffering from a rare case of ethical behavior. Of course, Clarke is actually changing his story:

> This new account of the events seemed to contradict Clarke’s sworn testimony before the Sept. 11 commission at the end of March about who approved the flights.

> “The request came to me, and I refused to approve it,” Clarke testified. “I suggested that it be routed to the FBI and that the FBI look at the names of the individuals who were going to be on the passenger manifest and that they approve it or not. I spoke with the — at the time — No. 2 person in the FBI, Dale Watson, and asked him to deal with this issue. The FBI then approved … the flight.”

Not only does Clarke contravene himself, but his account conflicts with the FBI's:

> However, the FBI has denied approving the flight.

> FBI spokeswoman Donna Spiser said, “We haven’t had anything to do with arranging and clearing the flights.”

Dems just won't let this alone. Even thought the highly politicized 9-11 Commission said last month that the six chartered flights that evacuated the Saudis were handled properly, Dems insist on inventing a scandal:

> Instead of putting the issue to rest, Clarke’s testimony fueled speculation among Democrats that someone higher up in the administration, perhaps White House Chief of Staff Andy Card, approved the flights.

I guess Dems just don't think it's fair that they can't find a scandal that'll stick to the White House after Clinton provided so much fodder for Repubs during his eight years (Travelgate, Monicagate, White Water . . . the list is endless). Sometimes life just doesn't seem fair. Or maybe it's a karma thing.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 08:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## May 18, 2004

### Conservative 527s?

> Republican Party leaders are attempting the difficult maneuver of reversing themselves 180 degrees on the use of 527 soft-money groups in an effort to convince skeptical GOP lobbyists, lawyers, donors and other party allies to build a network to rival the fundraising structure known as the “Shadow Democratic Party.”

In other words, the Republicans are playing catch-up. And they have a lot of catching up to do if they are going to get close to organizations with the backing of billionaires like George Soros.

One of my favorite conservative 527s is The Club for Growth:

> The Club for Growth, a nonprofit organization, raises money to purchase radio and television advertisements to advocate smaller government, lower taxes and strong defense and to support candidates who agree with those views.

What I really like about the Club for Growth is that they pick their battles carefully. They only get involved when they see a race that includes a smaller-government, low-tax candidate and which they believe they can make a difference. They have a history of making a difference by running a few well-placed ads.

If you have an extra few bucks, I highly recommend joining the Club.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 11:03 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

### A Clarke Lie Exposed -- On Tape

> It has come weeks late, but CNN's Wolf Blitzer has dramatically knocked down one of former counter-terrorism official Richard Clarke's claims. He got the truth from the border patrol agent right in the middle of it. And after it was all over, Clarke was conveniently not available for comment.

> Here's the way Blitzer set up the piece on CNN: "Who prevented the millennium bomb plot targeting Los Angeles International Airport? It's just one of a number of disagreements between the Bush administration and its former counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke." The issue was what was behind the December 14, 1999, arrest of Algerian-born Ahmed Ressam at Port Angeles, Washington. He was on his way to plant a bomb at Los Angeles International Airport.

> How was he nabbed? Blitzer said the Clarke version is that the Clinton administration had border agents "on high alert" and were on the lookout for terrorists. But Bush official Condoleezza Rice said the Clinton administration had nothing to do with the capture and that credit goes largely to one agent.

Blitzer interviewed the agent and the truth came out -- there was no such thing as a "high alert" in 1999 because anti-terrorism chief Clarke hadn't put such a system in place, even with the millennium celebrations looming.

> Realizing that Richard Clarke's version of the story had been blown out of the water, Blitzer concluded the interview by saying, "We tried to reach Richard Clarke today to get his reaction to Diana Dean's story. We've been unable to speak with him so far. We hope to speak with him at some point."

> On April 12, Mike Carter of the Seattle Times tackled the controversy. Setting up the conflict between Rice and Clarke, he reported, "At least one of the agents who helped apprehend Ressam sides with Rice's version of events." Michael Chapman, one of the customs agents who arrested Ressam, told Carter there was no special security alert. "We were on no more alert than we're always on," he said. "That is a matter of public record." Carter added that a review of the trial testimony in the Ressam case turned up no reference to a security alert. No wonder Clarke was unavailable for comment on CNN.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 09:51 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## May 15, 2004

### The Commission

Half-Bakered reproduces an account of the president appearing before the commission. Nice.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 02:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## May 13, 2004

### No Commies!

Sounds like a damn fine idea to me:

> A Southern California city known as "Little Saigon" because of its large Vietnamese population has become the first U.S. city to declare itself a "no Communist" zone.

> The city council in Garden Grove, about 30 miles south of Los Angeles, passed a resolution on Tuesday saying it "does not welcome, or sanction high-profile visits, drive-bys or stopovers by members or officials of the Vietnamese Communist government."

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 11:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### Time to Buy a KISS Album

> KISS bass player Gene Simmons has caused an uproar among Australia's Muslim community by launching an attack on Islamic culture while in Melbourne. ...

> "Extremism believes that it's okay to strap bombs on to your children and send them to paradise and whatever else and to behead people," he said yesterday.

> The Israeli-born US musician went on to say Islam was a "vile culture" that treated women worse than dogs.

> Muslim women had to walk behind their men and were not allowed to be educated or own houses, he said.

> "Your dog, however, can walk side by side, your dog is allowed to have its own dog house... you can send your dog to school to learn tricks, sit, beg, do all that stuff - none of the women have that advantage."

> He went on to say the west was under threat.

> "This is a vile culture and if you think for a second that it's going to just live in the sands of God's armpit you've got another thing coming," he said.

Not that I agree with Gene. Islam as a whole does not feel this way. On the other hand, Wahhabism certainly does and is certainly a vile culture and is certainly at war with all of us.

I applaud his courage to stand up and say it.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 11:30 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

## May 10, 2004

### Character

Debra Saunders has this to say about Democrat's ganging up to call for Rumsfeld's resignation:

> Consider Tenet. If Bush hadn't kept Bill Clinton's director of the CIA when he assumed office, Bush would have been in the perfect position to blame Clinton for every intelligence failure he inherited. Bush knew that, but he kept Tenet anyway. After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Bush didn't try to dump Sept. 11 in Tenet's lap. He didn't turn his CIA chief into a scapegoat -- as some Dems and Repubs wanted him to do.

> "I don't think he works that way," Anderson explained. Blaming other people simply doesn't get a job done.

> To think -- Bush had two solid chances to blame intelligence oversights on Democrats, but instead, he chose to stick with a man who he thought was more likely to get the job done.

> Bush wasn't ruthlessly partisan. He didn't discard a man for the sake of convenience. And those are qualities that Washington wags simply cannot grasp.

Consider the Ashcroft/Gorelick conflict. Democrats were shamelessly turning the 9/11 hearings into an opportunity to attack the Bush administration, going after one administration official after another. Rice did well and did not sink to the level of gutter politics that Gorelick and Bob Kerrey were reveling in, yet she was savaged in the press. Ashcroft wasn't going to stand for it and used a Gorelick memo to show that it wasn't the administration's fault: they inherited a faulty system just as they inherited a crashing economy.

Bush's response? He chastised Ashcroft for blindsiding the Senator with her own words and actions.

Bush expects the best of behavior from all his people. No exceptions. And that is character.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 06:11 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## May 09, 2004

### You'd think this was obvious

Black Democrats see racism in party.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 11:06 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## May 02, 2004

### Partisanship

Feces Flinging Monkey lays out a fairly substantial argument that Democrats are the new conservatives:

> There is no innovation here, no new plan or new future, nothing bold or risky or daring. It's a gigantic holding action. The only real change ever discussed is an increase in scale, an increase of quantity rather than kind. You can run the same speeches from the 1980 race and nobody would notice the difference.

Read the whole thing. Really. You'll thank me.

In this post, Monkey says he scored 16 out of 100 on the Libertarian Purity Test, leading me to wonder what I would score (what with me being so certain that I'm a domestic Libertarian and a foreign policy Republican and all).

I scored a 22:

> 16-30 points: You are a soft-core libertarian. With effort, you may harden and become pure.

Imagine that. Might as well resign myself to being a Republican for life.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 02:33 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## April 26, 2004

### Innovative Leadership verses, uh ... Europe

President Bush wants broadband internet access to be available to every American home by 2007:

> The president has acknowledged that American is ``lagging a little bit'' on getting broadband available nationwide. To encourage the spread of this technology, Bush says the users shouldn't be taxed, and that the government should take steps to encourage the spread of competitive services.

Europe, it would seem, needs to take some pretty radical steps in this area:

> Europe's large economies will continue to lag well behind the US for the rest of the decade partly because of their slow adoption of information and communications technology (ICT), according to a report published by the Economist Intelligence Unit.

> From 1995 to 2002, average annual growth in gross domestic product per capita in Germany, France and Italy was 0.52 percentage points lower than in the US.

> The EIU has calculated that 0.4 percentage points of that difference were caused by the European countries' lower usage of ICT.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 05:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## April 25, 2004

### Florida Dems Move Right

As Nader attempts to jerk Kerry left, a group of 18 Florida Democrats are forming a moderate organization to appeal to the voter base:

> Moderate Democrats in both the Florida House and Senate have started their own group to raise money, a move party officials say will splinter Democrats.

> Saying they want to shed their liberal tag and embrace their populist roots, a group of 18 Democrats has splintered from state legislative colleagues to form a new, more conservative fundraising organization.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 01:53 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## April 22, 2004

### Gorelick's Wall Stands

In spite of what seems to be a major conflict of interest, Senator Gorelick will be helping to draft the 9/11 Commission's final report -- including sections that deal with the "wall" between intelligence and law enforcement that she helped strengthened and that subsequently hindered anti-terrorism efforts.

Eleven senators (all Republican, of course) have called for Gorelick to testify before the commission:

> "As she noted before the committee, these are issues she had `been spending a lot of my time on at the direction of the Attorney General,'" they wrote. "Therefore, it is our firm belief that any committee report or recommendations will be incomplete without public testimony by Ms. Gorelick about her activities while serving as Deputy Attorney General."

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 10:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## April 17, 2004

### Absolute Must Read

The Appearance of Impropriety from NRO, the single most scathing dressing down of Gorelick I've seen to date.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 12:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## April 15, 2004

### Screw-ups Repeat

> Even as the commission uncovers such crossed wires and barriers that may have played into 9/11, Congress is grabbing at a dangerous solution. It is considering a new policy that would only increase confusion and take a powerful tool away from the military. The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is quietly circulating a proposal that would ensnare clandestine U.S. military operations in the same sort of procedural restrictions placed on CIA covert actions and that contributed to the Ashcroft charges and gave rise to the Berger-Tenet misunderstanding.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 05:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### Happy Tax Day

39 percent of households pay no income tax at all.

This and other tax inequities are documented here.

Update from Fox News:

> But 44 million people will pay no federal taxes at all — that's the highest number in U.S. history and it translates to 33 percent of all tax filers.

> Before the Bush cuts were implemented the number of filers who paid no federal taxes was 30 million, or 23 percent of all tax filers. These numbers are much larger than those from 1980 when the revolt against federal income tax rates began. . . .

> In addition to these 44 million zero-tax filers there are another 14 million whose incomes are so low, $20,000 or less, they are off the tax roles entirely. Add to that the dependents, children, family members and those who aren't taxed at all — it equals 122 million Americans who live completely outside the federal tax system.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 05:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### Legacy?

Interesting that the rabid left says that Bush is the most divisive president of all time (I guess they weren't around for the Roosevelt years). Yet what one president in all of history has been hated so much that private citizens are willing to fund an anti-presidential library?

His name is William Jefferson Clinton:

> A group dedicated to building the 'Counter Clinton Library' - a rebuttal to the Clinton Presidential Library - has been granted status as a tax-exempt nonprofit organization.

Not only will I send these people a small donation (next year -- the election is taking up donation money for this year), I will definitely plan a road trip to the building after it is built.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 12:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## April 04, 2004

### Getting to Know Condoleezza

A list of 20 things about Condie. Random excerpts:

1. | She's a fitness buff who likes to unwind by working out to music by heavy-metal legends Led Zeppelin, according to People magazine. She wakes up at 5 a.m. and hits the treadmill right away.
17. | In February 2001, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told reporters he was distracted the first time he met her. "I have to confess, it was hard for me to concentrate in the conversation with Condoleezza Rice because she has such nice legs."

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 11:06 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## March 31, 2004

### Gay Network

> Viacom is in preliminary discussions to launch a gay cable network in the United States, the media giant's chairman and chief executive said Tuesday.

I thought there already was a gay cable channel. It's called Sundance.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 08:21 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

## March 29, 2004

### Jews Finally Get a Clue

The Dems are reaping what they sow, and it isn't much. They are "irked" at Jewish defections from the Democrat ranks -- and donor files.

> Although Jews make up slightly more than 2 percent of all Americans, they have played a wider political role for both demographic and financial reasons.

> Jews are concentrated in such battleground states as Florida and Ohio. In the era of soft money, an estimated 50 to 70 percent of large contributions to the Democratic Party and allied political units came from Jewish donors.

> While President Bush won only 19 percent of the Jewish vote in 2000, Republican candidates garnered 35 percent of the Jewish vote in 2002, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

While Bush has defended Israel on the international stage, Dems have continued to kowtow to terrorists like Arafat (remember the Clinton Kiss?).

> Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, hasn’t helped his party on that front by recently issuing statements that were widely interpreted as waffling on the controversial security fence the Israeli government is building at the edge of the West Bank.

The Dems are frantically trying to do some damage control. Why?

> Jack Rosen, a frequent past contributor to the Democratic Party, and president of the liberal-leaning American Jewish Congress, has given $100,000 to Republicans since Bush took office.

> And California businessman Ronald Arnall and wife Dawn, who in the past have given close to $1.5 million to Democratic candidates and party committees since 2000, raised $1 million for Bush at a fundraiser last August. In addition, Dawn Arnall gave $1 million at the end of 2002 to the Republican National Committee.

But it's not about that. The President is right to defend Israel for building the security fence. It is stopping the killing by keeping terrorists out. And the bottom line is that Republicans are more pro-Israel than Dems, and Jews are finally starting to realize it.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 08:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## March 10, 2004

### Atheist PAC

There's a new political action group called Godless Americans Political Action Committee (GAMPAC):

> Atheists and other nonbelievers set up a political action committee yesterday to endorse candidates and lobby lawmakers to remove all traces of religion from the government.

> But organizers acknowledged that they face a major problem. Most politicians won't want public support from their new group ...

The group only as a thousand dollars so far, a problem that may haunt them for a while until they get funding from some left-wing godless Hollywood types.

> The potential voting bloc of unbelievers appears to be much smaller than the religious right. Although religious convictions are difficult to assess, polling expert Scott Keeter at the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press said that 30 percent to 35 percent of Americans identify themselves as evangelical Christians of various denominations.

> Only 5 percent of Americans polled tell surveys that they don't believe in either God or a universal spirit, Mr. Keeter said. Pew studies have found that nonbelievers and people who state that religion has no significant role in their lives make up about 10.5 percent of adult Americans.

> The Godless American PAC will make a presidential endorsement, Miss Johnson said, adding that the group would consider making a third-party choice.

Hmmm... wonder who that third-party choice will be?
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 08:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## March 09, 2004

### Gay and Republican

From the New York Times:

> As a lesbian in a long-term relationship, Margaret Leber objects to the idea of amending the Constitution to ban same-sex marriage.

> But Ms. Leber, a software engineer and a registered Republican in Jeffersonville, Pa., is also a member of the Pink Pistols, an organization of gay and lesbian gun owners, and marriage is not the only issue on her mind.

> "Right now, I am leaning toward Bush," Ms. Leber said. "All the Democrats just rolled into Congress to vote for this gun-control bill. Somebody with my values and beliefs can't be a single-issue voter."

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 12:42 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

## March 07, 2004

### Gay Marriage and Civil Rights

Jeff Jacoby of the Boston Globe writes an interesting analysis of why gay marriage isn't civil rights. I don't agree with him, but it is a damn fine article.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 07:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## March 02, 2004

### Legacy in Haiti

Rich Lowry reminds us a bit of history:

> If there was one moment when recent U.S. Haitian policy went wrong, it might have been in 1993 when Bill Clinton was considering whether or not to restore the exiled former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide by force of American arms. Aristide had a well-earned reputation for thuggish tactics and emotional instability. Huddled with top aide George Stephanopoulos, Clinton briefly considered and then dismissed a CIA report that Aristide is a manic depressive. "You know," Clinton said, "you can make too much of normalcy."

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 11:46 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## March 01, 2004

### Freedom in America
or, the Unhappy Libertarian

While I still maintain that homosexuals remain the most over-represented minority, anywhere, ever, I (speaking as a "conservative") favor allowing civil unions. Just because I (speaking as a "normal" man) find two men kissing revolting and repugnant does not mean that they shouldn't have the right to do so. After all, I (speaking again as a "normal" man) find two women kissing strangely erotic.

But that's not the point. The point is that two consenting adults in a loving, life-long, committed relationship should have the same rights and legal protections that married people do. And as another blogger once pointed out, America is about freedom. (It was either e-Claire or Spiced Sass, but neither has a search feature so I can't figure out which).

On the other hand, marriage is a religious rite. It is a commitment before God (or Gaea or Zeus or whomever). If a church wants to marry same-sex couples, then it can. If it doesn't, then the couple can either quit being homosexual [he said with tongue planted firmly in cheek] or they can find another church.

But (and my Libertarian persona absolutely cringes as I write this) the legality of a civil union cannot be left up to the states. It is a federal matter because life in America is not contained within a state. This is thoroughly and elegantly demonstrated by David Frum as he proposes eight questions for Andrew Sullivan. My favorite is number four:

> A Massachusetts woman marries another Massachusetts woman. The relationship sours. Without obtaining a divorce, she moves to Texas and marries a man. Has she committed bigamy?

This is also the most trivial question. Frum proposes scenarios that go from the birth of a child to the death of a "spouse", with some of the "life" stuff in between. Read it and think.

Now think about this: if a state is able to define what is a "marriage", it is imperative that other states are not required to abide by that. Remember the Free State Project? The goal is for 20,000 Libertarians to move to New Hampshire in a brazen attempt to take over a state, elect Libertarian representatives and Senators, and become a force in American politics. Lead by example and all that. It is a project I heartily approve of, what with my Libertarian leanings and all.

But now imagine this: 40,000 Muslims move to Rhode Island and vote to define marriage as the union of a man with between 1 and 40 wives. 80,000 pedophiles move to Vermont and reduce the age of consent to 12. OK, maybe that last one is a little far fetched, but this is America where anything can happen.

Bottom line: this registered Republican is dead-set against the Federal Marriage Act unless it gets the government out of religious matters and errs on the side of freedom when defining a civil union. And that is exactly what the FMA is not.

I am beginning to question my Federalist roots.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 12:54 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

## February 27, 2004

### Gay Marriage Backlash

An interesting observation:

> Until now, Bush had resisted pressure to endorse a marriage amendment, even as Vermont and Massachusetts legalized same-sex unions. Only when San Francisco broke the law, and the courts let the city do it, did Bush endorse a constitutional amendment. Said Turley: "This controversy in San Francisco could not have been better planned by the opponents of gay rights."

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 11:00 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

### Socialized Medicine

From our English-speaking, democratic friends come two tales of socialized medicine.

Our Canadian neighbors are experiencing the results of removing the profit motive from a vital market segment:

> A study by Ipsos-Reid found that two-thirds of Canadians felt that they had waited too long for treatment in the previous 12 months. Half of those people felt that their condition or that of a family member had become worse because of this delay. . . .

> Saying that there is "no doubt" that a shortage of health-care providers is a barrier to speedy care, the CMA called for the federal government to take action in its next budget, coming March 23.

> "Canadians are telling us that waiting for health care is making them sick and tired," said Dr. Sunil Patel, CMA president. "As a physician, I too am tired, tired of constantly defending the system to patients asking me why. 'Why must I wait so long for my referral, my tests or my treatment?'"

And our British cousins' teeth are rotting in place:

> Dentists are departing Britain's publicly funded National Health Service in large numbers, leaving a growing number of Britons without access to affordable care. The consequences for the nation's teeth cannot be good, the experts say.

> A 2002 study by the independent Audit Commission found 40 percent of dentists were not accepting new patients through the state-funded system.

Perhaps we can send Hillary and she can save them.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 12:08 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## February 20, 2004

### Hart to Win!

An alert Lucianne.com reader found this little tidbit in the New York Times archives -- dated March 8, 1984:

> Gallup's Survey Gives Hart 9-Point Lead Over Reagan
> ATLANTA, March 8 -- Reports of a surge of support across the nation for Senator Gary Hart since his victories in New England Presidential primaries were bolstered today by a Gallup poll that showed him leading President Reagan in a national sample of voters.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 06:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## February 16, 2004

### Log Cabin Republicans Making Gains in California

This is great news:

> Several weeks ago, Assembly and Senate Republican political strategists put out a call to GOP groups asking them to recruit candidates for legislative districts where the party needed to show the flag.

> It turns out the flag they're showing is rainbow-colored.

> The group that recruited the largest number of candidates was the Log Cabin Club, the main gay GOP organization in the state.

There is also an active Log Cabin Republican chapter here in Memphis, which I am glad to see.

Although I still maintain that the gay community remains the most over-represented minority anywhere, ever, I am glad to see some of them throwing off the shackles of the Democrat party and thinking for themselves. Just because a person is gay does not mean that they can't believe in smaller government and lower taxes. (And this post isn't about Bush, so don't go there.)

And just because someone is "conservative" doesn't mean that they can't be in favor of civil unions for everyone and allowing each faith to determine whether they will sanction marriages for same-sex couples.

(Psst! And that really pisses off my "liberal" friends who are against same-sex unions/marriages. What fun!)

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 11:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## February 15, 2004

### Turning Up the Heat on Affirmative Action

The next logical step after the cookie sales: Student Group Offers Whites-Only Award:

> A student group at Roger Williams University is offering a new scholarship for which only white students are eligible, a move they say is designed to protest affirmative action.

> The application for the $250 award requires an essay on "why you are proud of your white heritage" and a recent picture to "confirm whiteness."

> "Evidence of bleaching will disqualify applicants," says the application, issued by the university's College Republicans. [SNIP]

> Jason Mattera, 20, who is president of the College Republicans, said the group is parodying minority scholarships.

> Mattera, who is of Puerto Rican descent, is himself a recipient of a $5,000 scholarship open only to a minority group.

> "No matter what my ethnicity is, I'm making a statement that scholarships should be given out based on merit and need," Mattera told the Providence Journal.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 11:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### Legacy

Quote of the Day:

> "You don`t hear anyone saying "I`m a Clinton Democrat, the way Republicans fight for the mantle of being known as 'Reagan Republicans,'" Luntz said. "And Gore is a footnote. Gore will be forgotten. He left no footprints on the American psyche."

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 01:18 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

## February 06, 2004

### Who's Best?

Unix Dude does an excellent "compare and contrast" exercise in Clinton 42 vs. Bush 43. Highly recommended reading.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 10:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## January 29, 2004

### Finally

Something comes out of the FCC that is actually worthwhile:

> Federal Trade Commission regulations requiring telemarketing firms to identify themselves take effect Thursday.

> Such calls had shown up on Caller ID as "out of area." Now the name displayed by Caller ID must either be the company trying to make a sale or the firm making the call. The display must also include a phone number that consumers can call during regular business hours and ask that the company no longer call them.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 01:06 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

## January 26, 2004

### The Heart of Change

I quoted Johnny Hunter as saying, "The Republican Party is not the party of the rich, the Republican Party is the party of human dignity."

A commenter left a huge section of 1984 (you know the piece -- it starts out with fostering pain and misery and ends with "If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face -- for ever.") with a kicker of "That is the Republican Party."

Please don't be surprised, but I took exception. Because if truth be told, the passage is far more descriptive of the Democrat Party, for they are masters at inflicting pain and misery, over and over, forever.

Democrats assert power by keeping the people in ignorance, dumbing down our children by concentrating on Rousseauean "nurture the children's emotions" and eliminating any chance at academic excellence.

Democrats assert power by fostering the ideology of victimization and entitlement, robbing the citizenry of ambition and hope, and eliminating the feeling of empowerment that comes with attaining that which you must work to gain.

Democrats assert power by nurturing the divisiveness of racism and class warfare. They foment multiculturalism in order to play one group against another.

The intelligentsia of the liberal wing gives only two forms of art -- that which the poor, uneducated cannot understand but must pay for with their tax dollars (e.g., a crucifix in a jar of urine) and the dull pap that endlessly spews forth from the liberal propaganda machine -- Hollywood -- for which they give each other endless awards and honors. (I felt compelled to mention art because the Orwell quote did. Besides, it's one of my pet peeves.)

Democrat power derives from pain, misery and jealousy. Eliminate these things and the Democrats lose all meaning, all need for being. But Democrats carefully nurture these things, all the while proclaiming that their goal is to rid the world of them forever. Clever Democrats, masters of the beating their breasts and crying crocodile tears, they deceive the public but it cannot last forever.

Silly Liberal, do not turn to the words of philosophers like Orwell for truths. They merely guide the way towards ideas. Look at the real world to find your truths. Look at how the real world works rather than the fantasies of a writer.

Look at how increasing the monies thrown at our educational system has failed to make the needed, nay essential, improvements. Then look for other ways of fixing it, such as vouchers to give our children most in need a chance for a successful future. This is the heart of Compassionate Conservatism.

Look at how increasing entitlement programs has created a culture of victimization among our minorities and driven a wedge of contention between the races. Indeed, it has actually fostered three generations of increasingly demanding recipients -- billions of dollars of hand outs are not enough, now they cry out that there must be reparations. Then look at how welfare reform of the 90s got more people working than ever before. Look past the feel-good policies to see what the results are, and try to find solutions that provides for those that need it, weeds out most of those who seek to abuse it, and lift up those who desire it. This is the heart of Compassionate Conservatism.

Look at how keeping the money of hard-working folk in a low-return Social Security program relegates our elderly to subsistence living, for they believed the lies of politicians who said that they would provide for them. Look at the faces of our young workers who must pay into the system as surely as they must pay taxes, believing that it is money wasted because Social Security will "go bankrupt" long before they retire. Now look at reforms aimed at giving these young industrious people choices in investing what is being taken from them, that they may have a comfortable retirement. This is the heart of Compassionate Conservatism.

Look at how taxing the rich robs everyone by eliminating jobs, stifling growth, keeping pay and benefits low. Look at how tax cuts have worked in times past and is now working in Europe (both France and Germany are cutting taxes to stimulate their economies). Look at cutting waste rather than taxing the easy targets. This is the heart of Compassionate Conservatism.

One may say that Compassionate Conservatism is failing: our school budget is larger than ever, jobs were not stimulated by the tax cuts, and government waste has not been eliminated. But if one says that then one is quite wrong and as short-sighted as the silly liberal with his nose in the works of Rousseau and Orwell and Marx and Huxley and Machiavelli and Chomsky and even Locke and Hobbes.

In the real world, Democrats have had a hold on our political system for six decades. While Republicans have temporarily gained the White House or Congress, it has been Democrats that have driven domestic policy. The first real challenge was Newt Gingrich's Contract With America in 1994, from which sprang meaningful welfare reform (which worked better than was hoped for). This was the beginnings of Compassionate Conservatism.

Other than revolution, change is slow. Painfully slow. Even revolution comes to fruition slowly (ask the students of Iran). It will take time to get things like vouchers accepted into the hearts and minds of the public, especially in the face of determined and highly emotive attacks from teachers unions. Education reform will take place. It must take place and this president will make it happen. His first attempt was diluted by working with a two-faced, drunken, murdering Kennedy that the people of Taxachusetts has seen fit to empower. But it was a necessary first step. And the president's next attempt will do better.

The tax cuts reversed the Clinton Recession. You can talk all you want about presidents not being able to change the economic winds blowing across the land but in the real world one sees that consumer confidence and consumer spending kept the dreaded double-dip from happening. The reason for that confidence rebounding after 9/11 was the public's trust in George W. Bush in leading the War Against Terrorism and protecting America. The reason for the consumer spending was that paltry $600 multiplied across the land by the number of eligible families.

The jobless recovery is the product of companies being more efficient and workers doing more with less. Worker productivity is up, so the jobs did not appear. But this is changing as the economy gathers steam -- the jobs are on the way.

There is much, much more but the point is that change comes in baby steps. One does not change the direction of a large ship quickly -- it is incapable of making right turns. And so it goes for changing policy in America.

We gave the Democrats 60 years and they failed in almost every regard. Isn't it time to give Compassionate Conservatism a chance?

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 12:30 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

## January 24, 2004

### Does this sound like a man getting ready to run for president?

> While other states continue to face deficits and struggle to find their financial footing, Florida is more fortunate, thanks to fiscal discipline and good governance.

> Over the last six years, we have prioritized the state's needs to make the most of limited resources during tough budget years. We've also lowered taxes, in turn spurring the economic growth to drive our state forward and generate revenues. We must stay this course of success and ensure we are prepared to meet the challenges that lie ahead.

> Since 1998, we have provided more than $8 billion in tax relief to Floridians. We have also controlled government growth, ensuring that our state spending doesn't rise faster than the personal income of the people we serve. We've increased state revenues and, in the last year alone, created more than 97,000 jobs. The people in those jobs give less of their hard-earned money to the state government today than at any time in the last decade. Florida's tax dollars do not belong to the government; they belong to the taxpayers, and we are committed to making the most of their investment.

There's more, and it's by Jeb Bush.

Jeb/Rice 2008!

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 02:05 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

### Rating the Dems

No real surprise here:

> The most discourteous Democrat in Congress during this year's State of the Union address was veteran Rep. Maxine Waters of California. She refused to clap or stand when President Bush entered the chamber, even though Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, a fellow Black Caucus member, tried to get her out of her seat.

> The most courteous Democrat Tuesday night was Rep. Harold Ford Jr. of Tennessee, another Black Caucus member. He was usually the first Democrat on his feet for Bush's applause lines, sometimes was the only Democrat standing and on occasion beat Republicans in getting up.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 02:56 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## January 21, 2004

### Statistically Speaking

At lunch today I fell into a discussion of voter fraud and heard the comment that both parties are power hungry and will do anything to win. While this is certainly true to a point, logic and simple deduction can be used to determine if they are equally reprehensible in this regard.

Given that the media is largely controlled by left-wing interests and that the majority of reporters lean to the left ideologically, it is understandable that the press is quick to print reports of Republican malfeasance whilst doing so reluctantly (at best) when reporting misconduct on the part of Democrats.

Now consider that during the election of 2000 we heard of 5,000 felons voting in Florida, University of Minnesota students voting in two states, the polls being held open past the legislated time in a St. Louis African-American precinct, dead people voting in Kansas City and Illinois, homeless people being bribed to vote with cigarettes (I can't remember where -- Minnesota again?), and illegal aliens voting in virtually every state in the nation. In every one of these cases the illegal votes go overwhelmingly to Democrats.

Consider also that in the 2002 midterm election there was a major scandal in the South Dakota Senator race because of orchestrated voter fraud on Indian reservations. Nonexistent people were registered to vote -- and somehow did so. People showed up by the van-full at precinct locations and started rattling off names until a valid name was found on the roll sheet -- and then they were allowed to vote under that name. Again, the Indian vote goes overwhelmingly to Democrats.

Now consider that in both of those elections the only allegations of vote manipulation by Republicans in a major race were anecdotal stories from Florida of intimidation at some poll stations (none substantiated by serious investigative reporting) and a charge that police set up a speed trap near a polling station in an effort to delay black voters (investigative reporting later revealed that the speed trap was three miles away and had virtually no impact on voters getting to that particular voting station). Even the report from the highly partisan U.S. Commission on Civil Rights was so thoroughly discredited that it garnered little media attention.

Given the extraordinary difference in the number of abuses reported for each party, especially against the backdrop of ideological leanings of the media, one can only deduce that Democrats routinely attempt to corrupt the democratic process by cheating.

Furthermore, this is substantiated by observing the rabid rantings and name calling that the left engages in whenever attempts are made to eliminate voter fraud by requiring clean voter rolls and voter identification. The left only stays in power through duplicitous and unethical tactics.

Any sane person would agree that some politicians of both parties engage in immoral practices and are willing to lie, cheat or steal to gain power. Being a Republican hardly makes one an angel, no more so does being a Democrat make one a depraved, power-craving soulless demon.

However, birds of a feather flock together and it is obvious that, statistically speaking, the population of Democrats are far more treacherous and iniquitous than their Republican opponents.

Quod erat demonstrandum.

This post dedicated to Tone the Man and The Great Leap Forward, both of whom regard me as "evil".

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 12:47 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

## January 19, 2004

### The Big Speech

If you don't know about the months of preparation, the size of the effort and number of personnel involved, and the intense politicking that goes on whenever a State of the Union address is being formulated, then you should read this.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 12:48 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## January 18, 2004

### Campaign Promises

Professor Fishel from American University is an expert on campaign promises. He has even published his research in a book: Presidents and Promises: From Campaign Pledge to Presidential Performance.

Historically, Fishel says, presidents keep about two-thirds of their campaign promises.

> Only about 25 percent of all rhetoric in presidential campaigns has any kind of meaningful content. Most of it is symbolic rhetoric meant to reassure individual voters, so just digging through a lot of this to find out what the (promises are) is a major chore.

Clinton broke so many promises that his personal adviser, George Stephanopoulos, resorted to defending his boss by telling Larry King:

> The President has kept all of the promises that he intended to keep.

In other words, a promise is something the ex-president said in order to capture a vote. The words were as meaningless as terms of endearment made to a starry-eyed intern.

Although many lists and examples of Clinton's broken promises exist, I was unsuccessful in finding a quantitative study (perhaps I'll have to buy Professor Fishel's book).

President Bush had already fulfilled about 40% of his campaign promises by the end of his first year in office. This seems to be a pretty good record for someone whose presidential agenda was wrenched out of his control by a brutal attack on September 11th. From that moment on, the president has been concentrating on foriegn affairs rather than the domestic agenda he campained on.

Still, a quantative analysis should be made, and Knight Ridder has done just that. According to the study, the president has fulfilled about 46% of his campaign promises in the first three years of his administration. Democrats will be hammering hard on some of the promises not yet fulfilled, so I look for the president to hammer Congress a little harder in the coming session.

Remember that while he was Senate majority leader, Daschle thrwarted every presidential initiative he possibly could. When Frist took over the post after the 2002 elections he was new to the task, untried and very green. He made mistakes that first year, but he learned and grew. Look for him to do much better this time around.

Also, as Knight Ridder points out, some promises are more important than others. The president delivered on three major tax cuts and eliminated the estate tax for family farms and ranches, but failed to triple the federal budget for Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers to assist the disabled and did not combine 60 federal programs into "five flexible categories". I'll take the successes and shed few tears over the failures, but that's just me. Obviously everyone's priorities are different.

I've reproduced the Knight Ridder findings below, reformatting it into a table and adding subtotals. I've also given the president partial credit where some action has been taken but doesn't meet the full extent of the promise made. ABORTION

Prohibit federal funds for international family-planning groups that provide abortion-related services. | YES. By a directive issued Jan. 22, 2001.
Sign legislation banning so-called partial-birth abortion. | YES, on Nov. 5, 2003.

100% of Abortion promises fulfilled

AGRICULTURE

Give more emergency aid to farmers to help them transition to a market regime. | YES. Included in 2001 farm bill.
Reform the crop insurance program. | NO. Blocked in Congress.
Establish tax-deferred Farm and Ranch Risk Management accounts that farmers and ranchers could draw from in hard times. | NO. Blocked in Congress.
Reduce and ultimately eliminate the estate tax for family farms and ranches. | YES. Included in the 2001 tax bill.
Fight Europe's ban on importing biotech crops from the United States. | YES. Bush has raised this issue with the European Union.
Exempt food from unilateral trade sanctions and embargoes. | YES. New regulations permit food shipments to Cuba and other so-called rogue states.
Admit China into the World Trade Organization and continue working to open key export markets to U.S. goods. | YES. China joined the WTO in 2001.

71% of Agriculture promises fulfilled

BUDGET

Reserve half of the budget surplus to strengthen Social Security by establishing personal retirement accounts. | NO. The surplus disappeared under pressure of war, recession and tax cuts, and Bush has not yet pushed his Social Security plan before Congress.
Pay down the national debt to the lowest level since the Great Depression as a percent of the gross domestic product. | NO. The budget surplus that Bush inherited has turned into an annual deficit, and the total federal debt has increased from $5.7 trillion in Sept. 2000 to $7 trillion this month. The debt is 65 percent of GDP now, up from 57.6 percent when he took office.
Return one-fourth of the budget surplus through broad-based tax cuts. | YES. Bush met his target of a $1.35 trillion, 10-year tax cut.

33% of Budget promises fulfilled

This is obviously the area where the president will take the most heat during the re-election campaign, and deservedly so. Even though he reversed the Clinton recession in spite of a devastating attack on America and a subsequent war, Bush has not reigned in pork-barrel spending or made any serious attempts to cut the big-government mindset. He has recently taken some significant hits from conservative groups on this issue. Look for it during the speech that will kick off his re-election campaign - the State of the Union address on Tuesday.

CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM

Prohibit unions and corporations from giving "soft money" to political parties. | YES. Part of the campaign finance bill that Bush signed on March 27, 2002.
Give workers the right to block the use of their union dues for political activities. | NO. Blocked by Congress.
Raise the limit on individual contributions by adjusting it for inflation. | YES.
Require timely disclosure of contributions on the Internet. | YES. The Federal Election Commission is working on details.
Prevent incumbents from transferring excess funds from a previous federal campaign to a subsequent campaign for a different office. | NO.
Prohibit federally registered lobbyists from contributing to members of Congress while Congress is in session. | NO.

50% of campaign finance reform promises fulfilled.

This is a poor performance area for the president. No only did he fail to get his reforms into the Campaign Finance Reform bill that he signed, he ended up signing a horrible, unconstitutional piece of legislation (in spite of what SCOTUS says).

CHARITY

Establish an Office of Faith-Based Organizations in the White House to make it easier for such organizations to participate in government programs. | YES. By executive order in 2001.
Limit the civil liability of businesses that donate equipment, facilities, vehicles or aircraft to charitable organizations to protect them lawsuits if the donated items turn out to be defective. | NO. Stalled in Congress.

50% of Charity promises fulfilled.

Look for this to be in the State of the Union address as well - the president will seek to push his faith-based initiatives during the election season. If he can get money flowing into black churches, he may be able to further weaken the Democrat's grip on the black vote.

CHILDREN

Provide states with an additional $1 billion over five years to help prevent cases of child abuse or neglect. | Partial. Congress cut Bush's request in half.
Require states to conduct criminal background checks on prospective foster and adoptive parents. | YES. Signed June 25, 2003.
Provide $300 million over five years for college or vocational-education vouchers of up to $5,000 for youths who reach college age in foster care. | NO. Congress cut Bush's funding requests.
Set a goal to return children in foster care to their stable biological family or, with a judge's ruling, to adoption. | NO.
Help states establish paternity registries. | NO. Still working on legislation.
Provide $200 million in competitive grants over five years for grants to promote responsible fatherhood. | NO. Stalled in Congress.

17% of promises for children fulfilled.

CONGRESS

Adopt two-year budgets. | NO. Blocked in Congress.
Require a Joint Budget Resolution to promote early agreement on an overall framework, which the president must sign. | NO. Stalled in Congress.
Enact legislation to prevent government shutdowns if funding is not enacted by the beginning of the fiscal year. | NO
Support a bipartisan Commission to Eliminate Pork-Barrel Spending. | NO.
Seek legislation to amend the Constitution to give the president line-item veto authority. | YES, although Bush has not made it a top priority and Congress has not acted.
Ask Congress to act on presidential nominees within 60 days of submission of their names. | YES. Bush has repeatedly prodded Congress to act.

32% of Congress reform promises fulfilled, although those two items has not resulted in any legislation or procedural reforms.

COURTS

Impose stiffer penalties for frivolous lawsuits. Lawyers who file lawsuits as a form of harassment would have to pay the other side's expenses and could face other sanctions. | NO. Postponed action in the face of congressional opposition.
Amend federal discovery rules to limit inquiry to issues in dispute to prevent legal "fishing expeditions." | NO. Postponed action in the face of congressional opposition.
Raise the federal standard for admission of scientific testimony by requiring that the witnesses' findings be "generally accepted" by the scientific community. | NO. Postponed action in the face of congressional opposition.
Eliminate the private use of the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act for civil suits. Lawyers have used the law to seek bigger judgments by accusing companies of "racketeering." | NO. Postponed action in the face of congressional opposition.
Take steps to make sure that national class-action lawsuits are heard in a federal court to prevent lawyers from shopping for friendly state judges. | NO. Postponed action in the face of congressional opposition.
Establish a "Client's Bill of Rights" to allow federal courts to hear challenges to attorneys' fees. Bush contends that clients who have been overcharged currently have very little recourse. | NO. Postponed action in the face of congressional opposition.
Require lawyers to disclose their fee ranges so potential clients will have more information before hiring an attorney. | NO. Postponed action in the face of congressional opposition.
Encourage reasonable settlements by making those who reject pretrial settlement offers and lose the case pay the other party's costs. | NO. Postponed action in the face of congressional opposition.
Require private lawyers who represent states and municipalities to return excessive fees to their governmental clients. | NO. Postponed action in the face of congressional opposition.
Prohibit federal agencies from paying contingency fees to private lawyers. Lawyers would be hired on an hourly rate. | NO. Postponed action in the face of congressional opposition.

0% of Judicial Reform promises fulfilled.

Democrats in Congress are heavily in the pocket of the lawyers and will not allow these to go forward. In addition, the War against Terror has resulted in the AG's and Justice Department's attention elsewhere and (in my opinion) the erosion of rights. (Yeah, this is out of irrelevant to the discussion but I felt compelled to throw it in somewhere.)

CRIME

Increase prosecutions under federal gun laws. | YES.
Increase funding for state gun-law enforcement. | YES. New $50 billion program signed into law in 2001.
Impose a lifetime ban on gun possession for juvenile weapons offenders. | NO.
Establish Project Sentry, a federal-state program to prosecute juvenile weapons violations. | YES.
Practice zero tolerance for terrorism. | YES. Launched war on terrorism.

80% of Crime promises fulfilled.

Personally, I oppose all but the last of these.

DEFENSE

Prohibit putting U.S. troops under U.N. command. | YES.
Pay U.N. dues in return for reforms and reduction of U.S. share of the costs. | YES.
Increase military pay by $1 billion a year. | YES. Signed into law Jan. 10, 2002.
Deploy national and theater ballistic-missile defense as soon as possible. | YES. Bush has ordered deployment in 2004.
Reduce the number of American nuclear weapons. | YES. The 2001 Treaty of Moscow promised to scrap about two-thirds of the U.S. nuclear arsenal over 10 years.
Earmark at least 20 percent of the procurement budget for next-generation weaponry. | YES.
Increase defense research and development spending by at least $20 billion from fiscal year 2002 to 2006. | YES. Funding levels are consistent with the goal.
Order comprehensive review of military weapons and strategy. | YES. Although it came in the form of a series of reviews.
Order "immediate review" of overseas deployments. | YES.
Renovate military housing. | YES. The military has already upgraded about 10 percent of its inventory and expects to modernize 76,000 additional homes this year.

100% of Defense promises fulfilled.

Clearly, this is the president's finest example of leadership.

DISABILITIES

Triple the federal Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers' budget for technologies to assist the disabled. | Partial. Funding has fallen short of the goal.
Create a new fund to encourage technologies that help the disabled. | YES. Funded at $5 million.
Provide $20 million to states to help people with disabilities work from home. | YES. Signed into law in 2001.
Provide $45 million for pilot transportation programs. | NO. Blocked in Congress.
Provide $5 million to help small businesses comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. | NO. Blocked in Congress.
Establish a $100 million matching-grant program for community-based transportation alternatives. | NO. Blocked in Congress.
Issue an executive order implementing the Supreme Court's Olmstead ruling, which requires moving disabled people from institutions to community-based facilities when possible. | YES, in 2001.
Increase funding for low-interest loan programs to help people with disabilities purchase devices to assist them. | YES.
Increase funding for special education to meet the federal obligation under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. | Partial. Funding as fallen short of the goal.
Create a national commission to recommend reforms of the mental-health service-delivery system. | YES. The New Freedom Commission on Mental Health delivered its recommendations to Bush on July 22, 2003.
Make it easier for disabled people to vote. | YES. Legislation signed on Oct. 29, 2002 requires states to make polling places more accessible.
Provide $10 million in matching funds annually to increase access for people with disabilities to organizations exempt from Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act, such as churches, mosques, synagogues and civic organizations. | NO. Blocked in Congress.
Revise the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Section 8 rent subsidies to disabled people to permit them to use up to a year's worth of vouchers to finance down payments on homes. | YES. HUD has started pilot programs in 11 states.

54% of Disabilities promises fulfilled, with 15% partially fulfilled.

EDUCATION

Provide vouchers (cash subsidies) to low-income students in persistently failing schools to help with costs of attending private schools. | NO. Blocked by Congress. A pilot program for Washington awaits Senate action.
Increase maximum Pell grant (a need-based college scholarship) from $3,300 to $5,100 for first-year students. | Partial. The maximum increased to $4,000 in 2002, but Bush has not requested any additional increase.
Provide $1,000 Pell grant bonus to low-income students who take advanced math and science courses. | NO.
Establish a $1 billion math and science partnership program. | YES. Bush is working toward his 5-year funding goal.
Establish a $3 billion Education Technology Fund. | NO. Blocked by Congress.
Increase federal funding for minority colleges and universities by $437 million over five years. | Partial. Funding has fallen behind the goal.
Focus Head Start program on reading and place it under the Education Department. | NO. Blocked by Congress.
Launch a $5 billion five-year Reading First program to ensure that every disadvantaged child reads by the third grade. | YES.
Combine more than 60 federal programs into five flexible categories. | NO. The education bill provides more flexibility, but retained 45 separate programs.
Require annual reading and math tests in grades three through eight. | YES.
Require states to participate in the National Assessment of Education Progress, or an equivalent program, to establish a national benchmark for academic performance. | YES.
Establish a $500 million fund to reward states and schools that improve student performance. | NO. Blocked by Congress.
Provide $181 million over five years to expand the use of bonds for public school construction. | YES.
Provide school-by-school accountability report cards. | YES. School districts are taking steps to meet the requirement.
Establish 2,000 new charter schools - double the current number - within two years by providing $3 billion in loan guarantees. | NO. Blocked by Congress.
Provide $1.5 billion to help states pay for merit scholarships. | NO.
Establish a $2.4 billion fund to help states enact teacher-accountability systems. | YES.
Expand forgiveness of outstanding school loans from $5,000 to $17,500 for certain math and science teachers. | NO. Blocked in Congress.
Increase funding for the Troops-to-Teachers program to $30 million to recruit former military personnel to the classrooms. | YES.
Let teachers deduct from their taxable income up to $400 in out-of-pocket classroom expenses. | NO. A temporary measure that allowed teachers to deduct $250 for out-of-pocket classroom expenses was enacted in 2001 and expired on Dec. 31, 2003.
Establish a uniform reporting system to monitor school safety. | YES.
Require districts to let students transfer out of dangerous schools. | YES.
Change federal law so public school districts and local law enforcement can share information. | NO.
Require schools to have a zero-tolerance policy for classroom disruption. | YES.
Enact a Teacher Protection Act to protect teachers from discipline-related lawsuits. | YES.
Triple funding for classroom education to improve character. | YES.
Establish American Youth Character Awards to honor students' acts of character. | NO.
Expand the role of faith-based and community organizations in after-school programs. | YES. Signed into law in 2001.
Provide vouchers to lower-income students for after-school activities. | YES.
Immediately eliminate an $802 million backlog of school repairs on tribal lands. | NO. Funding levels fell far short of that goal.
Provide $126 million to replace six American Indian schools. | YES.

52% of Education promises fulfilled.

This is an area in which the president should be judged. He ran on a platform of being "the education president". Of course, the War Against Terrorism derailed most of his domestic agendas, so perhaps a 52% success rate isn't too bad.

ENERGY

Earmark a portion of federal oil and gas royalty payments for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program when energy prices increase. | NO.
Double funding for weatherization programs by adding $1.4 billion over 10 years. | YES. Funding on track.
Require the Energy Department to notify Congress when the nation's fuel supplies are low. | YES.
Establish an annual meeting of G-8 energy ministers or their equivalents to encourage international cooperation on energy. | YES.
Open 8 percent of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge - 1.5 million acres - to oil exploration. | NO. Stalled in Congress.
Support tax credits for electricity produced from renewable and alternative fuels at a cost of $1.4 billion over 10 years. | NO. Stalled in Congress.
Establish a comprehensive federal policy for gas and oil pipeline transportation. | NO. Stalled in Congress.
Provide $2 billion over 10 years for "clean coal" research. | YES. Funding is slightly below but consistent with the goal.
Clarify tax issues related to purchasing nuclear power plants to relieve potential burden on purchasers. | NO. Stalled in Congress.
Streamline the process for hydroelectric projects seeking government approval to remain in operation. | NO. Stalled in Congress.
Require emission reductions by electric utilities for carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and other pollutants. | NO. Bush abandoned his commitment to regulate carbon dioxide in the face of intense industry opposition.
Create a Home Heating Oil Reserve to protect against future shortages. | YES. The reserve was actually created during the Clinton administration, but Bush has funded it.

42% of Energy promises fulfilled.

ENVIRONMENT

Convert the $35 million "brownfields" (contaminated properties) cleanup loan fund into a block grant program. | NO. Blocked in Congress.
Make permanent the cleanup tax incentive, set to expire at the end of 2001. | NO. Congress has passed a series of annual extensions.
Require all federal facilities to meet all environmental standards. | NO. The administration has repeatedly sought exemptions for defense facilities.
Fully fund the $900 million Land and Water Conservation Fund. | NO. Blocked in Congress, but critics say Bush's proposal would have shifted money from other environmental accounts.
Provide matching grants for state programs that help private landowners protect rare species. | YES.
Establish a $10 million grant program to promote private conservation initiatives. | YES.
Establish the President's Award for Private Stewardship and give up to 50 awards annually. | NO.
Offer capital-gains tax relief for land sold for conservation purposes. | NO. Stalled in Congress.

25% of Environment promises fulfilled.

It should be noted that the president has succeeded in getting other environmental legislation passed as a result of the massive forest fires during the first years of his administration (e.g., Healthy Forests Initiative).

FOREIGN POLICY

Substantially increase financial assistance to help Russia dismantle nuclear weapons. | NO.
Support a moratorium on nuclear testing. | YES. But the Pentagon is developing weapons that may soon require testing.
Improve relations with India. | YES. Bush and Indian Prime Minister Vajpayee committed to a "strategic partnership" in 2001.

66% of Foreign Policy promises fulfilled.

Again, the War on Terrorism intruded to change priorities. Foreign policy played little part in the president's campaign, yet this is an area in which he has excelled. He has freed two nations, gotten North Korea to the bargaining table (several times), convinced Iran to allow international inspectors to visit their nuclear facilities, Libya to renounce terrorism and the pursuit of WMD, and much, much more.

GOVERNMENT

Shrink the federal government by not replacing 40,000 senior and middle managers who will retire over the next eight years. | NO. That goal has been abandoned, but each agency was ordered to draft a five-year plan to restructure itself, with fewer managers.
Create a government-wide chief information officer to coordinate Internet services. | YES. Appointed April 16, 2003.
Establish a $100 million fund to support interagency e-government initiatives. | NO.
Establish a bipartisan "sunset review board" to recommend elimination of unnecessary programs. | NO.
Convert federal service contracts to performance-based contracts wherever possible so that the contractor has measurable performance goals. | YES.
Establish performance-based incentives for the civil service. | NO. This is under study.
Move all significant government procurement to the Internet. | NO. Still in the early stages.

29% of Government promises fulfilled.

HEALTH CARE

Enact a patients' bill of rights. | NO. Stalled in Congress.
Provide a 100 percent tax deduction for long-term-care insurance premiums. | NO.
Provide an additional $2,750 personal tax exemption to the caregiver for each elderly family member who has home care. | NO.
Provide a tax credit of up to $2,000 a year for health insurance for families that make less than $30,000 a year. | NO.
Increase the budget for Community and Migrant Health Centers by $3.6 billion over five years. | Partial. Funding has increased, but not at that level.
Strengthen the National Health Service Corps to put more physicians in the neediest areas, and make its scholarship funds tax-free. | YES.
Establish the Healthy Communities Innovation Fund, to provide $500 million in grants over five years to target specific health risks, such as childhood diabetes. | NO.
Double the National Institutes of Health's research budget. | YES.

20% of Health Care promises fulfilled.

IMMIGRATION

Establish a six-month deadline for processing immigration applications. | YES, with goal of full implementation by 2005.
Split the Immigration and Naturalization Service into two agencies: one to protect the border and interior, the other to deal with naturalization. | YES. Both of the new agencies are within Homeland Security Department.
Provide an additional $500 million over five years to improve immigration services. | YES. First installment of $100 million signed into law Nov. 28.
Encourage family reunification by allowing spouses and minors of legal permanent residents to apply for visitor visas while their immigration applications are pending. | NO.

75% of Immigration promises fulfilled.

MEDICARE

Guarantee that all senior citizens are entitled to keep the current benefits if they choose, instead of selecting alternatives offered as part of any reforms. | YES. Included in the Medicare bill that Bush signed on Dec. 8, 2003.
Give seniors the option of selecting plans that better fit their health-care needs. | YES.
Cover the full cost of health-insurance coverage, including prescription-drug coverage, for seniors with incomes at or below 135 percent of the poverty level. Cover some of the cost for seniors with incomes up to 175 percent of poverty. | YES.
Pay at least 25 percent of premiums for prescription drug coverage for all seniors. | NO. There is a gap in coverage for costs between $2,220 and $5,100.
Cover all catastrophic Medicare expenses in excess of $6,000 annually for all seniors. | Partial. The law lowered the threshold to $5,100 but covers only 95 percent of expenses over that amount.
Establish a $48 billion, four-year program to help states cover prescription-drug costs for seniors until Medicare is overhauled. | NO. Abandoned in the face of congressional opposition.

50% of Medicare promises fulfilled.

POVERTY

Establish Individual Development Accounts for low-income Americans. Give banks tax credits for matching up to $300 in deposits by low-income customers. | NO.
Establish the American Dream Down Payment Fund to give low-income families up to $1,500 in matching funds toward down payments for homes. | YES. Signed Dec. 16, 2003.

50% of Poverty promises fulfilled.

SOCIAL SECURITY

Reserve half of the projected surplus for strengthening Social Security. | NO. Bush has postponed action in the face of congressional opposition. It remains a goal.
Guarantee current benefits for seniors at or near retirement. | NO. Bush has postponed action in the face of congressional opposition. It remains a goal.
No increase in payroll taxes. | YES.
Give workers the option of investing in private retirement accounts. | NO. Bush has postponed action in the face of congressional opposition. It remains a goal.
Wall off the Social Security surplus from the rest of the budget by legislation. | NO. Bush has not pushed for it.

20% of Social Security promises fulfilled.

Look for this to be a big part of the State of the Union address.

TAX CUTS

Cut current income tax rates. | Yes.
Change income tax from a five-rate to a four-rate structure: 10, 15, 25 and 33 percent. | Partial. Congress lowered the rates, but rejected Bush's rate structure.
Double the child tax credit to $1,000. | YES.
Reduce the so-called "marriage penalty" by restoring the 10 percent deduction for two-earner families. | YES.
Expand the child tax credit for both married and single parents so higher-income families can take advantage of it. | NO.
Increase the annual contribution limit on education savings accounts, or Education IRAs, from $500 to $5,000 per child. | Partial. Congress increased the limit to $2,000.
Grant a deduction for charitable contributions to taxpayers who do not itemize. | NO. Stalled in Congress.
Extend the new charitable tax credit to corporations by making them eligible for a credit of 50 percent of the first $1,000 donated to charities fighting poverty. | NO. Stalled in Congress.
Make permanent the $5,000 adoption tax credit, and provide $1 billion over five years to increase the credit to $7,500. | YES. Credit increased to $10,000.
Permit families to make charitable contributions from IRAs without being taxed on the withdrawal. | NO. Stalled in Congress.
Raise the cap on corporate charitable deductions. | NO. Stalled in Congress.
Eliminate the estate tax. | YES. Will phase out and disappear in 2010, but will return a year later unless Congress makes the elimination permanent.
Grant a complete tax exemption for prepaid or college tuition savings plans. | YES.

46% of Tax Cut promises fulfilled.

Even with less than a 50% success rate, this is the president's signature issue. He successfully pushed through three huge tax cuts and eliminated millions of low-income Americans from the tax rolls. And he did this in the face of an oncoming recession and a war. Incredible.

TECHNOLOGY

Allow a dramatic increase in the number of H-1B visas for temporary high-skilled workers. | YES. The annual cap increased from 115,000 to 195,000 after Bush took office, but dropped this year to 66,000. Demand for visas has fallen off with downturn in the technology sector.
Permanently extend the tax credit for research and development. | NO. Blocked by Congress.
Continue the Internet tax moratorium for at least five years. | NO.
Establish a President's Technology Export Council to oversee high-tech exports. | NO. Stalled in Congress.
Establish more than 2,000 community technology centers providing free Internet access, computer literacy training and professional skills development. | NO. Blocked by Congress.

20% of Technology promises kept.

TEEN PREGNANCY

Provide at least $135 million for abstinence education, equal to the amount for teen contraceptive programs. | Partial. Funding reduced by Congress.
Direct the General Accounting Office to study the effectiveness of pregnancy-prevention programs. | YES. But the study was conducted by Health and Human Services, not GAO.

50% of Teen Pregnancy promises fulfilled.

TRADE

Restore presidential authority to speed trade treaties through Congress. | YES. Signed into law Aug. 6, 2002.
Tighten restrictions on military-technology exports and ease them on exports of civilian technologies. | NO. Blocked by Congress.

50% of Trade promises fulfilled.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 07:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### Today's Must Read

Dr Bhaskar Dasgupta provides an extensive list of Jacques Chirac's recent foreign policy failures in an humorous yet highly informative article [the following is sometimes slightly altered from original text]:

- At the start of 2003, foreign minister Villepin lead the resistance to the movement to liberate Iraq. Not only did the war take place (successfully), but:

  > French Fries were renamed to Freedom Fries, sales of French wine in the USA fell and finally American tourism to France (one of the biggest earners of them all) suffered a major blow. Not only that, France was frozen out of the Iraqi rebuilding contracts, and that hurt (at least by the squealing that one heard from the French ministries).

- Chirac argued with UK Prime Minister Tony Blair in 2002 over European policy and they were not speaking to each other for months on end.
- The Nice Treaty Negotiations royally hacked off almost everybody in Europe over Chirac’s high-handed behaviour.
- Then Chirac went and picked a fight with Italy’s Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi over comments made by one of the French parliamentarians.
- Chirac had words with Spanish Prime Minister Jose-Maria Aznar about Iraq and voting rights.
- After 10 European leaders of eastern Europe like Hungary and Poland published an Op Ed supporting the war, Jacques Chirac went on a hissy fit and warned these leaders off by threatening them on their EU accession.
- Then France told the European Commission to go whistle, while it merrily broke the EU’s financial stability pact
- Then picked a fight with Poland and Spain all over again over the EU Constitution.
- The voting procedure laid out in the incomprehensible EU Draft Constitution proposed that it be weighted by population, which wasn’t to the liking of Poland and Spain. Well, Jacques Chirac went off on a mutter on these two countries.
- In Africa, France's intervention in Ivory Coast smacked of hypocrisy after its major huffiness with USA for intervening without a UN resolution! Not only that, the Ivory Coast residents were not particularly enamoured of the French intervention either.
- The entire Columbian episode about Dominique de Villepin’s flight made France look like a laughing stock.
- Plus with the latest “veil” controversy, most Arab countries are definitely up against France, in spite of the Grand Sheikh of the Al-Azhar mosque in Egypt, Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, saying that non-Muslim countries could pass any laws they wished -- to try and contain the conflict.
- Israel was a friend before, but with the rising ride of anti-Semitism in France is making that look dicey as well.
- Just look at how Jacques Chirac treated Zimbabwe’s President Mugabe. Mugabe is a thoroughly nasty piece of work, obnoxious, economically illiterate and driving the bread basket of Africa down the toilet. He has been vilified up and down the world and banned from quite a lot, including the EU. So what does Jacques Chirac do with Mugabe? He invites him over to the Elysee Palace for a red carpet welcome and all that.

Compare and contrast to U.S. foreign policy:

> Still, what was worse was how US (and to a lesser extent, the UK) diplomacy managed to rack up successes such as getting Iran to sign up to the IAEA inspections, Libya to give up its WMD program, North Korea to pipe down and relax, China to open up more, Pakistan to pull back on its jehadis, Afghanistan to be managed by NATO and slowly on its path to normalcy, Syria to relax, Israel to reduce its intransigence, Congo for a smooth transfer of power, Georgia over its velvet revolution and the like.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 12:45 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## January 15, 2004

### Quote of the Day

Today's quote is from a post at The Conservative Zone:

> Don't complain about history when it's current events.

Read the post to understand the context -- it's worth it.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 05:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### Giuliani Leads Hillary in Poll

A new poll shows Rudy Giuliani leading Hillary Clinton, 50% to 46%, in a hypothetical Senate race.

> Republicans have placed a high priority on beating Clinton in 2006 as a way of stopping a possible White House run by her in 2008. She is considered a potential contender for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination should President Bush be re-elected this year.

Giuliani's lead over possible contenders for Governor are significant indeed. He could probably walk into that spot.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 05:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### This Has Got to be Good in an Election Year

Not everyone got the full benefit of last year's tax cuts:

> Tax rates dropped last January, but most taxpayers have received only half of the cuts coming to them. That means many of them can expect a bigger refund or a smaller tax bill when they figure their 2003 returns this year.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 05:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### Republicans Still Hold the Edge

From the latest Gallup poll:

> Although the Democratic candidates for president have spent considerable time assailing Bush's Iraq policy -- clearly playing to their base -- Iraq as well as terrorism are solidly Republican issues, with few Americans saying they prefer the Democratic approach to these.

> Other issues on which Republicans hold a perceptual edge are foreign affairs generally and gun policy. Democrats have a clear lead on the environment and education. Only four points separate the parties in perceived handling of the economy and taxes, but the Democrats hold the edge on both.

The Wall Street Journal breaks down the numbers.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 12:48 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### More Morons in Government

Colorado state Senator Ken Chlouber wants to ban grocery discount cards because he thinks they are unfair.

These are the little cards that you get at Krogers or Safeway after filling out an application. In exchange for your name and some information about you and your family, you get a card that entitles you to discounts on certain items. If you don't want to give up the information about yourself, just don't get the card.

Although it isn't publicized what the grocery chain uses the information for, it isn't hard to imagine. They build a picture of your buying habits. Did you buy cat litter? Then why not offer a discount coupon for a brand of cat food they are trying to push (probably one with a higher profit margin and if they get your finicky cat hooked then you are buying it for life). Perhaps they even sell that information, for instance they can sell a list of cat owners like yourself to Cat Fanciers Magazine, who then sends you junk mail inviting you to subscribe.

You win and the grocery store wins. But Ken doesn't see it that way:

> State Sen. Ken Chlouber will try to convince his colleagues the discount cards are unfair because he says people are being charged different prices for the same item, and maybe more importantly, the cards require people to give up private information, including their name, address and phone number, in order to get the discount.

> “What are they doing with that information? What in the world are they doing? Are they selling it to anybody? Are they giving it to anybody? Trading it to anybody? Does government have access to that information?” asks Chlouber, R-Leadville.

OK, Ken -- there is no discrimination because the card is offered to everyone. If you don't want to help the grocery chain become more efficient or if you don't want to give up your personal information, then don't get the card. It's a choice and it doesn't have to be regulated.

But most importantly, why in the name of all that's constitutional would the government need access to that information?

What's worse -- this moron is a Republican. I think he should be excommunicated from the party for stupidity.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 11:52 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## January 11, 2004

### Dems Out of Touch

A new Zogby poll asked likely voters about the Bush tax cuts:

- 41% said that the tax cuts were good for them on a personal basis. Only 25% said that the tax cuts were bad for them.
- When asked what would be a fair tax rate for them if they made a million dollars a year, only 21% of respondents said the rate should be in excess of 30%.

This clearly shows that Dean and Gephardt's "repeal all Bush tax cuts" aren't exactly resonating with the majority of voters. Further, the Democrat rhetoric of soaking the rich doesn't play well, either.

But it looks like Dean is finally getting the message. Now he says that he will cut middle class taxes after he repeals all of the Bush tax cuts.

Eventually consistency will become an issue for this guy. I just hope that it's after he secures the nomination.

Also in the Zogby poll were questions about the need for religious values in a president:

- 60% said that it's important for a president to believe in God and be deeply religious.
- In the "red states", 67% want a president who is religious and and also has had success in managing foriegn policy and the economy. This percentage only dropped to 51% in the "blue states".
- "...62 percent of respondents agreed that "by removing prayer in school, by removing the words 'under God' from the Pledge of Allegiance, and fighting the display of the Ten Commandments or a nativity scene, we have eliminated our moral compass in daily decision-making." Thirty-four percent of likely voters polled disagreed with that idea."

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 05:57 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

### Pakistani-American Mayor is a Republican

A Pakistani-American who came to America in 1967 has become the first Pakistaini mayor of a New Jersey township, and is believed to be the first Pakistani mayor in America.

> "It's an opportunity to serve my community, where I have gained a lot for my family," said Chaudry, 62. "I want to be an example and a role model for my country, and for Pakistanis and Muslims who understand what America is all about and why they need to fully integrate with the community.

Buried near the bottom of the article is this (emphasis added):

> As the Republican candidate in the 2001 election, Chaudry received 59 percent of the vote in this affluent Somerset County community known for its office parks.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 03:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### Quote of the Day

From Everett Ehrlich in SFGate:

> Dean's candidacy poses this paradox: For all his talk about wanting to represent the truly Democratic wing of the Democratic Party, Dean is essentially a third-party candidate using Internet technology to achieve a takeover of the Democratic Party.

The article contains some interesting insights and tidbits of information:

> Consider, for example, what could be the first modern political campaign -- the Whig campaign for William Henry Harrison in 1840. Apart from some success as an Indian killer, Harrison had minimal credentials, but the Whigs figured out how to use the tremendous organizational apparatus of their party to promote him. They fabricated the image of Harrison as the "log cabin and hard cider" candidate, despite his more patrician roots, and used the party organization to enforce discipline around the fabrication -- to get everyone to say the same thing at the same time. And in America's first political mass media stunt, they constructed a 10-foot ball of twine, wood and tin, covered it with Whig political slogans, and rolled it first from Cleveland to Columbus and then from town to town across the country to call attention to their candidate (hence the expression "Keep the ball rolling").

Ehrlich was undersecretary of commerce for economic affairs in the Clinton administration and wraps up the article with four predictions, the first two of which I agree with. Go read it for yourself.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 02:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## January 05, 2004

### Kerry to Reward Fiscal Mismanagement

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry wants to reward states that have overspent their budgets with a $50 billion lifeline.

Then he wants to increase the price of nearly every American-made good and service by increasing minimum wage.

Then he wants me to subsidize the college education of other people's children.

Hell, I'm still paying on my student loans, not to mention my kids!

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 06:56 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### Big Labor Gets Away

Big Labor just won the right to spend union dues without letting the rank-and-file members know how their hard-earned money is being spent, and to what end:

> In a New Year's Eve ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler granted the AFL-CIO's motion for a preliminary injunction, effectively halting implementation of the financial disclosure rules for the 2004 reporting year.

> The new disclosure requirements would have given rank-and-file union employees more information about how their compulsory union dues are spent.

In some states you must belong to the union in order to get a job. The union takes your money and spends it to influence elections. Even if you are a rabid conservative, your money is spent to pursue the liberal agenda. You have no choice.

Judge Gladys Kessler just made it possible for them to influence the next election by continuing to operate outside of the public eye. Strike one for freedom -- not.

Judge Gladys Kessler is a Clinton appointee and has a history of being on the liberal side of things. She has:

- protected unions from corruption investigations.
- Ruled against the DOJ and forced them to release the names of all detainees in the 9/11 investigation.
- ruled that in spite of naviagation inturruption which will decrease barge companies' revenue, decrease water quality, higher water purification costs, and higher consumer costs due to impact on hydroelectric resources -- in spite of all that, human kind must step aside to preserve the nesting habitat for the nesting piping plover because "there is no dollar value that can be placed on the extinction of an animal species...".

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 06:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## January 03, 2004

### Black Votes for the GOP

The GOP has a goal of winning 25% of the African American vote in 2004. This is a lofty goal and probably will not be achieved, but it is not outside the realm of possibility and is certainly achievable in the near future.

The trend is there. In 2002, fewer African Americans identified themselves as Democrats, while the number calling themselves Republicans (in the 26 to 35 age bracket) was up to 15%. Not much, but it is triple from two years before.

> None of this is coincidental. More African Americans now have college degrees, ushering them into the middle class, shifting their values and priorities while prompting them to abandon the "blacks-as-victims" theology. Many low-income blacks have gained an appreciation for the opportunities provided by the free enterprise system and are rejecting the notion of government as prime savior. Meanwhile, there has been an emergence of a new generation of African Americans that exists in a multiracial, crossover world.

More importantly -- in fact, most importantly, I think -- is that the general African American electorate is beginning to wake up to the fact that the government's attempts at social engineering are dismal failures. A half-century ago the black community was poor but had strong family and social values. After forty years of Johnson's "war on poverty", 70% of black children are born out of wedlock, women have children with multiple partners (given the sterile term "multiple-partner fertility" for the PC crowd), less than half of black children live with an adult male, and children are raised in ever-changing family situations ("transitions").

As Larry Elder says, America's biggest problem is children having children:

> I am talking about children, who cannot feed, clothe, and educate a child, having children. We have provided incentives for that very thing through our welfare state. [SNIP]

> There was a time, after slavery, when a black man was as likely to have a child within the confines of a marriage as was a white man. Look at census data. The information we have indicates that, at the beginning of the 20th century, a black child was as likely to be born in a nuclear, intact family as was a white child. What happened? We launched Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty, essentially going door to door and encouraging people to get on welfare.

Black America is waking up because there are an increasing number of African Americans that are stepping forward and voicing their displeasure:

- Star Parker was once trapped in the drug-infested welfare system. Today she is a self-styled conservative messenger and the author of Uncle Sam's Plantation: How Big Government Enslaves America's Poor and What We Can Do About It
- John H. McWhorter is a linguistics professor at Berkeley and author of Authentically Black: Essays for the Black Silent Majority
- Shelby Steele is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford. He authored A Dream Deferred: The Second Betrayal of Black Freedom in America
- Ward Connerly sat on the Board of Regents of the University of California and led the fight to end racial preferences for university admissions in California. He documents his experience in Creating Equal : My Fight Against Race Preferences
- J.C. Watts was a four-term Republican House member who asks What Color is a Conservative?
- Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson is a dynamic and charismatic man who comes up with stuff like Boycott of the NAACP and often goes head-to-head against Jesse Jackson. That must be why he wrote Scam : How the Black Leadership Exploits Black America. He also wrote From Rage to Responsibility: Black Conservative Jesse Lee Peterson and America Today.
- Clarence Mason Weaver is a decorated soldier with a disability discharge. Today he has his own media company and author of It's OK to Leave the Plantation : The New Underground Railroad.

To this, of course, you can add almost anything written by Alen Keyes, Larry Elder and Thomas Sowell. And Walter E. Williams is an emerging economist that is proving very prolific.

The point is that the status quo is being questioned from the inside. Even though critics still call these brave intellectuals "racist", the fact that they are African American takes a lot of the sting out of the accusation. And "Uncle Tom" is beginning to loose its bite, having been repeated so much in recent years.

Now add the attacks on conservative Judicial nominees like Brown and Estrada, both of whom are the very essence of the American dream. Eventually there will be a reaction. But this is politics, not physics, so a reaction is not limited to "equal and opposite".

This is why the Democrat Party will lurch Right shortly -- way before 2008. Even the extremists fighting for control will eventually recognize that they cannot advance their agenda if they cannot win elections. And if current trends continue, they may never win another election. Ever!

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 05:32 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

### Soros Agenda

The Opinion Journal carries an op-ed entitled The Soros Agenda:

> In his political funding, Mr. Soros is exploiting the loophole in campaign finance laws that lets billionaires donate however much they want to private political lobbies. But more than that, he also turns out to be a leading cash cow for the Washington lobbies trying to restrict media competition and political speech. Mr. Soros is the personification of what deserves to be called the "public interest" conceit.

> This is the idea that folks like Mr. Soros are merely selfless benefactors of truth and justice, but companies trying to protect their rights in Washington are greedy special interests.

The article points out that anyone can go to http://prs.soros.org/GrantsList/GrantSearch.asp and perform a search to show "the nearly 1,900 payouts that Mr. Soros made to entities since 1999", although the search I ran turned up 2,163 grants.

On last observation: looking at the source code for the page that lists the grants reveals that the links are of an unusual color, which can be defined in shorthand hex as "#666".

Not that that means anything, of course. Coincidences happen. But how terribly appropriate.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 12:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## January 01, 2004

### Libertarians of the Year

Radley Balko chooses the Libertarian Heros of 2003.

It is a somewhat surprising list as it contains the name of Harold Ford, Jr. Anyone familiar with the Tennessee Ford family will be shocked to see this name spoken highly of.

The Fords ran Memphis for many years, but have branched out to Nashville and Washington of late. One Ford was given a pass after shooting at a trucker on I-40, the major artery between Nashville and Memphis. Another was given a pass after threatening utilities workers with a shotgun as they attempted to perform repairs on the easement of a Ford property. The list of Ford indiscretions is long.

But Harold Ford does seem to be cut from different cloth. Seem is the operative word.

He speaks impressively, both in person and during television interviews. He is soft-spoken and gives reasoned, thoughtful responses.

However, his inclusion on the list is due to his rhetoric. The author says, "If his voting record ever aligns with his rhetoric, he could emerge as an important voice of reason in a party too consumed with class warfare and entitlement culture."

That is a mighty big if.

Harold Ford reminds me of a snake oil salesman -- or perhaps just a snake. A particularly slimy and venomous one, at that.

In speaking to TFA members (this year? Perhaps last year) he said that he had never joined the NRA because he had never been "invited" to do so.

Neither have I, but I joined nevertheless.

Harold Ford is one to watch. His name was mentioned as a candidate for House Minority Leader when it was up for grabs (Pelosi beat him out). His name will become nationally known in the next ten years. He is young and puts a good face on the party.

He frightens me because I don't trust him any further than I can chuck a feather under water.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 11:02 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

### American Socialism

Our media can chalk up another victory. By magnifying and distorting the facts on America's "health crisis" and by massively underreporting the problems with the health care in Canada, England, and other places, the American public now believes the government can do a better job than private enterprise:

> A new Wall Street Journal poll released Thursday indicates most Americans believe health care is a business that should be not profit-driven.

> The Harris Interactive poll, conducted for the newspaper's Online Health Industry Edition, found 31 percent of the U.S. public believes the government should provide most health insurance, 25 percent said non-profit organizations should do so, and only 22 percent prefer for-profit insurance.

> About 42-percent of respondents said they believe universities should conduct the most medical research, compared with only 16 percent who think private companies should do so.

> Regarding who should run or manage the manufacture of prescription drugs, 22 percent is unsure.

This story ran a month ago, yet didn't make a ripple in the media pool. I couldn't find it reported anywhere else.

It's time for a courageous politician or 300 stood up and denounced this.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 02:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## December 31, 2003

### The Plan

Colin Powell lays out what we'll do in 2004.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 11:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### Ah, those embarrassing brothers

It seems that Neil Bush made $171,370 in one day of trading the stock of a company that he had once consulted for.

I'm not sure how this is illegal or even unethical, especially as he took nearly $300,000 in losses on the stock in 2000 and 2001.

We'll see how the moonbats treat this. I'm betting they will have completely forgotten the fact that druggie Roger Clinton attempted to solicit pardons for money, or that Hugh Rodham successfully solicited money for the same.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 11:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### Democrat Decoy?

A bit of dirty politics in Illinois:

> McHenry County Republican Party leader Bill LeFew on Monday accused Democrats of running a sham candidate in the Republican primary for the 63rd district state representative seat.

> LeFew said he is convinced that Democrats are behind the candidacy of political unknown William E. "Ed" Beard and that members of the rival party encouraged or directed Beard to file last week's objection against county board member Perry Moy's candidacy. [SNIP]

> LeFew issued a challenge to Beard to take a lie detector test and answer two questions: Did Democrats urge him to run for the seat, and did Democrats urge him to file the objection against Moy?

> If Beard passes the test, thereby showing Democrats were not involved, LeFew will immediately resign as Republican Party chairman, he said.

> "I know he is a Democratic plant," LeFew said.

> Beard could not be reached to comment on LeFew's allegations.

Now that's funny!
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 10:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## December 30, 2003

### Reformed Liberal Living in T.O.

Canadian Kathy Shaidle pens an op-ed that is both witty and bitter-sweet: I Used to Sneer at You. At the heart of the article is this thought:

> Well, I am a recovering liberal, and Sept. 11 is my dry date.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 11:15 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## December 29, 2003

### Today's Must Read

Henry Lamb does a fine job of connecting the dots between the Democrat Party and the Democratic Socialists of America. His analysis is titled A socialist by any other name.

Lamb hits the nail on the head with this paragraph:

> People who champion conservative, capitalist values might take a lesson from the Socialists, who have infiltrated the Democratic Party, and have now taken control. Rather than drop out of the Republican Party, and try to form another unsuccessful third-party movement, conservatives might come closer to achieving their goals by being more assertive at the local and state levels in the Republican Party.

Amen!

Hat tip to Pamibe.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 12:14 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## December 28, 2003

### How Political Parties Die

Today's must read is an article that examines three mainstream parties that have gone the way of the Dodo bird (Whigs in 18th century Britain and 19th century America, and the Progressive Conservatives in 20th century Canada) and compares them to three current mainstream parties:

> Today, at least three great political parties are in a bad way. One is Israel's Labor Party, the other Britain's Conservative Party, the third America's Democratic Party. This isn't to say that any of them won't exist in five or ten or even twenty years' time, although in the case of the Labor Party that's not such a sure thing. It is to say that they will either have to change radically, as Britain's Labour Party did under Tony Blair's leadership, effectively becoming a new party, or circumstances will change radically – and in their favor. Right now, neither possibility seems likely.

An absolutely fascinating analysis, well worth the read. But for those who just want the crib notes (from the America-centric point of view):

- Each is in the midst of a long-term trend of losing seats (in the Democrats case, at both the federal and state level).
- Each is losing the battle for attracting young voters.
- Each has exhausted its leadership bench.

  > As for former Vermont governor Howard Dean, his frontrunner status speaks volumes about what the Democratic Party has become.

  .
- Each remains in the shadow of successful past leaders

  > The Democrats remain in the thrall of Bill Clinton, whose personal popularity did nothing to stop his party's slide.

- Each is ideologically divided.

  > The Democrats are divided between Clinton-style pragmatists and McGovern-style radicals. The trouble for them is that the first seem unlikely to win the nomination, and the second have no chance of winning the election.

- Each is mired in the past.

  > The Democrats, as American commentator Lawrence Kaplan writes, are stuck in a September 10 mindset. They have not yet come to terms with the September 12 reality.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 12:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## December 27, 2003

### Budgetary Restraint

Treasury Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Rob Nichols writes this about budgetary items other than those for prosecuting the war and homeland security:

> The increases in all other discretionary accounts have been modest by historical standards. In the last budget year of the previous administration, fiscal year 2001, domestic spending unrelated to defense or homeland security grew a whopping 15 percent. With the adoption of President George W. Bush’s first budget in fiscal year 2002, that number was reduced to 6 percent; then to 5 percent in fiscal year 2003; and now to 3 percent in the current fiscal year.

> There is room for more restraint as the economy recovers, but this is hardly the record of a domestic program spending spree.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 11:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## December 26, 2003

### Young Winners

I excerpted the best portion of a WaPo article titled Kerry's Quagmire:

> By liberating the Iraqi people and then capturing Saddam Hussein, President Bush has shown himself to be quite capable when it comes to national security. More important, his administration, with its response to terrorists and rogue nations, may finally have put an end to the country's Vietnam syndrome.

> In 1973, the average 25-year-old was likely to think of the United States as an imperialistic bully that traveled the world trying to impose its will on sovereign nations, sustaining heavy casualties in the process. Feelings of guilt and shame were common.

> Thirty years later, the average 25-year-old is part of a generation that has become accustomed to winning battles rather than losing them. The generation's collective memory goes back only as far as the Persian Gulf War. Toss in the ousting of a genocidal maniac such as Hussein, the defeat of the Taliban in Afghanistan or the U.S. action to protect Kosovo Albanians from Slobodan Milosevic, and Americans have cause to once again feel good about their country's military might and what it can accomplish. Even a setback in Somalia couldn't override that feeling.

> The Newsweek poll shows that Bush is most popular with voters between the ages of 30 and 49, 53 percent of whom say they want him to remain in office.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 03:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## December 24, 2003

### A Foreign Policy that Works

Jonah Goldberg says Bush's foriegn policy is working. Not perfectly, but better than it has in quite some time. The money quote is at the end:

> The best example of fruits of seriousness is, of course, Gadhafi. Contrary to what its critics claim, the Bush Administration was perfectly willing to talk rather than bomb (as it is in North Korea and Iran).

> But unlike the talk from the Clinton Administration or the United Nations, Bush's words have serious credibility. If he promises billions in help, it comes. If he promises the thunder, it comes too.

> That's why Gadhafi told Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi last fall, "I will do whatever the Americans want, because I saw what happened in Iraq, and I was afraid." That was before he saw Saddam's tonsils on CNN.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 02:04 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### Headline of the Day

Al Gore, Our Christmas Fruitcake. It's a pretty good column, too:

> The New York Times editorialized that more medical information about Vice-President Dick Cheney should be made public because where the president and vice-president of the United States are concerned, "privacy concerns are less important than the public's confidence that its leaders are fit." [22 December]

> Fit? Fit? Where were the Times' concerns about the fitness of politicians in the face of Al Gore's obvious personality disorder and poor reality testing while for eight years he was a heartbeat -- and later, a few electoral votes -- away from the presidency?

Heh.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 01:09 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

### Immigration Reform on the Way

It looks like President Bush is going to get back to items he ran on:

> President Bush plans to kick off his reelection year by proposing a program that would make it easier for immigrants to work legally in the United States, in what would constitute the most significant changes to immigration law in 18 years, Republican officials said yesterday.

> Lobbyists working with the White House said Bush is developing a plan that would allow immigrants to cross the border legally if jobs are waiting for them. The sources said the administration also wants to provide a way for some undocumented workers in the United States to move toward legal status.

> Bush will try to make the plan more palatable to conservatives by including stricter entry controls, including increased use of technology at the border and steps toward better enforcement of current visa restrictions and reporting requirements, sources said.

About damn time. We need to let in workers that have jobs and keep out illegals. Simple concept. Impossible to do. Let's see how close we can get.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 12:51 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

## December 21, 2003

### Quote of the Day

From the Union Leader:

> The Democratic Party has become a central clearinghouse for crackpot conspiracy theories that are so outrageous and unbelievable that they make Oliver Stone look like a reasonable human being.

The article goes on to list a few of the ravings from just the last month:

- Former Secretary of State Madeline Albright asked Roll Call executive editor Mort Kondracke, “Do you suppose that the Bush administration has Osama bin Laden hidden away somewhere and will bring him out before the election?”
- Howard Dean repeated on National Public Radio the allegation that the Saudi government warned President Bush about the Sept. 11 attacks and Bush did nothing to stop them. Further, he called the theory "interesting".
- Dean suggested to a California crowd last week that White House political advisor Karl Rove may be responsible for circulating around the Internet a document that attributes to Dean an erroneous policy stance.
- U.S. Rep. James McDermott, D-Wash., alleged that President Bush knew where Saddam Hussein was hiding “all along” and timed the raid that nabbed him for political purposes.

To which we can now add this outrageous allegation:

> U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich vowed Saturday in Des Moines to fight any effort to restore a military draft, which he believes is inevitable under defense policies being pursued by the Bush administration.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 02:38 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

### Sen. Giuliani?

Rumor has it that Giuliani will take on Hillary for her seat in '06:

> For Giuliani, challenging Clinton is a necessary step if he hopes to be a national GOP player. He could, if he chose, run for governor in 2006, but that wouldn't do him much good on the national stage. He would still be a pro-gay, pro-choice "Rockefeller Republican."

> But Senator Giuliani would be a different matter. He would have slain the dragon, and slaying the dragon would bestow upon him exalted status. Major points of difference with the GOP's core constituencies — like the sanctity of life (abortion) and the evolution of mankind (stem cell research) — would become much less disqualifying.

> Red State Republicans — those from the GOP stronghold states — could learn to love Rudy in a New York minute if he beat Hillary.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 12:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### Today's Must Read

Is from Adam Groves: The Political Genius of the Bush Doctrine.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 10:59 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## December 20, 2003

### Best Political Cartoon of the Week

By Jeff Parker at Florida Today:

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 10:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## December 17, 2003

### Wictory Wednesday

I explained why Bush was riding high in my post Inane Moonbat Barking.

Today, Dick Meyer, the Editorial Director of CBSNews.com, takes it even further and lists seven lumps of coal that Democrats have gotten for Christmas this year.

But the truth is that the radical Left is raising a lot of money because they have one goal -- to unseat the man who returned honesty, decency and integrity to the White House 1,427 days ago. The Bush-haters like billionaire George Soros are opening their checkbooks. Extremists organizations like MoveOn.org are taking money from international sources.

McCain-Feingold didn't stop the influence of money in politics. It just altered how the money flows.

Republicans depend on the the people -- the bulk of their donations don't come from lavish Hollywood parties or fund-raisers in Buddhist temples. Republicans get the vast majority of their donations from the people who give $50, $300, or maybe $1,000. People who can't afford much, but know that together we can change the world.

Please help by becoming a Bush Volunteer or, if you can afford it, donate a few dollars to the campaign.

Every right-thinking blogger can participate in Wictory Wednesday. Join the team that is fighting to stem socialism for as long as possible:

Wictory Wednesday Bloggers:
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 06:05 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

## December 15, 2003

### Today's Must Read

Go now and read David Brooks' op-ed in the NY Times, A Fetish of Candor. You'll die laughing!

> I think we are all disgusted by the way George W. Bush's administration has allowed honesty and candor to seep into the genteel world of international affairs.

> Until the Bush team came to power, foreign relations were conducted with a certain gentlemanly decorum. The first Bush administration urged regime change in Iraq, without sullying itself with the Iraqi peasants actually trying to do it. The Clinton administration pretended to fight terrorism without committing the sin of unilateralism by trying very hard. [--- SNIP ---]

> The administration's fundamental problem is that it is not very good at dealing with people it can't stand. The men and women in this White House are exceptionally forthright. When they come across someone they regard as insufferable, their instinct is to be blunt. They seek to be honest rather than insincere, to not sugar things up but to let these people know how they really feel.

> Sometimes you've got to be slippery to accomplish real good. The Bush administration is thus facing an insincerity crisis. It has become addicted to candor and forthrightness. It needs an immediate back-stabbing infusion.

> Perhaps Al Gore could be brought in to offer advice.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 12:06 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### Quote of the Day

Dennis Miller, from an interview in Time called 10 Questions For Dennis Miller:

> Who in politics inspires you?
> George Bush. He's been dealt an amazingly heavy hand of cards here, and I think he's doing his best ... Bush had the balls to start something that's not gonna be finished in his lifetime. The liquidation of terrorism is not gonna happen for a long time. But to take the first step? Ballsy.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 12:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## December 11, 2003

### Can you say oink?

Say Uncle is a little outraged at the latest omnibus bill. Citizens Against Government Waste has a nice three part analysis of the pork in the bill (originally seven separate spending bills all wrapped up into one -- the better to hide the excesses), which the good Uncle kindly summed up in one post. Adding it all up, Uncle says:

> Grand Total: $82,302,000. Hey, here's where campaign finance should start. Stop vote buying now!

I have to agree. $82 million is a lot of money and the items Uncle lists are absolutely unforgivable wastes of our money.

On the other hand, one must keep a sense of proportion. The omnibus bill accounts for $820 billion of spending, making the pork just one tenth of one percent of the total. If my family kept foolish spending down to that level I'd be retiring at 55 instead of planning to work until I am 72!

Just an observation.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 10:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### Bush Approval Remains High

Gallup titles their latest poll "Key Bush Ratings Remain Fairly Strong"

> Bush's surprise visit to U.S. troops in Iraq over Thanksgiving was well received back home. Most Americans (79%), and even a solid majority of Democrats (65%), say the trip was a good idea.

And for historical context:

> Bush's current job approval rating is fairly good for presidents in the third year of their presidency.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 12:00 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

## December 10, 2003

### NRA Radio

Say Anything has a must read post titled Kerry Against NRA News Channel.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 09:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## December 08, 2003

### Today's Must Read . . .

... is from Tech Central Station: Worse Than the IRS?
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 11:06 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

### Janklow Guilty -- Will Resign

Republican Representative Janklow was found guilty of second-degree manslaughter today. The jury deliberated for less than five hours.

Janklow said he would resign his House seat in January, the day he is to be sentenced.

Gee, ya think?

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 10:52 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## December 03, 2003

### Republican Infighting

The Hill has an excellent article detailing some of the friction that the "drunken sailer spending" is having on the Republican party. A snippet:

> The internal conflict, fueled largely by recent passage of the $78 billion Iraq reconstruction effort and the $400 billion prescription-drug benefit for senior citizens that squeaked through the House on Nov. 22, came to a head last week when President Bush abruptly terminated a phone conversation with a Florida Republican who refused his plea to vote for the landmark bill. [SNIP]

> Feeney, a former Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives whom many see as a rising star in the party, reportedly told Bush: “I came here to cut entitlements, not grow them.”

> Sources said Bush shot back, “Me too, pal,” and hung up the phone.

Make no mistake -- it takes guts for a freshman rep to stand up to the president. I like this Feeney guy.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 12:36 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## December 02, 2003

### Creative Bloggers

Pamibe is one extremely talented blogger. This creation earns pamibe a place in the blogroll, but she has more -- go check her out:

Hat tip to Argghhh!!!, who does an excellent job introducing Pam's creation to the Blogosphere. Which blogger is more creative?

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 08:06 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### Today's Must Read

Power in Washington is shifting:

> But slowly, the remaining cornerstones have begun to crumble, as the Democrats have become more attenuated in time from the House of Representatives — for 40 years their bulwark — and are frozen out of the remaining government. The Republicans — first, Newt Gingrich and now Tom DeLay and Speaker Denny Hastert — have been persistently prying the cold, almost dead, Democratic fingers off the law firms, lobbyists and trade associations. (They also have given and received succor from the new media of cable news, talk radio, the Internet and the now legions of conservative commentators.)

> The Republicans have also begun doing to Democrats what Democrats did to Republicans for half a century — cutting them out of both the information and influence loop on legislation. The Medicare legislative process is a prime example. Over the last few months, when ranking Democratic congressmen and senators have spoken before vital trade associations, they have been unable to tell their audiences the status of Medicare legislation, for the simple reason that they have been cut out of the negotiations. On the other hand, key Republicans have been able to provide up-to-the-minute insights into the decision-making that can make or break whole industries.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 05:52 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## December 01, 2003

### Headline of the Day

A growing political force to be reckoned with: black Republicans

Nice article, worth a read. Money quote is at the end:

> A study from the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies last year found that in the previous two years, black support for Democrats dropped 11 percentage points, resulting in less than two-thirds calling themselves Democrats. Meanwhile, support for Republicans more than doubled among black voters, from 4 percent to 10 percent.

> That is still a small percentage, but it does represent a 150 percent increase. Further, the largest Republican support comes from the youngest segment of black voters – the future.

> If Sarasota is any indication, this trickle one day could turn into a dam-break.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 12:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## November 27, 2003

### President Goes to Iraq

President Bush gave up spending Thanksgiving with his family, and instead embarked on a secret mission to spend time with some of the troops in Iraq who must spend their holidays away from their families.

The president went to his ranch in Crawford, Texas with his family. To keep the appearance of business as usual, even the president's dinner menu was announced. But he slipped away unnoticed, flew to Washington to pick up the few aides that knew about the mission and a few reporters sworn to secrecy, and then flew on to Iraq.

The president spent two and a half hours on the ground in Iraq, devoting his Thanksgiving to our troops:

> Bush spoke with soldiers from the 1st Armored Division and the 82nd Airborne Division at an airport mess hall. “You are defeating the terrorists here in Iraq,” he said, “so we don’t have to face them in our own country.”

> Terrorists are testing America’s resolve, Bush said, and “they hope we will run.”

> “We did not charge hundreds of miles into the heart of Iraq, pay a bitter cost of casualties, defeat a ruthless dictator and liberate 25 million people only to retreat before a band of thugs and assassins,” the president said, prompting a standing ovation and cheers.

> Wearing an exercise jacket with a 1st Armored Division patch, Bush stood in a line for food, dished out sweet potatoes and corn for Thanksgiving dinner and posed with a platter of a fresh-baked turkey.

Now that is a Commander in Chief!
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 12:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## November 25, 2003

### Will there be an autopsy?

Albert Eisele writes this story of another mugging on Capitol Hill:

> The Democratic Party, one of the twin pillars of the American political system and a major force in Congress for much of the 20th century, died last weekend while working on Capitol Hill. It was 175 years old. The cause of death was injuries suffered from an apparent mugging while trying to rescue the New Deal, the New Frontier and the Great Society.

> Capitol Police Chief Terrance Gainer said the victim’s body was found Monday in the excavation for the Capitol Visitor Center, shortly after Congress cleared the way for overhauling Medicare, the Great Society program created in 1965 that was considered the party’s most important legacy.

> The time of death was uncertain, but it probably occurred between early Saturday morning and Monday afternoon, Gainer said.

> Even though the body bore signs of a violent struggle, Gainer did not rule out the possibility of suicide, citing reports that the victim had been severely depressed since November 2000. [snip]

> Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) offered his condolences to the victim’s family and friends. “I know what it’s like to lose a patient on the operating table,” the heart-lung surgeon said. “But I could see that the deceased was in increasingly poor health in recent years, and I think it’s entirely possible death was due to natural causes.”

> Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) said he was sorry to see his party expire. But he expressed confidence that it would reconstitute itself in a few years, “as soon as Ted Kennedy and Zell Miller figure out what we stand for.”

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 09:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### Today's Must Read ...

.. .comes from Byron York penning a column in The Hill: Democratic memos expose the media’s double standard. It starts out like this:

> Imagine this:

> A liberal publication obtains copies of secret internal memos by members of Vice President Dick Cheney’s energy task force. The documents reveal that Cheney and his aides not only consulted big energy companies but actually took orders from those companies in crafting national policy.

> If an oil company wanted the vice president to hold off on an initiative, then the vice president held off on the initiative.

> If an electricity giant wanted the vice president to block the appointment of a regulatory official, then the vice president blocked the appointment.

> The documents even suggest the administration knows it is doing wrong; on one occasion, two of the vice president’s aides say they are “a little concerned about the propriety” of doing the energy companies’ bidding. But they do it anyway.

> When the memos are published, the administration doesn’t deny the facts but instead accuses Democrats of stealing the documents.

> Now ask yourself: Were all that to happen, do you think the story would be ignored by The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the news sections of The Wall Street Journal, and ABC, NBC and CBS?

> And in the one big paper to mention the story, The Washington Post, do you think the only report devoted to the subject, a brief wire-service account on Page A-4, would be headlined, “Apparent Theft of Memos Probed”?

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 09:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## November 24, 2003

### Todays Must Read

Thomas Roeser grades the presidents from Coolidge to George W.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 01:53 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### So Just How Did It Go In England?

President Bush delivered a speech in England that was "one of the finest delivered by a visiting leader". It impressed even the harshest critics:

> The Independent, a British newspaper that has been a consistent critic of the Bush administration, hailed the president for delivering a speech "with a degree of verve, eloquence and even humor that defied his reputation as the least articulate American president since Calvin Coolidge."

> The Guardian, another left-leaning partisan newspaper, said Mr. Bush's speech was a "palatable, even attractive" expression of the Bush Doctrine of fighting terrorism around the globe.

Nile Gardiner, international-affairs fellow at the Heritage Foundation, described it this way:

> Mr. Bush earned "grudging respect in Europe," Mr. Gardiner [international-affairs fellow at the Heritage Foundation] said, though "he will never be loved" on the continent.

> "Increasingly, he is a man respected for doing what he says and implementing what he believes," Mr. Gardiner said. "And in the end, that is what really matters.

> "Reagan was even more reviled in Europe than Bush is, and look at what he achieved."

The president did not come out an apologize to the English, but rather gave an elegant and sincere justification for the war of Iraqi liberation. Speculation has it that this diluted the efforts of the protest organizers. The predicted "hundreds of thousands of protesters" never materialized (in spite of what the BBC says). Even the main rally only drew somewhere between 70,000 protesters (according to Scotland Yard estimates) and a meager 30,000 (so says London’s Metropolitan Police).

For perspective, consider that three times more people marched to protest the outlawing of fox hunting than showed up to protest Bush in London:

> Last year, for example, more than 300,000 people marched to protest the Blair government's intention to outlaw fox hunting. Thursday's crowds were dwarfed by those who protested Reagan visits two decades ago and were devoid of the extreme violence that marked British protests against Margaret Thatcher's poll tax. The Rolling Stones squeeze more people into stadiums every day than showed up to protest Mr. Bush on one targeted date.

The president made an impression on the personal level as well. Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman Menzies Campbell said that the real President Bush is “totally at odds” with how the media describes him:

> “He is personally extremely engaging. He has a well-developed sense of humour, is self-deprecating and when he engages in a discussion with you he is warm and concentrates directly on you.

> “He looks you straight in the eye and tells you exactly what he thinks.”

> Mr Campbell, stressing that the President was “totally at odds” with his media image, went on: “I was not persuaded by what he said, but I was most certainly surprised at the extent to which the caricature of him was inaccurate.”

Bush impressed citizens that he met. He walked up to six kids outside of a pub and said, “Hi, I’m the President of the United States.”

> Stuart Percival, 12, said: “It was fantastic. We shook hands with him and he put his arm around me. “I told him I had never met him before and he laughed and said: ‘You have now’.”

> Pal Jade McKinnell, 11, said: “He was a really nice man. I once met Alan Shearer but he was not as good as George Bush, the President was far more impressive.”

Gemma Grieves, Tony Blair's neighbor, got a hug when she met the president:

> Gemma Grieves, 26 — sporting a stars and stripes jumper — even got a cuddle from the President. She said: “It was a really tight hug. I thought he was lovely.”

So do I, Mrs. Grieves. So do I.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 01:32 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

### Senate Vote on Medicare Reform Today

Frist has scheduled the first test vote of the Medicare prescription drug bill for Monday. Many Democrats continue to self-destruct over this one by taking opposition too far:

> Supporters from organizations such as AARP see it as a compromise that would provide coverage to people with low incomes and relief to those with high drug costs.

> However, a poll last week by Hart Research showed that 65 percent of AARP members want Congress to go back to the drawing board. Many members of Congress already have canceled their membership in AARP, and some grassroots organizations such as Moveon.org advocate mass membership cancellations.

Can you imagine Democrats urging teachers to resign from the NEA? Can you imagine AARP supporting a politician that is so stridently opposed to a bill they are trying to get passed?

In spite of every Democrat presidential candidate being opposed to the measure, nine Democrat senators will vote for it (in varying measures of reluctance).

My main problem with the legislation is that it retains the ban on importation of lower-cost drugs from countries like Canada. Why should Americans subsidize drug companies R&D?

Oh yeah -- it also contains a billion dollars to subsidize emergency care for illegal aliens over the next four years.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 12:14 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## November 18, 2003

### Gotta Love It

Protest Warrior gets mainstream media coverage with an article in the Washington Times.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 09:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### Quote of the Day

Donald Sensing writes a well-reasoned essay called Beware the compassion police: Why compassion cannot be a basis for public policy. Read it all, but I had to extract this quote:

> Making compassion into policy or law for society compels others to conform to your idea of compassion, trampling on their freedom to be compassionate according to their own lights or to be hard-hearted as they wish. And compassion that coerces is not compassion at all; it is tyranny.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 05:23 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

## November 15, 2003

### Blanco Wins Louisiana

Blanco wins by over 54,000 votes:

| Kathleen Blanco |  | 730,747 |  | 52%
| "Bobby" Jindal |  | 676,180 |  | 48%

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 11:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## November 14, 2003

### Why Bush?

This is why even Libertarians like Say Uncle -- who say they are so disappointed in Bush's policies that they will absolutely, positively not vote for him even though they are already benefiting from his leadership -- should stay with Bush.

> In a speech before the Tax Foundation, a policy group here that advocates lower taxes, Treasury Secretary John W. Snow said his staff was preparing "a number of proposals to simplify the tax code" and resurrected the idea of "lifetime savings accounts" that would allow people to put aside large sums of money and pay no tax on the investment income they receive.

The proposed "lifetime savings accounts" would allow $7,500 per individual (that's $15,000 for a married couple) to be put into an account for which there would be no taxes on dividends or stock profits. And it there would be a large degree of freedom for withdrawing money before retirement age without imposing penalties.

Look for this to be a centerpiece of the re-election message. Also look at it as the first step to Social Security privatization and significant tax code simplification.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 01:55 PM | Comments (9) | TrackBack

### Bush and the Liberal Tradition

Excellent article on the recent speech by the president:

> But it would be a great mistake to see the Bush doctrine as conservative in a simple, partisan sense.

> For what the president has given voice to are convictions central to the liberal tradition. Freedom is not just good for Americans or for the British. It is good for all people everywhere, because it reflects a universal aspiration, a permanent inclination of the human heart. While forms of government for securing individual rights will vary, as will the choices individuals and peoples make about how to take advantage of the blessings of freedom, no individual wishes to be imprisoned, tortured, or enslaved. Individuals should not be forced to be free, but free nations may be compelled to use force to counter the threat posed by governments that subjugate their own people and threaten the liberties of other nations.

> These convictions are nurtured by the tradition of John Locke, who maintained that all men and all women are by nature free and equal. And the tradition of the authors of The Federalist, who believed that the experiment under way in America was relevant to all mankind, because all mankind had interest in discovering whether government based on the consent of the governed and devoted to protecting the rights of individuals was possible. And the tradition of John Stuart Mill, who identified the "permanent interests of man as a progressive being" with the spread of liberty in a manner consistent with the principles of liberty.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 12:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## November 13, 2003

### Quote of the Day

“As the Democrat party gets smaller, it becomes more liberal, elitist, and angry, and as it becomes more liberal, elitist, and angry, it gets smaller.” -- Republican National Committee chief Ed Gillespie
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 12:58 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

## November 12, 2003

### Filibuster Action

samaBlog is providing real-time updates of the filibuster.

The filibuster is less than six hours old and he's already made 29 posts. I wonder how dedicated he'll be . . .

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 10:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### If you live in Illinois ...

... then you'd better read this from Free Will.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 06:47 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## November 10, 2003

### Alexander the RINO

Tennessee federal representative Marsha Blackburn co-sponsored a bill to permently ban Internet acess taxes. Way to go Marsha! (She's my rep.)

The ban is on hold in the Senate because of people like Republican Lamar Alexander who is demonstrating his Democrat tendencies.

The left-wing Tennessean says:

> Sen. Lamar Alexander is not voting to raise taxes. He is not trying to increase the cost of Internet access, nor is he advocating a new tax on e-mail.

> Instead, Alexander is trying to protect states from excessive control by the federal government. Yet the conservative, states-rights position the senator has taken on Internet access taxes has been turned on its ear by his critics, many of whom are Republicans.

But my question to Alexander is why he is choosing this issue to stand up for State's Rights? What other issue has Alexander even hinted at wanting to stand up for States Rights?

This is a smokescreen for the tax-hungry Alexander, proving that at least this leopard hasn't changed its spots.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 08:35 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

### Jindal News

A new poll shows GOP Louisiana gubernatorial candidate Jindal leading Blanco 48 to 43, which is outside of the poll's 4 point margin of error.

The Bushification of America continues.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 06:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### Jindal News

An analysis of the importance of race in the race for Louisiana governor:

> Race has not disappeared from Louisiana politics -- far from it. When New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, a black Democrat, crossed party lines to endorse Jindal last week, it was, in part, an indicator of racial tension within the state Democratic Party. ...

> When Nagin stood next to Jindal last week, he said he had polled people all over New Orleans about supporting the GOP candidate. Most seemed open to the idea, he said, adding that African-American voters are beginning to question whether voting for one party is in their best interest.

> That endorsement was a body blow to Jindal's opponent, 60-year-old Lt. Gov. Blanco.

> It takes a strong turnout from traditionally Democratic black voters in New Orleans to elect a Democrat statewide in Louisiana.

> So in these final days before the Saturday runoff, Louisiana finds itself watching not just the Democrat, but the GOP candidate scrapping for the black vote that has always been a lock for Democrats. Jindal needs a small number of black voters to shift the tide. Blanco needs nearly the whole city of New Orleans.

> Election watchers noted that Jindal's supporters at his victory party after the primary in mid-October were predominantly white. Since that time, Jindal's campaign has become visibly more diverse.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 12:42 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## November 09, 2003

### Gov. Nuge?

Ted Nugent has gone from Motor City Madman to Second Amendment Activist to ultimate American country boy.

He is a published author (two books), sits on the NRA Board of Directors, is nationally recognized for his youth work through his Kamp for Kids, is a spokesman for D.A.R.E., and much more.

He's also fed up with politics in Michigan and is considering running for governor.

The man has incredible energy and great name recognition. Can you imagine him running as a Democrat? No. Perhaps as an Independent if the northern Republicans are silly enough to oppose his nomination in favor for one of their own.

There's plenty of time to decide - the current governor's term isn't up until 2007. In the meantime, the mere prospect of a Governor Nugent is pissing liberals off.

BTW, when Ted wins this race ('cause I think he will run) he will replace Democrat Jennifer Granholm.

Democrat governorships are dropping like flies these days.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 03:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## November 07, 2003

### Best of the Best

James Taranto makes a couple of excellent finds today.

First is End of an Era
Let history record Nov. 6, 2003, as the day on which the civil rights movement in America drew to a close. For that is the day the Atlanta Journal-Constitution published the following sentence, in an article on the judicial nomination of Janice Rogers Brown:

> Prominent blacks charged President Bush deliberately chose a conservative black woman so it would be harder for senators to vote against her.

Second is Anti-Incumbent Mood?--II
We thought we did a pretty good job yesterday of debunking the notion that recent gubernatorial elections reflect an "anti-incumbent mood." Reader Josh Barro points out that there's another way of looking at the results that even more effectively demolishes the claim.

In 2002 and 2003, six incumbent Democratic governors sought re-election:

- Don Siegelman (Alabama)
- Gray Davis (California)
- Roy Barnes (Georgia)
- Tom Vilsack (Iowa)
- Ronnie Musgrove (Mississippi)
- Jim Hodges (South Carolina)

Of these six, only Vilsack and Davis (in 2002) won, and Davis of course was turned out in the recall election less than a year later.

Now, here's a list of Republican incumbents who sought another term:

- Mike Huckabee (Arkansas)
- Bill Owens (Colorado)
- John Rowland (Connecticut)
- Jeb Bush (Florida)
- Dirk Kempthorne (Idaho)
- Mike Johanns (Nebraska)
- Kenny Guinn (Nevada)
- George Pataki (New York)
- Bob Taft (Ohio)
- Rick Perry (Texas)
- Scott McCallum (Wisconsin)

McCallum was the only loser; 10 out of 11 GOP incumbents were victorious.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 07:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### House GOP Snip Dem's Pork

This story might end up with legs once the press gets ahold of it.

The House majority party took the shears to a huge education and health spending bill, completely cutting the projects for the home districts of every Democrat, nine Republicans and an Independent because they voted against the initial version of the measure last summer. Democrats are crying foul:

> Unapologetic GOP leaders say the decision reflects standard procedure in Congress, where uncooperative lawmakers can lose out on money for roads, clinics and other prized items for the folks back home. ...

> By tradition, the House's roughly $450 million would be split 60-40 between majority Republicans and minority Democrats, Regula said. That means about $180 million is at stake for House Democrats. ...

> Democrats say Regula's decision will disproportionately hurt the poor because 42 of the 50 poorest congressional districts are represented by Democrats, according to Census Bureau figures.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 06:26 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

## November 06, 2003

### Mapping Victory

Today's must check it out is Adam Groves post on the Kentucky and Mississippi elections. He has a great pair of red/blue maps of Kentucky that you simply must see.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 10:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### Jindal Picks Up Key Endorsements

The latest polls show Bobby Jindal in a statistical dead heat with his opponent, Kathleen Blanco, in the race for Louisiana governor.

> The numbers are close in every area of the state, with the exception of Baton Rouge and New Orleans. In Baton Rouge, Blanco leads with 37 percent of the vote to Jindal's 30 percent. In the New Orleans area, Jindal leads by 9 points.

> In Blanco's base in Acadiana, she's tied with Jindal, according to the poll.

> Renwick said the polling numbers show no "gender gap."

Heh - no gender gap in a race that could place the first woman ever into the Louisiana governor's mansion. That's significant.

The voter turnout for this election is expected to be very small, even lower than the 4 October primary that only drew half of the registered voters. A poll adjusted for "likely voters" shows the gap between Jindal and Blanco widening:

> But when looking only at those likely to vote, Jindal stayed at 44 percent, but Blanco fell to 40 percent, with 16 percent undecided.

Remember that the mayor of New Orleans crossed party lines and endorsed Bobby just three days ago.

Now comes news that the influential North-Central Louisiana Black Caucus has also crossed party lines and endorsed Bobby Jindal.

> Vice chairman Glenn Heckard said the caucus consists of 118 black elected officials, businessmen and community leaders and that 93 percent of them voted to endorse Jindal over Democrat Kathleen Blanco in the Nov. 15 governor's runoff.

> Although most of the members are Democrats, Heckard said they were attracted to Jindal because he represents a "breath of fresh air" for the state.

Also announced was Jindal endorsement by The Latino Coalition:

> “When we looked at the candidates in this race, we found a very significant difference in the way to approach the problems facing Louisiana’s future. Ms. Blanco’s passive approach is without a doubt no match to Mr. Jindal’s detailed and assertive plans to move the state forward,” said TLC President Robert G. de Posada. “Bobby Jindal brings a bold vision for Louisiana that relies on an aggressive economic development strategy to create more and better paying jobs in the state.”

All Children Matter, a national, bipartisan group that favors using vouchers also endorsed Jindal.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 12:47 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

## November 05, 2003

### The Building of a Legacy

According to the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, "Republicans have made significant gains both geographically and demographically" since 9/11.

> The gains came chiefly among white Protestants, white Catholics, Hispanics in the West and Texas and in important swing states like Florida as well as in three states that Al Gore won in 2000 — Michigan, Minnesota and Iowa. Women and early baby boomers — people in their middle 40's to late 50's — are still more likely to be Democrats, while men, married people with children and people aged 30 to 44 are more likely to lean Republican.

> President Bush runs dead even against an unnamed generic Democrat, the survey showed, but he beats all of his current Democratic rivals when they are named.

A look at the changes in the "swing states":

State | --- Current --- | -- 1997-2000 -- | Net Change * | Winner in 2000
--- | --- | --- | --- | ---
GOP | Dem | GOP | Dem
Arkansas | 33% | 34% | 21% | 39% | GOP +15 | Bush
Iowa | 34% | 27% | 27% | 32% | GOP +12 | Gore
Michigan | 31% | 29% | 26% | 33% | GOP +9 | Gore
West Virginia | 33% | 44% | 31% | 51% | GOP +9 | Bush
Minnesota | 31% | 28% | 26% | 31% | GOP +8 | Gore
Tennessee | 35% | 32% | 30% | 34% | GOP +7 | Bush
Florida | 37% | 36% | 33% | 38% | GOP +6 | Bush
New Mexico | 35% | 39% | 30% | 40% | GOP +6 | Gore
Louisiana | 33% | 42% | 31% | 46% | GOP +6 | Bush
Wisconsin | 30% | 29% | 29% | 33% | GOP +5 | Gore
Pennsylvania | 38% | 38% | 36% | 40% | GOP +4 | Gore
Missouri | 28% | 32% | 27% | 34% | GOP +3 | Bush
Oregon | 32% | 33% | 33% | 36% | GOP +2 | Gore
Ohio | 31% | 35% | 32% | 35% | GOP -1 | Bush
New Hampshire | 29% | 20% | 30% | 19% | GOP -2 | Bush

* Since September 11, 2001
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 10:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### Infanticide No Longer Legal

The killing of babies that has no medical basis other than depression of the mother has been made illegal.

"For years, a terrible form of violence has been directed against children who are inches from birth while the law looked the other way," Bush said.

With a stroke of the pen the man that restored honor, decency and integrity to the White House took our nation a small step away from the edge of a moral abyss.

James Pinkerton reviews the media's coverage of this event.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 07:37 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

### Republicans Sweeping the South

Republican Ernie Fletcher is headed for the Governor's Mansion in Kentucky.

It's after midnight and with 80% of the precincts reporting Republican Barbour leads 53% to 45% over Democrat Musgrove. Barbour's been ahead from the first with only 7 precincts reporting and he is now optimistically giving his victory speech. If the trend holds, he will be only the second Republican governor since the Civil War. There was a record turnout for the vote.

The South has always been a stronghold for men who are men and where honor and trust are the measure of a man. After eight years of despicable behavior by our national leader, Bush is the image of a principled and respectable leader, a man of true character. These things mean something to the Southerner, and the South is responding.

Finally, an ABC News poll shows that there are more Republicans than at any time in the last 23 years.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 12:19 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## November 03, 2003

### Jindal gets unexpected boost

Bobby Jindal, Republican candidate for Louisiana governor, received a high-visibility endorsement from the mayor of New Orleans, Democrat Ray Nagin:

> The endorsement - a black big-city Democrat backing a conservative Republican - is unorthodox, though in keeping with the maverick mayor's unconventional style. In the primary he backed a conservative north Louisiana Democrat, Randy Ewing, who was not the first choice of other black political leaders, and who finished fifth.

> "Maybe I'm throwing deep again," the mayor joked Monday, all the while insisting he was a "life-long Democrat." It was the most significant endorsement Jindal has so far received, and it follows similar unusual sanctionings of Jindal by black political and ministerial groups in the city, a key battleground for votes in the upcoming Nov. 15 runoff.

Reading the article you get the impression that Nagin is a rare bird: a politician that is trying to do the right thing. He shook off threats from members of his own party to do what he thinks is best for the city that he has been entrusted with. An ethical politician is a rare thing, but an ethical Democrat is the stuff of mythology.

Update: The latest poll has Bobby Jindal ahead by 11 points, with a 4 point margin of error:

> Jindal had 49 percent compared to Democrat Kathleen Blanco's 38 percent in the independent poll by Verne Kennedy of Marketing Research Insight of Pensacola, Fla. The poll of 600 was taken Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights by Kennedy for a group of 25 wealthy business owners who contribute to both camps. The poll has a margin of error of 4.0 points, Kennedy said.

> Based on his previous polls of Oct. 13 and Oct. 22 and the latest one, Kennedy forecast the race to be, at this point, 54 percent for Jindal and 46 percent for Blanco.

Hat tip to James Taranto.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 06:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### Sabato's Louisiana Prediction

Larry Sabato's Crystal Ball is predicting Republican wins in Kentucky and Mississippi. Both races are interesting in different ways. Kentucky will likely go Republican because of a scandal concerning the current Democrat governor and a certain woman he appointed to the lottery commission. In Mississippi, the incumbent Democrat governor is running as vitriolic campaign as I've ever seen against a former Washington lobbyist, yet the Republican leads in the polls.

But Louisiana remains the most fascinating race of all. Will Indian-American Bobby Jindal keep the governorship in Republican hands, or will hard-campaigning Democrats wrest it away? Larry Sabato has this to say:

> Currently, the Crystal Ball sees a toss-up in the Bayou State. Were it not for Democratic Senator John Breaux, who is pulling out all the stops for Democratic nominee Kathleen Blanco, we would declare Republican Bobby Jindal the frontrunner. But Jindal is finding Breaux to be the closest thing in modern Louisiana to a political boss the size of the Kingfish himself, Huey Long. Two-term Republican Governor Mike Foster, still popular at the end of his tenure, strongly backs Jindal. So a Jindal win would maintain GOP control; a Blanco triumph would give the Democrats their only net gain of 2003.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 04:06 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### Quote of the Day

Today's quote comes from Zell Miller in regard to Dean's claim that he wants votes from "guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks."

> Howard Dean knows as much about the South as a hog knows about Sunday.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 01:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### Today's Must Read

is an Opinion Journal article by Zell Miller on why he will vote for Bush in 2004:

> I first got to know George Bush when we served as governors together, and I just plain like the man, a man who feeds his dogs first thing every morning, has Larry Gatlin sing in the White House, and knows what is meant by the term "hitting behind the runner."

> I am moved by the reverence and tenderness he shows the first lady and the unabashed love he has for his parents and his daughters.

> I admire this man of faith who has lived that line in that old hymn, "Amazing Grace," "Was blind, but now I see." I like the fact that he's the same on Saturday night as he is on Sunday morning. And I like a man who shows respect for others by starting meetings on time.

Those were the "personal" reasons. He also details the political reasons. Read it.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 12:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## October 29, 2003

### Don't Regulate Cable

CATO has released an analysis of a General Accounting Office report on cable industry rate competition. The analyst is surprised that the GAO not only does not call for government regulation, it actually confirms that deregulation has benefitted consumers:

> ... the GAO notes that many factors have contributed to the rising cost of cable service: increased programming expenditures (especially sports); substantial infrastructure investments and upgrades ($75 billion since 1996); and increased customers service expenditures. In other words, while nominal cable rates have risen over the past few years, the amount and quality of the service the industry has provided has increased. When the number of new channels and increased viewing time are taken into account, it becomes clear that the quality-adjusted price of cable programming is actually quite reasonable and that "cable viewers appear to be substantially better off now than they were six years ago" as Michigan State University economist Steven Wildman found in an important new study. Moreover, the GAO alludes to the fact that the inflation rate may not be a very meaningful yardstick by which to compare cable rates anyway. Indeed, the price of many goods and services routinely rise faster than the inflation rate during any given period, but that tells us little about consumer value or welfare.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 07:33 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## October 28, 2003

### Bush to Come to Memphis

Well, not exactly. He's going to be at the DeSoto Civic Center for a political rally for Haley Barbour, Republican challenger to Democrat incumbent Mississippi Governor Ronnie Musgrove. That should influence the poll numbers a little.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 10:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### Mississippi Governor Race

The Democrat incumbent governor, Ronnie Musgrove, is running a highly offensive attack ad campaign against challenger Haley Barbour, former chairman of the Republican National Committee. Living in Memphis, I see these ads frequently - the governor is certainly well-funded. I have yet to see an ad in favor of Barbour.

So it is somewhat surprising that a recent poll shows Republican Barbour in the lead, with 50% to Musgrove's 45%.

Signifying Nothing has thoughts on what happens if neither candidate captures a majority vote.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 09:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### Undocumented Legislator

Mr. Mike at Half-Bakered hasn't posted for 12 days and I'm getting worried that I'll miss out on gems like this:

> The next time some politician comes out in favor of social services or governmental services for illegal aliens, note what office they hold. Then, show up at that House or Senate or City Council meeting and just take a seat with the rest of them. When they look at you funny and ask what you're doing there, tell them you're an "undocumented legislator."

Hat tip to goobage, 'cause I missed this when reading Mike's stuff for myself.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 09:36 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

### Differences in Perspective

Many of us bemoan the similarities between the parties, saying one is as bad as the other. But the truth is that serious differences exist on issues ranging from illegal immigrants to homeland security. Whether this is a result of the Democrats taking increasingly radical positions in an effort to differentiate themselves, or if they truly believe these things is unimportant. What is important, indeed absolutely essential, is that these differences exist.

One difference is how minorities are perceived and treated by the two parties.

For instance, when Clinton first built his cabinet he deliberately set out to build one with "diversity" in mind. This clearly evident when you consider that when Clinton asked for a list of candidates for Attorney General, he did not seek for the best qualified; he asked for a list of qualified women. Zoe Baird was proposed, but the "nanny problem" arose. Judge Kimba Wood was tapped next, but it turned out she had a similar problem. Finally, Janet Reno was selected and the result was 80 men, women and children dead in Waco, failure to investigate the selling of national secrets to China or flagrant campaign violations, and the return of an innocent child to a communist country. These are the rewards of Clinton's affirmative action program.

Compare that to Bush's seemingly effortless ability to build a diverse cabinet merely by choosing the most qualified individual for the job. Not one person was obviously chosen because of ethnicity or gender, nor has there been any evidence that better qualified individuals were passed over due to these factors. As he announced his picks, Bush was not derided for pandering, but rather for choosing too many from past administrations because of the experience that they brought. Indeed, the Left continues to assert that Bush is dumb and is only successful because of the people that he chooses to have by his side.

Yet Bush's cabinet includes three women (Veneman, Norton, Chao (who replaced Chavez)), two blacks (Powell and Paige), two Asian-Americans (Chao and Mineta, who is also a Democrat holdover from Clinton's cabinet), one Hispanic (Martinez) and one Arab-American (Abraham). His firsts include the first African-American Secretary of State, the first Hispanic Secretary of Labor, the first female National Security Adviser, and the first cabinet in U.S. history in which white men are the minority.

When he sits down with foreign leaders, Bush has Powell and Rice on either side. For all the talk of Clinton being "the first black president", Bush is the one who choose Powell for Secretary of State, making him the highest-ranking minority in U.S. history. And it was Bush who selected Rice for National Security Adviser, making her the highest-ranking black female in U.S. history.

But the differences go far beyond that. The Republican's are becoming the party of minorities who have achieved the American Dream:

- Arnold Schwarzenegger came to this country with less than a hundred dollars and is now a multimillionaire with a real estate empire and is the governor of the most populous state in the union.
- Mel Martínez, Housing and Urban Development Secretary, came to this country as a Cuban refugee at age 15.
- Sen. Spencer Abraham, Energy Secretary, is the son of Lebanese immigrants and the only Arab-American in the Senate during his term.
- Justice Janice Brown is a sharecropper's daughter, born and raised in the segregated South.
- Miguel Estrada was born in Honduras, immigrated at the age of 15.
- Indian-American Bobby Jindal is on the verge of becoming governor of Louisiana, in spite of highly conservative positions and dark skin; he is even garnering essential endorsements from traditionally Democrat black organizations.

All of these individuals earned their nominations through years of hard work and personal achievement. The message from the Republican Party is one that resonates with rural America and immigrants alike: work hard and follow the rules, and there is no limit to what what you can achieve in America.

Compare and contrast that message to the one coming out of the Democrat Party:

- Democrats in California are organizing work stoppages and boycotts in an attempt to save a new law granting drivers licenses to illegal immigrants from being overturned.
- House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi claims that the raids on dozens of Wal-Mart stores were "terrorizing", putting fear into people who are trying to feed their families. There is no mention from the Left that these people are breaking the law by being here.
- Democrat Senators have hijacked democracy and made excessive use of the filibuster to stop minority judicial candidate Miguel Estrada from being confirmed, and are preparing to do the same to Justice Brown.
- Even before this administration, Democrats famously came up with "Borking" judicial candidates. Justice Clarence Thomas' confirmation was a myriad of lies and slurs aimed at obfuscating rational debate.
- Democrats, fearful of alienating the powerful Teachers lobby, continue to fight against vouchers even though their minority base (who would benefit the most from breaking the NEA monopoly on education) are overwhelmingly in favor of them.

The list goes on, from the perpetuating of the victimization culture of welfare to rabid and increasingly irrational support for Jim Crow-era gun control laws.

What is becoming painfully obvious to any but the most ideologically-blinded voter is that Democrats are of the party that allow terrorists to move freely among us, the party that encourages violation of our borders and protects illegals in our midst, the party that celebrates diversity as long as the minority member in question adheres to a specific and narrowly defined dogma, and the party that trades our children's future for political expediency.

Is it any wonder that cracks are beginning to show in what was once a dead-certain voting block for Democrats?

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 12:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## October 26, 2003

### Outrage of the Week

Even without being able to vote, illegal aliens have changed the makeup of Congress. Every ten years, House seats are reapportioned after a national census of all residents, not just legal residents or voters. Thus those states that serve as safe harbors for illegal aliens are rewarded, while those who work to expel them are penalized.

The Center for Immigration Studies performed a study that found that solely as a result of illegal aliens, California has three new seats and North Carolina has another. Meanwhile Indiana, Michigan, Mississippi and Montana each lost a seat due to illegal aliens living elsewhere. Also:

> The growing numbers of all non-citizens -- both legal and illegal -- prompted nine House seats to change states after the 2000 Census. The population trend was responsible for six of California's new seats as well as one each for Texas, Florida and New York. The "loser" states were Indiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Utah and Wisconsin.

> Some congressional districts have so many non-citizens and so few voters that it takes less than 35,000 votes to win an election, compared to almost 100,000 votes in a typical district. The Los Angeles district of Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, a Democrat, has a population that is 43 percent non-citizen. In South Florida, Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, a Republican, represents a constituency that is 28 percent non-citizen.

Is it any wonder that Democrats have become the party of the illegal alien?

> He said that states that were in the Republican column in the last presidential election would have gained nine seats without the impact of immigration.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 09:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### Rank Hypocrisy

This "cartoon" appeared on the Black Commentator website. In addition to making a respected jurist into Clarence Thomas in a fright wig, the accompanying article has invidious rhetoric like this:

> Janice Brown is a Jim Crow-era judge, in natural blackface.

The cartoon and article lumps Brown with Thomas (the highest-ranking black jurist in US history), Powell (the highest-ranking minority in US history), and Rice (the highest-ranking black woman in US history). But the Left does not celebrate the accomplishments of these very capable people. The Left does not present them as inspirational examples of what can be achieved in America. The Left has nothing but contempt and caustic hyperbole for anyone who does not conform to a narrow-minded and extremist ideology.

Black Commentator in general, and cartoonist Khalil Bendib specifically, should be ashamed of their behavior. But shame is something of which the Left has no concept.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 08:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### Today's Must Read...

is a hysterical "Arnold's Quiz" to test if you are Democrat or Republican. For example, under the heading of Sexual Abuse:

> You're a Demo if you think Clinton was just having fun with women and it was time to move on rather than investigate his improprieties but Arnold was a real groper. You're a Republican if you think there's a difference between the president of the United States having sex with an political intern in the White House while his wife is sleeping in the next room and a big Hollywood star flirting on the set.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 08:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### Wise Words

from Zell Miller:

> ``The United States Senate is the only place on the planet where 59 votes out of 100 cannot pass anything because 41 votes out of 100 can defeat it,'' said Sen. Zell Miller in remarks presented during a hearing last May before the Senate Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on the Constitution.

> ``Try explaining that at your local Rotary Club or to someone in the Wal-Mart parking lot or, for that matter, to the college freshman in Poly Sci 101. You can't because this silly Senate math stands democracy on its head. ...

> ``The word `filibuster,' '' Miller continued, ``comes from a Spanish word for `pirate,' and that is exactly what the filibuster does: It hijacks the democratic process. The way it is being used in the Senate gives the minority an absolute veto on anything.''

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 08:04 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### Republicans to Win Kentucky

Kentucky has had Democrat governors for more than 30 years, but it looks like that's about to change. According to the latest poll, Republican candidate Ernie Fletcher is going into the final week before the election with a nine-point lead.

The reason that Democrats have fallen out of favor?

> Republicans have said they have a chance to turn Kentucky into their column because scandal-tarred incumbent Gov. Paul Patton's troubles lifted ethics to the forefront in the race.

> Democrat Patton was prohibited by state law from seeking a third term; but his trustworthiness was undermined last year when he first denied, then tearfully admitted, an extramarital affair with a woman he appointed to the state's lottery board.

Democrat Party: Morals? We don't need no stinkin' morals!

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 07:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## October 25, 2003

### Fighting Justice Janice Brown

You know the liberals are on weak ground when the leading leftist paper in the world has to resort to ludicrous rhotoric like this:

> The American Bar Association, all but a rubber stamp for the administration's nominees...

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 01:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## October 23, 2003

### Here they go again

The Democrat's candidate for New Jersey Senate, Sen. Joseph Suliga, dropped out of his re-election campaign to seek treatment for "an alcohol-related problem". The Dems have replaced their candidate with lawyer Nicholas P. Scutari, even though the deadline for submitting candidates was Sept. 17.

A state Superior Court and an appellate panel have sanctioned the Democrat's obviously illegal actions (I suppose it could be argued that this makes it legal).

The Republican candidate, Martin Marks, is turning to the US Supreme Court, hoping they will rule on the case.

I am not hopeful, given that SCOTUS refused to hear the same kind of case when NJ Democrats replaced Torricelli with Lautenberg at the last minute.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 09:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### Politicians get a Raise

Will unemployment at worrisome highs, the Senate approved a pay increase for the fifth straight year. The House did the same for themselves last month.

> As in past years, the effort to deny senators their pay raise was led by Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., who has a policy of returning to the Treasury any pay he receives that is above his salary when he began his six-year term.

> ''How can Congress give itself a $3,400 pay raise while nearly 9 million people are unemployed, and 2 million have been out of work for more than half a year,'' Feingold asked.

> With the latest increase, he said, members will have received five consecutive pay hikes totaling more than $21,000.

Good for him!
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 09:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## October 20, 2003

### Are You a Moderate?

Today's must read is from Signifying Nothing, responding to a response to a CalPundit post in The Gigglesnort Test. An excerpt would not do it justice - I'll just say that it was just as subtly funny the second time that I read it.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 12:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## October 18, 2003

### FEC Dismisses Complaints Against Gore

Al Gore was accused of coordinating his campaign with union-sponsored ads.

Government lawyers concluded that an ad captioned "Under the George W. Bush Tax Plan, the Rich Get Richer" did not call for Gore's election.

Yeah, right.

They also concluded that a complaint brought by Rep. Meehan is "a low priority".

Both complaints were dismissed.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 10:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## October 17, 2003

### Quote of the Day

Today's Quote of the Day is a tie between two quotes from the same article: Six enemies of freedom by Martin L. Gross.

Quote the first:

> Once the center of culture and intellect, France now is in the position of the Arab world of the 13th century, when their arrogance and anti-Christianity set the stage for the fall of the Muslim empire that had conquered half the civilized world. The same is now true of France, whose contributions to the world — intellectually, culturally, and scientifically — have virtually ceased, while America's continue to grow each year. Their envy will be their downfall.

And quote the second:

> By 1972, anti-Americans had taken over much of the machinery — if not the average voters — of the Democratic Party, as witnessed by the presidential nomination of Sen. George McGovern, whose plan to confront the Soviet Union was to cut our defense budget by one-third. Today, those defeatist sentiments are echoed by all 10 candidates for the presidency, including retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark, who supported the effort until his ambitions tarnished his soul.

I just can't decide which one I like better.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 08:12 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

## October 13, 2003

### Ahnold!

Professor Reiland pens a column about why the last-minute media attacks against Schwarzenegger didn't have the desired effect (well worth the click), but finishes up with why Democrats fear Arnold:

> In Schwarzenegger's case, that comes down to a stance that's pro-business and anti-tax, a perspective that's pro-choice on abortion and supportive of gay civil unions. It's a position, in short, that targets free-spending legislators as the problem, not individual freedom. The result? On Tuesday, with registered Democrats outnumbering registered Republicans by 45 percent to 35 percent in California, Republicans took 62.4 percent of the vote.

> Bottom line: It looks like this isn't, as they say, your father's Oldsmobile anymore. Under the headline "The new Republican Party?," here's how Sacramento Bee columnist Daniel Weintraub described the scene on the steps of the Capitol the day before the election: "Arnold Schwarzenegger plays guitar while Twisted Sister singer Dee Snider sings the campaign anthem, 'We're not gonna take it.' The rally at the state Capitol drew about 10,000 supporters and was a rainbow of ages, races and social status. No wonder the Democrats fear Schwarzenegger."

Time Magazine puts it this way:

> Schwarzenegger represents a cultural politics that is missing in America: culturally liberal on issues like sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, fiscally conservative on taxes and spending, and hawkish on foreign policy. He is neither the interest-group drone of Democratic establishment nor the dour scold of the Republican base. He's the kind of guy who watches the same movies we do, who's both larger than life yet in touch with the cultural air we all breathe. He's an immigrant who doesn't alienate any region of the country, and a conservative who, one suspects, has a gay friend or two and isn't freaked out about it. That kind of complicated but real candidate has been my dream for most of my adult life. He may, of course, not turn out to be an effective Governor. But by being Governor at all, he has changed our political culture for good. And made the possibility of less-polarized politics a little bit larger than it used to be.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 06:30 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

## October 12, 2003

### Bush News

Remember John McCain - the man ran against Bush in 2000 and who was Bush's biggest critic in the Senate pre-9/11? He's been picked to lead Bush's re-election campaign in Arizona.

And on the Judge front:

> Marcia G. Cooke, a former chief inspector general for Gov. Jeb Bush, is expected to be named by President Bush as the first black woman to serve as a federal district judge in the state of Florida.

Update: Arizona Daily Sun tells us that Arizona is one of the fabled "swing states":

> Arizona's rapidly growing population and its more moderate politics are prompting both parties to devote more attention to the state than they have in the past.

> Political scientists says Arizona, where nearly a quarter its voters registered in the other-party category, has the potential to be a swing state.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 10:51 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## October 10, 2003

### See What You Miss?

US Representative from TN Marsha Blackburn
TN House Minority Leader Tre Hargett
TN Senator Mark Norris
TN Representative Dolores Gresham
TN Representative Paul Stanley
Shelby County Sheriff Mark Luttrell
Wayne LaPierre, Executive Vice-President of the National Rifle Association
Reverend Bill Adkins

These are just some of the 300+ people at the Memphis Friends of the NRA Banquet. I missed talking to Rep. Blackburn because I wasn't pushy enough before the meal, and I didn't try to get close to Wayne LaPierre because he was surrounded by a mob all the time, and I missed saying hi to the Sheriff. Everyone else I talked to.

I thanked Tre Hargett (my rep) for his work and talked to him about next year's legislative agenda as it relates to gun rights. I sat at the same table as Rep. Gresham and talked to her a little. I also introduced myself to Rev. Adkins and thanked him for his work in saving the Shelby County Gun Range at Shelby Farms. The good reverend promised to come speak at a TFA meeting, which I eagerly look forward to.

These are the people that politically concerned people need to talk to, and these are the people that need a talking to. Every time they come out of the insulating halls of government they need to be made aware of what we the people think, what concerns us, and what is troubling us.

All in all, it was truly an excellent, excellent evening. The food was good, LaPierre gave a stirring address, there were games with big prizes, silent auctions, and a real, live auction (the name of the auctioneer escapes me but he was a professional that really livened things up). A good time was had by all.

This was my first Friends of the NRA Banquet. It certainly will not be my last.

Update: The banquet committee chairman reports:

> We had a gross dollar figure of $62,000.00 and a net figure of $42,000.00. The Memphis Friends of NRA Chapter is now the number one chapter in the state of Tennessee of funds raised in 2003 and also has set an all time record for the highest amount of funds ever raised in the state of Tennessee.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 12:06 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## October 09, 2003

### Louisiana

The Governors race in Louisiana is the most exciting thing going on in politics today. Bobby Jindal is the 32-year-old son of Indian immigrants with an impressive record of accomplishments even for someone twice his age.

> He became the head of the state's health-care system at age 24, director of the Breaux-Thomas national commission on Medicare at 26, president of the University of Louisiana system at 27, and a top adviser on health policy to President Bush at 29... He was admitted to medical school but dropped plans to be a doctor after winning a Rhodes Scholarship. His academic background in health-care administration impressed Gov. Mike Foster, who named him to head the state's $4 billion Department of Health and Hospitals. Mr. Jindal imposed budget discipline and rooted out so much fraud that he was able to turn the state's $400 million Medicaid deficit into a surplus.

Bobby took first place in the primary and will face Democrat Kathleen Blanco, the current Lt. Gov. With positions like these, it's easy to see why he's popular:

> But the major issue in the governor's race is how to prevent the state from falling further behind its neighbors in economic growth. Louisiana is the only Southern state where more people are leaving than moving in. The "bright flight" of the state's most promising young people has become the most important symbolic issue of the race. Ms. Blanco says wants to be "the governor who brought our kids back home." But she offers only vague hints on how she'd do this, if elected, other than to call for a summit of experts to examine the state's government. For his part, Mr. Jindal rejects nostrums like tax increases on oil companies or a higher minimum wage: "The only businesses left would be the U-Haul business for people to continue to leave our state." Instead, he would eliminate business taxes on debt and manufacturing equipment and carve out a greater role for the private sector in road building and the provision of health care for the poor. He would expand school choice and allow home schooled children to participate in extracurricular activities at their local public school.

The main thing is that the man just makes sense:

> Part of his philosophy is a belief that the federal government can't be Louisiana's salvation. He told National Review that the federal government's $20 billion bailout of the states was flawed because "it required no efficiencies from the states." Bailouts mean that "states expand Medicaid in good times and go to the federal government in bad times," he concluded.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 01:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### New Hope for Blue America

Joel Kotkin pens a clear-headed analysis of the California election:

> It’s time for the East Coast sophistos to stop making jokes about California, and start listening up. The resounding victories of Arnold Schwarzenegger, and the equally breathtaking defeat of Governor Davis and the Democratic Party, mark a potential turning point, not only for California but also for urbanized, coastal America. In one evening, a seemingly unalterable trend toward ever-greater regulation, higher taxes, and social engineering within the Gore zone of “blue states” not only has been challenged but also overcome.

> In political terms, the election also holds up a great lesson for both Democrats and Republicans with regard to political trends along the highly urbanized coastal regions. In California, what Howard Dean would call “the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party” got its rear-end kicked. Nearly two thirds of Californians, including a large contingent of Democrats (and the bulk of independents) voted for either Mr. Schwarzenegger or state Senator Thomas McClintock, his more conservative competitor.

> Of course, not all Democrats deserted their party. In the parallel universe also known as San Francisco, the recall was defeated by four to one, and Lieutenant Governor Bustamante won a resounding victory. Indeed, the Bay Area counties remained the last holdouts for party orthodoxy.

> But everywhere else, the tide was with the Republicans. In Los Angeles County, the largest urban jurisdiction in the nation, the recall vote was split down the middle, and Mr. Schwarzenegger beat Mr. Bustamante 45% to 37%. With Mr. McClintock’s vote added, Republicans gained 56%, a remarkable number in what was considered a bedrock “blue” county.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 12:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## October 08, 2003

### Mystery Solved!

Mr. Mike has solved the mystery of Hillary's presidential paperwork - by picking up the phone and calling the FCC. Who said bloggers can't do investigative journalism?
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 05:42 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

## October 06, 2003

### Presidential Demands

Further proof that honor, decency and integrity has returned to the White House:

> President Bush demanded that his staff meet a Tuesday deadline to turn over documents for the Justice Department's investigation into who leaked the identity of an undercover CIA officer.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 05:56 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### Quotes of the Day

In response to Calpundit saying that we are up to 15 women who say Arnold fondled them, Balloon Juice says:

> According to my calculations from the lessons learned during the Clinton years, Arnold is approximately one rape charge away from a NOW endorsement.

And Dizzy Girl has this to say:

> And just so you know, I'm ashamed the California is part of the United States. I'm ashamed that I live in a country where our political system has been made a joke of by a bunch of gun-grabbing, anti-American, Castro-loving, Hollywood-type morons. Can we just divorce the state already???

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 04:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## October 05, 2003

### Another Democrat Switcheroo

Politician runs for office. Politician gets drunk. Politician gets thrown out of a casino. Politician is suddenly unelectable, so he quits the race and the party gets a judge to OK substituting another candidate on the ballot. The new candidate just happens to be the Democrat incumbent.

Republicans are going to appeal to the New Jersey Supreme Court. Any bets on that outcome?

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 12:14 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### Union Reporting

The administration has issued new regulations that will require labor unions to disclose financial details such as how much they spend on politics and lobbying, gifts, overhead and management.

> The rules will force national, regional and local unions with income of more than $250,000 to provide much more financial detail in the annual forms they are required to file with the Labor Department. The forms haven't been updated in more than 40 years, administration officials say.

> "The current financial disclosure forms that unions file provide little of value to rank-and-file members about their union's finances and operations, and they have failed as an effective deterrent against financial misconduct," said Labor Secretary Elaine Chao in a statement.

It's about time.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 12:07 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## October 04, 2003

### Today's must read

Bobby Jindal is the son of Indian immigrants, and he may very well be the next Governor of Louisiana.

Oh yeah - and he's a Republican. And he just took first place in the primary, leaving him to face whichever Democrat comes in second.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 11:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## October 03, 2003

### Watch Out New Hampshire

The Free State Project has chosen New Hampshire as the state slated for invasion to which 20,000 Libertarians will move in an attempt to take over engage in a noble experiment, reducing the size and scope of government and seeing what happens.

> "It's not difficult to see the reasons for New Hampshire's victory," adds Vice-President Elizabeth McKinstry, who is originally from New England. "The state boasts the lowest state and local tax burden in the continental U.S., the leanest state government in the country in terms of government spending and employment, a citizen legislature, a healthy job market, and perhaps most important, local support for our movement."

In other words, New Hampshire is already close to being a Libertarian utopia, so the change should be fast and easy. I hope they are successful - it could show middle-of-the-roaders that tax-and-spend government really isn't necessary.

One interesting note: New Hampshire was selected using Condorcet's Method, about which I previously blogged.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 07:54 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## October 01, 2003

### Clinton Haters

Today's must read is by Bret Stephens, as he explains why he is a "Clinton hater":

> To his supporters, he was the shaper of the new American center, the brightest Democratic light since John F. Kennedy, the toast of European elites. To people like me, he was a hollow and posturing and feckless man who embodied that side of America that was also hollow and posturing and feckless. And he was the bane of people for whom American fecklessness was a matter of life and death people like that woman in Srebrenica who buried her family.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 08:10 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## September 28, 2003

### Celebrity Republicans

California Republicans must be pleased with Schwarzenegger's progress. They are looking to tap other celebrities into public service. Dennis Miller, Kelsey Grammer, and Martina Navratilova have all been spoken of in recent weeks.

Speaking of Dennis Miller - he's come out in favor of Schwarzenegger:

> Arnold. The larger than life character who, of the four, came off as the everyman. My candidate. A brilliant track record. Has taken on two endeavors in his adult life and became the biggest success in the world at both of them. The only salvo the opposition can summon so far is some, “wild behavior” in his twenties. Hey, I’ll tell you how deranged I was in my twenties, I might have voted for Gray Davis.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 02:08 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

### Keeping Secrets

The secrets of Area 51 are secure for another year, by order of President Bush.

> Mr. Bush's order effectively lets the Air Force flout environmental laws without a public accounting. That is understandably upsetting to a group of former workers and two widows represented by Jonathan Turley, a George Washington University law professor who filed suit in 1994, claiming that exposure to toxic materials illegally burned on the grounds had caused gruesome skin rashes and respiratory ailments.

> The secrecy surrounding Area 51 has been obsessive, even for the military, which does not like to acknowledge its existence, much less whether officers illegally handled hazardous waste. In 1995, in response to the suit, President Bill Clinton issued the first annual exemption to protect the military from having to make disclosures.

> While armed patrols and ominous signs warning of "deadly force" isolate Area 51, situated about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, foreign satellite photos of buildings and of a runway several miles long hint at its uses. Rather than performing alien autopsies, the Air Force is more likely to be using the site to test new military hardware. Few would disagree that such work deserves to be classified, but it should not give the government a pass to break the law or to abuse the basic rights of its workers.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 01:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## September 23, 2003

### NASA Safety Panel Resigns

The entire panel of nine experts on the NASA space safety advisory panel resigned en masse after receiving sharp criticism from Congress:

> Members of the Senate Appropriations Committee said the ASAP failed to spot potential danger signs in the operation of the space shuttle and that NASA should reconstitute the panel.

Might I point out that the Senate Appropriations Committee has such mental giants as Robert Byrd (who is the only man technically qualified to oversee design flaws in buggy whips), Patrick Leahy ("You get fifteen democrats in a room, and you get twenty opinions"), and evidently someone's grandmother.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 11:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### Boycotts work

In further proof that boycotts work (just like I said they did), the Dixie Chicks are abandoning their roots and going rock 'n roll.

> We don't feel part of the country scene any longer, it can't be our home any more.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 05:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### Democrat Bad News Roundup

Recall
The highly suspect ruling by the 3-judge panel that postponed the recall election has been unanimously overturned by an 11-judge panel. That means, according to the handy counter in the upper right of this page, that the election will take place in 14 days.

Good. Let's get the circus over with so we can turn our attention to more important matters.

Bustamante
Judge orders Bustamante to return $4 million in campaign funds that were collected illegally, primarily from Indian tribes and unions. Although the judge is giving Bustamante the benefit of the doubt, declaring that Bustamante had probably "acted in good faith", it is difficult to understand how the judge arrived at this opinion. Bustamante's actions suggest that he knew what he was doing was illegal. First, he placed the money in an old fund and then played musical funds, moving it from the first, then a second, and finally a third fund. Second, he spent the funds in an extraordinarily short time. The judge couldn't order him to return any of the money because it has all been spent.

Clark
First, Clark claimed that someone in the White House pressured him to link Hussein to 9/11. Later, the best "link" he could come up with was a Canadian think-tank.

Now Clark claims, "I would have been a Republican if Karl Rove had returned my phone calls."

One problem. There are no records in the White House call logs of Clark attempting to get in touch with Rove.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 12:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## September 17, 2003

### The People's Vote

U.S. News & World Report are have 100 documents that have shaped America, from the Lee Resolution of 1776 to the Voting Rights Act in 1965, and they want you to vote on the ten that you feel were the most influential. I'm glad I get ten votes, I was immediately torn between the Virginia Plan and the Federalist Papers (you can't tell that I'm a Constitutionalist, can you?).
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 09:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## September 14, 2003

### Outrageous Hypocrisy

The Democrat Party is endangering our nation by vulgar pandering to illegal aliens - illegals that the Democrats know will vote their way as soon as they can get a driver's license in their hands. Gray Davis just signed into law a measure that will do just that, even though he knows it endangers the country:

> Davis knows this. In fact, he vetoed the same bill last year that actually had some safety features in it, saying that it was too dangerous in this age of terrorism. And yet, the bill he just signed was stripped of all security elements, but he did it anyway because he’s willing to do anything, including putting untold millions of Americans at risk of life and liberty, to hold onto his job for another three miserable years.

An illegal alien that makes good should be a hero to Democrats everywhere. Yet now they are using a technicality to start a smear campaign against Schwarzenegger:

> As a 21-year-old bodybuilder, Schwarzenegger came to the United States in 1968 on a B-1 visa, which allows visiting athletes to compete and train, but bars them from drawing a salary from an American company.

> But in his 1977 autobiography, Schwarzenegger said he reached a deal with a legendary figure in the bodybuilding industry "to pay me a weekly salary in exchange for my information and being able to use photographs of me in his magazine."

> That arrangement, said a half dozen immigration attorneys across the nation, appears to have violated the terms of his visa.

You may agree or disagree with the scale of the offense. But you have to admit, for a party willing to endanger American lives by letting terrorists get driver's licenses they sure have a lot of gall getting pissy about a salary paid a few months too soon 25 years ago.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 01:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### This'll make you think

How much does your state spend on infrastructure? Roads, bridges, power plants, water purification systems, and so on. You'd think it was a lot - this stuff is important.

Alongside the checkbox for recall and a replacement governor in California, the ballot this fall will include Proposition 53. This is a constitutional amendment that will require the legislature to spend a whole 1% on infrastructure.

> Monies have also been squandered by our politicians for selfish political gain at the same time that our infrastructure is virtually ignored. If there's ever an infrastructure crisis like crumbling water mains at Hetch Hetchy or schools with leaking roofs, the politicos simply propose an expensive bond measure and let the voters decide. That's planning?

> Other than some minor bridge widenings, the newest span over San Francisco Bay, the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge, was built some 50 years ago. That may explain the insufferable daily San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge backup. There's been much talk of a Southern Crossing, a new span that would alleviate Bay Bridge traffic, but you can be sure we'll have the Second Coming before we ever get the Southern Crossing.

The 1% figures increases gradually to 3% in ten years. 3% of our money to build schools, bridges, water mains. Jeez, you'd think that the government could spend some of that money for everyone instead of all funds going to bloated government social programs.

I don't know what it is in Tennessee. Maybe Bill Hobbs does - he's reporting that the unreported (other than his blog, that is) Tennessee surplus is even larger than previously thought. Does any politician know what's going on with our money?

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 12:40 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## September 09, 2003

### Universal Healthcare

Lean Left Kevin posts about health insurance premiums, and Say Uncle does a nice job of replying. Read 'em both.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 10:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### Why Communism Fails

And why it will never succeed is the subject of a post by Donald Sensing. Excellent read, and he asks for your comments.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 10:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## September 05, 2003

### Quote of the Day

From one of my favorite Democrats:

> "Once upon a time, the most successful Democratic leader of them all, FDR, looked south and said, 'I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill clad, ill nourished,'' Today our National Democratic leaders look south and say, 'I see one third of a nation and it can go to hell.' " - Senator Zell Miller, (D-Ga).

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 12:53 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

## September 04, 2003

### Today's Must Read ...

comes from Tech Central Station in the form of an article by Hans Labohm, A New Road to Surfdom?

> Our freedom and economic well-being are still exposed to hazards, which could be grouped as follows:
> - Egalitarianism
> - High taxes
> - Interest groups
> - Trade unionism
> - The ideology of stasis
> - Regulation
> - Precautionary principle
> - Man-made global warming and Kyoto.

> Egalitarianism
> If there is anything at all which socialism still separates from other political currents, it is its emphasis on egalitarianism. ... There is a vast political majority in all countries in favour of some kind and some degree of income redistribution. But there is permanent fight about the extent of it, partly because there is a trade-off between the creation of wealth and the distribution of wealth. Overgenerous income redistribution will undermine incentives, thus diminishing the creation of wealth, from which we all suffer. In many countries in Europe, critical thresholds have already been exceeded in that respect.

> High Taxes
> Tax reduction was part of the so-called supply side revolution. Its aim was to improve the supply side of the economy, as opposed to the demand side, which was the main focus of Keynesianism. The underlying philosophy was illustrated by the so-called Laffer Curve in the seventies, named after the American economist Arthur Laffer. He posed that, beyond a certain level, high tax rates would stifle economic activity, thus lowering total tax revenues for government, while lower tax rates would promote economic activity, with increased government revenues as a result. Tax reduction was a favourite objective of our ministers of finance but has faded into the background over the last few years in many countries because of the recession.

> Interest Groups
> ...The (classical) liberal project for an integrated Europe includes the repeal of the privileges to minority groups at the expense of the immense majority, because they invariably result in impairing the wealth and income of the majority. It was the American economist Mancur Olson who first analysed the growing ossification of national economic systems caused by the advent of special interest groups. The latter are acting as distributional coalitions, i.e., to receive special favours from the government in the form of protection, subsidies, monopolistic status, or other forms of barriers to exit and entry in a particular industry. If successful, their actions turn market participants into rent-seekers, thus stifling economic dynamism and growth.

> Trade Unionism
> Trade unions deserve separate treatment in the colourful parade of interest groups. European integration and the increased competition that it entails have not substantially weakened their political power. In many countries trade unions are being regarded as esteemed partners in so-called social dialogue. Their involvement has even been enshrined in the institutional arrangements on European level in the framework of the macroeconomic dialogue of the EMU. But the same well-respected dialogue partners have for a long time held our societies hostage, in the sense that they have effectively blocked all kinds of socio-economic reforms which are long overdue, including the efforts to make labour markets more flexible and to reform pension schemes, so that they will become sustainable. It should not be forgotten that society as a whole pays a high price for this kind of behaviour of a minority imposing its will on the majority. Just by way of illustration, in Germany only 18 percent of the workers are member of a trade union.

> But there are signs that the public at large is fed up with it. In France -- of all places -- a popular movement has emerged, called Liberté, j'écris ton nom (Freedom, I write your name), led by a young student Sabine Herold. The movement has publicly opposed the strikes of civil servants and public sector employees, which have become a favourite pastime in France. It has mounted a massive counter-demonstration mobilizing 100,000 people. It never happened before, either in France or anywhere else.

> The Ideology of Stasis
> Then there is the ideology of stasis, a notion that has been coined by the American author Virginia Postrel. She points out that despite the fact that today we have greater wealth, health, opportunity, and choice than at any time in history, there is a chorus of intellectuals and politicians who loudly lament our condition. Technology, they say, enslaves us. Economic change makes us insecure. Popular culture coarsens and brutalizes us. Consumerism despoils the environment. The future, they say, is dangerously out of control, and unless we rein in these forces of change and guide them closely, we risk disaster.

> In her book, The Future and Its Enemies, Virginia Postrel explodes this myth, embarking on a bold exploration of how progress really occurs. In a multitude of areas of endeavour she shows how and why unplanned, open-ended trial and error -- not conformity to one central vision -- is the key to human betterment. Thus, the true enemies of humanity's future are those who insist on prescribing outcomes in advance, circumventing the process of competition and experiment in favour of their own preconceptions and prejudices.

> Postrel argues that these conflicting views of progress, rather than the traditional left and right, increasingly define our political and cultural debate. On one side, she identifies a collection of strange bedfellows with different political backgrounds -- from right to left -- who all share a devotion to what she calls "stasis," a controlled, uniform society that changes only with permission from some central authority. On the other side is an emerging coalition in support of what Postrel calls "dynamism": an open-ended society where creativity and enterprise, operating under predictable rules, generate progress in unpredictable ways. Dynamists are united not by a single political agenda but by an appreciation for such complex evolutionary processes as scientific inquiry, market competition, artistic development, and technological invention.

> Regulation: Good, Bad, and Ugly
> As far as regulation is concerned, deregulation efforts of the eighties seem to have reversed gears and degenerated into something what looks like a new regulation frenzy. But like Sergio Leone in his masterly spaghetti Western "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly," we have to make a clear distinction between different sorts of regulation. The good regulation is supportive of free markets. This sort of regulation manifests itself for instance in the European financial services sector. The bad regulation stifles markets. This kind of regulation manifests itself if many markets of goods, especially as regards overzealous safety and environmental requirements. And the ugly regulation has a protectionist effect. In agriculture, for instance, the de facto prohibition of the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in Europe, offers a case in point. All is all, one can hardly escape the feeling that there is far too much regulation of the bad and ugly types.

> Precautionary Principle
> Furthermore, there is the precautionary principle. Who doesn't want to be better safe than sorry? Yet, there are limits. If pushed to extremes, the cost of precaution could easily outweigh the benefits. We finance the fire brigade via our taxes, but not every house has a sprinkler installation. And at the apogee of the Cold War, there were even people who did not possess a nuclear shelter in their backyard.

> In other words, a risk-free world is unthinkable and there are limits to the application of the precautionary principle. We believe that some risks are too small to warrant additional expenditure. If we would spend more on them, then we will have to forgo the satisfaction of other needs, including the precautionary measures that will protect us against other risks that we believe to be more likely. In short, the application of the precautionary principle should be subject to the same simple cost-benefit analysis, which we also apply in all other fields of human decision-making... Excessive application of the precautionary principle prevents action until there is complete certainty that it will not produce any harm. But 100 percent safety can never be guaranteed. The result is paralysis and stagnation.

> Man-Made Global Warming and Kyoto
> At the same time another spectre is haunting us, if we may believe the official position of the EU: man-made global warming! But the putative threat of man-made global warming is probably a statistical artefact. Surface-based temperature measurements do indeed show some increase in worldwide temperatures, but these measurements are unreliable. They are skewed because of several reasons; for instance, the closing down of two-thirds of weather stations over the past three decades. The remaining stations are often in urban regions that are exposed to the so-called urban heat island effect, which means that cities are warming up as the population increases, while the open countryside is not. The most accurate temperature measurements -- those by satellites -- do not show any significant global warming. So global warming does not pose a serious threat. But the measures that have been proposed to counter it do! They entail an additional layer of costly bureaucratic regulation and will stifle economic growth.

Hat tip to Advised by Wolves
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 10:56 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### What's Ten Bucks?

You can donate online. It's fun. It's fast. It's easy. It's painless. It's necessary. Do it. Do it now. For the children. For Soccer Moms and Nascar Dads. But most importantly, just to stick it in the eye of every bleeding-heart socialist Deanie Baby out there!

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 08:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## September 02, 2003

### Smoking Ban? No Problem!

A smoking ban went into effect for many Florida night spots, but one club is fighting back with a new drink: the nicotini:

> Soak tobacco leaves in vodka overnight, deaden the juice's harshness by adding a couple other liquors, and voilŕ, the nicotini of Las Olas.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 05:27 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### Taxin' Dean

The Tennessee Tax Revolt reports that Vermont (ol' Howard Dean's home state) ranks fifth in terms of per capita tax burden on its citizens and second when taxes are shown as a percent of personal income.

The same study shows that President Bush's home state of Texas ranks 49th and 48th in those categories, respectively.

Who do you want setting our tax policy?

Note: for interested Tennesseans, we rank 48th in per capita and 46th as a percent of personal income. Not bad for a state that had a revenue surplus this year even without an income tax.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 08:13 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## September 01, 2003

### Cozying Up to the Core

The Red Rag New York Times reports that both Democrats and Republicans have figured out that the party that motivates their core constituency is the party that wins, rather than the campaign to win over independent voters.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 12:44 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## August 21, 2003

### Brilliant

I have never been so profoundly impressed by anything that I've read in the blogosphere as this essay on Responsibility by Bill Whittle. It's slow starting, but I think I've found a new idol.

Eternal thanks to The B.O.G. for pointing the way.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 03:54 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

## August 19, 2003

### Texas Republicans Giving Everyone a Bad Name

With the Texas Democrats solidly in power for the last century and a half, a spirit of bipartisanship reigned. The Republicans took the legislature for the first time and are going wild.

You can argue all you want about whether or not the Democrats running off and hiding instead of doing the jobs that they were elected to do is a good thing or not (I think it is the height of immaturity). You can argue all you want about the Republicans levying large fines on the missing Dems are a good thing or not (I think it is not).

But now it seems that the Republicans are actually thinking about suspending elections until the Dems come back and the redistricting plans are in place. Why not just rip up the constitution and select a king?

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 01:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## August 18, 2003

### Evolution

Whilst perusing Truth Laid Bear's wonderful ecosystem, I noticed that Pathetic Earthlings is one link away from being bumped from Adorable Little Rodent to Marauding Marsupial. While it is true that he is the absolute top rodent, one would think that ol' PE would want to make it to a larger mammal. Assuming, that is, that he indulges in the ego-racking activity of paying attention to such things, of course. (So few of us do.)

Now it seems to me that any RTB member would immediately want to help out a comrade-in-scotch arms scotch, so here is a well-deserved link:

In An Interesting pro-Arianna View of the Recall Pathetic Earthlings says that this article is "from a decidedly left-of-center publication." Wherever it's from, is certainly is a pretty good read.

Oh, and for totally gratuitous link (or two), he also has a tip on a good non-French brandy and claims responsibility for the 49ers comeback in Super Bowl XXIII.

If that doesn't get him out of my genus, nothing will! Move on, brother RTBer!

Update: I went to read Truth Laid Bear's blog and saw that his ecosystem is frozen in time until he and his ISP can get things straightened out. So all this was for naught. Oh well, such are the results of good intentions.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 09:20 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

## August 14, 2003

### Preventing another Enron

The SEC issued a "guidelines memo" yesterday that requires additional review and approval by corporate audit committees before projects proposed by outside auditors (ala Andersen) can be done by the same firm. This is a deliberate attempt to increase the red tape and (therefore) costs when hiring the firm to do the work that proposed it, thus 'spreading the work around' and (they think) making everyone a little more honest.

How silly.

CATO has the answer:

> Americans have been inundated with financial scandals at large corporations during the past two years. In many cases, unethical behavior and poor oversight of corporate management are to blame. But a deeper look reveals that the flawed structure of the corporate income tax has been a key driver of corporate waste and inefficiency. The tax code distorts financial and investment decisions and spurs executives to hunt for tax shelters.

> Three fundamental flaws in the corporate income tax are behind the distortions and tax shelters. The first flaw is that the corporate income tax rate is very high. Currently, the U.S. statutory corporate rate is the second highest among the 30 major industrial countries. That high rate reduces investment, encourages firms to move profits abroad, and provides incentives to push the legal margins of the tax code.

> The second flaw is that the corporate tax base of net income or profits is inherently complex because it relies on concepts such as capital gains and capitalization of long-lived assets that are difficult to consistently account for in a tax system. Costs of capitalized assets are deducted through depreciation, amortization, and other rules. The tax rules for capitalized assets and capital gains are repeatedly exploited in corporate tax shelters. These rules also cause economic distortions as they interfere with capital investment, business reorganizations, and other decisions. Capital gains taxation and capitalization would be eliminated under a replacement "cash-flow" tax system.

> The third flaw is the gratuitous inconsistency of the tax code. Examples include the different tax treatment given to debt and equity and the different rules imposed on corporations and the half dozen other types of businesses. Such inconsistencies played a key role in the tax shelters exploited by Enron and other firms. Worse, they have created large costs to the economy by distorting capital markets and channeling investment into less productive uses. A cash-flow tax would eliminate these distortions and put all businesses and investments on an equal footing.

Go and read. Then vote Libertarian.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 09:15 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

## August 12, 2003

### Wanna know how screwed up our over-regulated government is?

There won't be any reruns of Conan the Barbarian, or Total Recall, or even Different Strokes on open air in California:

> The airing of "Total Recall" or another Schwarzenegger film, or a repeat of a "Diff'rent Strokes" episode with Gary Coleman on broadcast television in California would trigger the Federal Communications Commission's equal time provision, allowing other candidates to demand the same amount of time.

Naw - couldn't happen. Right?

> In 1972, NBC aired a Doris Day movie in which comedian Pat Paulsen appeared for 30 seconds. Because Paulsen had launched a satiric presidential campaign, he was ruled a legitimate candidate. Two Republican candidates requested and got 30 seconds in the same time slot as a result.

AS IF seeing Schwarzenegger acting would convince anyone to vote for him! Strangely, cable is not affected:

> Cable channels are not covered by the FCC rule, which in the past kept reruns of "Death Valley Days" off the air while Ronald Reagan ran for president. A repeat of a "Saturday Night Live" episode featuring Don Novello, aka Father Guido Sarducci, on cable, for instance, would not trigger the provision.

> Novello, Schwarzenegger, Coleman and more than 240 other candidates, have filed to run in the Oct. 7 election to recall incumbent Gov. Gray Davis. The equal time rules was to kick in on Wednesday, when the state was expected to officially certify the list of candidates.

Let's hear it for a Schwarzenegger movie marathon on USA!

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 04:51 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## August 10, 2003

### Vacation in Paradise

The prez is vacationing in that part of the world I call God's Country, because Texas is beautiful and wonderfully warm (which I love and miss so much!). The New York Times reports:

> The president for the most part continued his monthlong ranch routine as if it were, say, 98 degrees, by clearing cedar and going fishing. On Thursday, when the official Crawford high (measured in the nearby town of McGregor) was 105.8 degrees, and on the same week that the Waco newspaper warned people not to exercise in the heat, Mr. Bush went for a run — at noon.

> ...

> Of course, the run did allow Mr. Bush to add a Secret Service agent to the membership list of his "Hundred Degree Club," which consists of people able to run with him when the temperature hits 100.

> ...

> On Friday, Vice President Dick Cheney descended from his summer home in the Grand Tetons of Wyoming to the dry Texas prairie, where he met with the president on Iraq and cast for bass in Mr. Bush's stocked pond. Mr. Cheney normally pursues trout in cold mountain streams.

> "Dick Cheney is a great fly fisherman," Mr. Bush told reporters.

> "But not a member of the Hundred Degree Club," Mr. Cheney said.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 11:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## August 07, 2003

### Only in California

Some quotes concerning the recall race:

> "It's humorous," said Adrian Wallace, who was visiting San Francisco with his family from London. "It sort of feeds the stereotype of California having so many crazies."

It's not a stereotype if it's true - it's a trait.

> "I can't decide between him and Gary Coleman," laughed Billy Vasquez of Oakland. "Larry Flynt from Hustler is a good one, too. I mean at least he knows how to run a business. They're all freaks, but at least this recall isn't boring."

See what I mean?

> Williams said she's never before voted for a Republican but added, "Arnold is Arnold. He's not really a Republican."

Truer words have never been spoken.

This promises to be fun. Let the nutty Californian jokes begin!

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 10:12 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

## August 05, 2003

### Daschle in Decline

Senate Minority Leader Daschle is a falling star, according to recent polls:

> The new numbers reflect a turnaround in Daschle’s fortunes. In 2001 and 2002, after the defection of Sen. Jim Jeffords (I-Vt.) gave control of the Senate to Democrats, Daschle’s favorable rating rose from 34 to 40 percent. His unfavorable rating stayed between 20 and 30 percent.

> Daschle’s ratings began to slide after his party lost the Senate. By March of this year, his favorable rating had fallen to 32 percent while his unfavorable rating jumped to 38 percent — the first time his ratings had tipped into negative territory.

Daschle is leading the filibuster of three Bush judicial nominees. After the August break, this number will go up, doing even more damage to his popularity:

> But Daschle’s problems go far beyond judicial nominations. In his home state, many see him as obstructing nearly everything Bush wants to do.

> “People in South Dakota are flat-out disgruntled with the position that Sen. Daschle has taken against the president,” said Randy Frederick, chairman of the South Dakota Republican Party. “Democrats have blocked this, and they’ve blocked that, but they don’t point to anything positive where they tried to move the nation in the right direction.”

> In particular, Frederick pointed to a statement Daschle made in March, just before the war in Iraq. “I am saddened, saddened that this president failed so miserably at diplomacy that we’re now forced to war,” Daschle said. “Saddened that we have to give up one life because this president couldn’t create the kind of diplomatic effort that was so critical for our country.”

> “People have not forgotten that,” said Frederick.

> And then there’s Daschle’s loss of clout. Being Senate majority leader was a big part of his appeal to South Dakotans last year.

> During Sen. Tim Johnson’s (D-S.D.) reelection race, Daschle told audiences that a vote for Johnson was also a vote for Tom Daschle as majority leader.

> It didn’t quite work out that way.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 11:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### Soccer Moms Going Republican

A new poll shows that the Democrats are losing a couple more key constituencies:

> Gore benefited from what political analysts call a "gender gap" in voting that has been a major part presidential politics since Ronald Reagan's election in 1980: women favoring Democrats by wide margins, men favoring Republicans by equally wide margins.

> However, further analysis of the 2000 presidential detected what is now referred to as the "marriage gap" — a partisan divide that could be a major advantage for Bush in his re-election bid and attest to his ability to attract female voters, particularly wives and mothers. In 2000, only 44 percent of married voters of both genders supported Gore, compared with 57 percent of unmarried voters.

> Fifty-six percent of married voters voted for Bush in 2000. And last month, a poll by former Clinton White House pollster Mark Penn found that if the presidential election were held this summer, Bush would once again win married voters by an even larger margin, 50-29, over a generic Democrat.

> Moreover, Penn found that Bush has essentially achieved parity with Democrats in terms of women voters: the president was favored 42-41 percent over the generic Democrat in the poll — a stunning achievement for a party that has registered gender gaps of 21 percent over the last quarter century.

> Even more daunting to the Democrats is the fact that the "soccer moms" — the term pollsters have long applied to the pivotal swing vote of suburban married women with children — have morphed into "security moms" since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

> [SNIP]

> The problem for the Democrats seeking the party's 2004 president nomination is even more complex, however.

> Women, mostly liberal activists of the kind that make up NOW's membership, account for nearly 60 percent of the vote in Democratic primaries. So most of the candidates must pursue these voters in a way that does not move their campaigns too far to the left and alienate moderates, the swing voters in the general election.

> "Yes, if Republicans do not expand their constituency, they will suffer at the ballot box, but the same can be said for Democrats," Matthew Dowd, Bush's pollster, writes in the current issue of the Brookings Institution's "Review" periodical. "For instance, if the Democrats continue to lose ground among union households, white males and stay-at-home moms, they will forever be the minority party."

We can only hope. Wouldn't it be nice if the Republicans became the new Democrats and Libertarians became the new Republicans?

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 10:52 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### Will we never be rid of these people

There should be no surprise here:

> The FBI is investigating allegations that Denise Rich, the songwriter and wealthy Democratic Party fund-raiser, illegally reimbursed relatives and employees who donated to Hillary Clinton's Senate campaign, the Daily News has learned.

> A grand jury is questioning witnesses in Manhattan Federal Court about the donations, as well as money donated to the New York State Senate 2000 campaign that ultimately supported Clinton, according to two sources.

> One source said the FBI also is looking into possible obstruction of justice charges involving Rich.

The Clinton legacy goes on . . .

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 09:18 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## August 04, 2003

### Voting the Party Line

I have always subscribed to the "vote the man, not the party" theory. Eugene Volokh has a thorough and intriguing post about why he's a party line voter (emphasis in original text):

> I generally think the country would be better off if the Republicans (for all their warts) are in control than if the Democrats are. So if I and those like me vote for a Democratic candidate over a Republican because we think that this particular Democrat is better (smarter, more honest, or even more in agreement with us on many issues, despite his party affiliation), and this candidate's election ends up giving Democrats control of the relevant legislative chamber, then we've hurt the causes that we favor: By electing this candidate, whom we like, we've essentially elected a party that we dislike. And even if the candidate breaks with the party in some cases (which may be part of why we voted for him), in most situations -- both when voting on legislation, and, as importantly, voting on whom to put on various legislative committees and the like -- he'll follow party discipline.

Gun rights advocates recently saw this in action in Tennessee. Kent Coleman (D) ran for the TN House seat for Murfreesboro. During the run-up to election, he answered an NRA legislative survey with all the right answers and earned himself an "A" rating. Furthermore, in the survey he specifically stated that he supported the removal of carry prohibitions on restaurants that serve alcohol and relaxing TN reciprocity standards (to recognize permits from other states that did not recognize ours).

Coleman beat his Republican opponent by forty votes. Don't tell me that the NRA rating didn't make a significant difference in rural Tennessee!

Coleman was assigned to the House Judiciary Committee and was made Secretary, and subsequently appointed to a new subcommittee - ironically called Constitutional Protections.

When the bills he said he supported during the campaign actually came up for a vote, he waffled, saying he had not heard from his constituents. The NRA and TFA mounted a drive and Coleman's office was flooded with calls. Still, he voted no because his Chief of Police and some of his restaurant owners did not like them. Total reversal of stated position, total negation of his constituent's wishes.

Once in office, Kent Coleman became a party man and voted the party line.

Eugene is right - vote the party you want, not the man.

Having said that, Eugene also has a list of exceptions to this rule and must also be considered. It makes me absolutely sick to say this, but rule of thumb, I'll vote the party. And I hate the two party system.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 10:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## July 16, 2003

### Scary!

Microsoft wins Homeland Security contract!

> The Department of Homeland Security said on Tuesday it has awarded a five-year, $90 million enterprise agreement to Microsoft Corp to become the department's primary technology provider.

> Under the contract, Microsoft will supply desktop and server software to the newly created department, which has merged parts of 22 different agencies into one entity.

> The agreement delivers licensing coverage for about 140,000 desktops and will help the department to establish a common computing environment, Homeland Security said in a statement.

OMG, who thinks that "Microsoft" and "Security" belong in the same sentence?

The last big government contract that Microsoft got was for $471 million for 494,000 Army computers. That worked out to $953/computer. This deal works out to the tune of $643/computer.

The government should go Linux. I bet Red Hat would give them a real sweet deal.

Update: Microsoft Admits Flaw in Windows Software

> Microsoft Corp. acknowledged a critical vulnerability Wednesday in nearly all versions of its flagship Windows operating system software, the first such design flaw to affect its latest Windows Server 2003 software.

> Microsoft said the vulnerability could allow hackers to seize control of a victim's Windows computer over the Internet, stealing data, deleting files or eavesdropping on e-mails. The company urged customers to immediately apply a free software repairing patch available from Microsoft's Web site.

Perfect for the U.S. Army and Homeland Security.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 04:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### Hatch Wants Constitutional Amendment

Remember Sen. Orrin Hatch? The one that wanted to blow up the computers of people who downloaded copyrighted material? Well, old Hatch is back in the news - this time for proposing a constitutional amendment that would allow foreign born people to become president, if they have been naturalized citizens for at least twenty years.

This seems tailor-made for a certain Austrian-born, politically-ambitious, RINO out in California. Ahhhrrnold has been eyeing the governorship for some time, and was seemingly maneuvering to run in the 2006 election (although the recall may throw that effort all a-skilter). And Schwarzenegger has been a long-time supporter of the crazy old honorable Senator, often appearing at fund raisers. But no, claims Hatch's staff:

> Hatch spokeswoman Margarita Tapia said the legislation was not drafted with Schwarzenegger or anyone else specifically in mind when Hatch came up with the 20-year requirement. "It was a policy judgment not associated with any one individual," she said.

Let's see, this is 2003, and Schwarzenegger became a naturalized citizen in 1983 . . . borrow and carry the one ... Oh, surely that's just a coincidence!

Perhaps Demolition Man will prove to be a prophetic piece of work after all (although 61st amendment seems a little high, and who really believes that Taco Bell will win the franchise war?).

Hat tip to Political Wire for pointing out the story.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 01:27 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## July 14, 2003

### History and Analysis from Fred

Fred Barnes has an excellent piece on the Davis recall effort in California:

> THE MEDIA and political establishment in California hasn't learned a thing in 25 years. In 1978, the Los Angeles Times editorialized sternly against the fiscal drain and "chaotic effects" of Proposition 13, the referendum that cut property taxes deeply and touched off an anti-tax wave across the country. Now, faced with a referendum to toss Democratic governor Gray Davis out of office, the newspaper is warning against the "deeper fiscal hole and the partisan political chaos" that may result. A quarter century ago, the San Francisco Chronicle declared Proposition 13 "a revolutionary threat, a total threat, to the stability of all government." Likewise, the recall drive is abetting "the dysfunction" of state government. "It's reckless, it's outrageous," the Chronicle insists. Democratic party leaders, who dominate California politics, and politically connected elements of the business community say the same thing. "We can't tolerate the chaos," Warren Christopher, the secretary of state under President Clinton and now a Los Angeles lawyer, said.

> These arguments aren't working any better now than they did in 1978.

Fred make some very interesting points, especially concerning the gains by the Republican party in California. Personally, I think a Republican governor of California is about as likely as the Tooth Fairy, but it does make for interesting times.

Hat tip to Molly's Musings for pointing out the article.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 10:06 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## July 11, 2003

### Lies

L.T. Smash weighs in on the effectiveness of "military intelligence", then goes on to give his slant on the relevance of it all:

> But the crux of the debate on Hardball was whether that faulty intelligence was used to sell the war with Iraq to the American people—in other words, as one pundit put it, whether “we went to war on a lie.”

> I wasn’t sure whether I should be amazed or amused by this argument. Today was the first time I’ve heard of this debate, which apparently has been going on for a while now. When Bush made those remarks in the State of the Union Address, that bit of intel didn’t even register with me. In fact, I didn’t even watch the speech.

> You see, I wasn’t home that night. I was here in the Sandbox, busy getting ready for war. A war, I might add, for which I had been actively preparing for two months. A conflict which had been debated—and authorized—in the United States Congress last October.

> You can read the Congressional Resolution here. Not once does it mention the words “uranium” or “Africa.” It does talk quite a bit about Saddam’s failure to live up to his responsibilities after the First Gulf War, his well-documented support for terrorists, and his brutal treatment of the Iraqi people, however.

> But why confuse the issue with facts, when there are political points to be made?

Go and read the whole thing (with links intact). Then add LT to your blogroll.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 12:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### Confidence in Voting

SK Bubba is all a-twitter about proposed legislation designed to ensure that votes are all counted correctly and that disabled people get the same protection. "Verifiable" is the big topic, ensured via paper trail.

Of course, the legislation proposed by the New Jersey Democrat has absolutely nothing in it to make verify that the voter in question is actually entitled to vote! No requirements for a picture ID, no requirements for cleaning voter rolls of criminals, no requirements designed to keep illegal aliens from voting, no requirements to keep people from voting as their neighbors, no requirements designed to keep people from registering their dog to vote.

Over 5,000 felons illegally voted in the Florida 2000 election. Felons overwhelmingly vote for soft-on-crime feel-good democrats. Eliminating these voters alone would have stopped the whole cherry-picking vote, scoff-law SCOFLA judicial activism, "count every vote unless it's from the military" debacle.

Every time Democrats talk about reforming elections, they stomp on every effort to verify the voter. As a result, dead people, illegals, felons, and even imaginary people vote in every election. Where's the outrage?

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 09:24 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## July 10, 2003

### NEA efforts

The Washington Times reports that the evil powerful teachers union (National Education Association) will target swing states in '04. That is to say, they are going to do exactly what the Club for Growth has been doing for several years - pour dollars and focus activists on vulnerable candidates that don't agree with their position.

> The National Education Association will target 16 states where voters were most closely split in 2000 in hopes of replacing President Bush with a "pro-education" Democratic president in 2004, the teachers union's chief lobbyist said before this week's annual NEA convention.

Thinking that the NEA wants a "pro-education" president is like thinking that Saddam Hussein wanted to comply with UN resolutions. The NEA wants a strongly pro-union president that will protect jobs, no matter the consequences to our children.

> And in House and Senate races, "we may find some right-wing Republicans that we can take out," said Randall J. Moody, the NEA's federal policy manager, at workshops to outline the group's political strategy.

Evidently, a "right-wing Republican" means someone who thinks that pouring money into schools that turn out graduates that can't read, much less do basic algebra problems, is a bad idea.

> NEA members are being recruited to help register millions of black and Hispanic voters, who made up 12 percent of voters in the 2000 election, Mr. Moody said.

Isn't it ironic that the very people who are most hurt by failing schools are the ones being hoodwinked into perpetuating them?

> So as the NEA did in the 2000 and 2002 elections, it will recruit "moderate" House and Senate candidates; do polling for candidates it supports, particularly in 40 to 45 House races "that really are contested"; raise funds for candidates; provide direct mail to members; and "turn out the vote," he said.

"Moderate" Republicans, that is. A Democrat with their position on education would be called a "conservative Democrat".

> "Politics move our policy. We work through UniServe," Mr. Moody told delegates at two political workshops Saturday. UniServe is the NEA's system of paid coordinators for all school districts in the country. Their salaries are paid from local and national NEA members' dues.

That's right. Our tax dollars pay for high-powered lobbyists who work to get more tax dollars spent, even (or perhaps especially) in the case of failure. That is vile.

> Although Republicans control both houses of Congress, "it's not a very good working majority" because of moderates who do not support many policies of the administration and Republican congressional leaders, Mr. Moody said.

> "Moderates are diminishing, but they are very crucial. ... There are four to five moderate Republicans in the Senate. We can make a difference by working with them. On the House side, there are 40 to 50 moderates who make a difference. There are 40 to 45 Republicans who vote against [school] vouchers. Their leadership over there is very right wing, very anti-public education. They will beat these moderates back into line if we don't work with them."

Yes, vouchers and school choice can be viewed as anti-public education. It is very pro-education in that only schools that continue to fail will be affected. In the end it can even be seen as pro-public education because it will force public schools to perform better in order to continue to receive money. Capitalism works. A giant wooden shaft should be mercilessly driven through the heart of the NEA monopoly.

Do it for the children.

> NEA leaders want to target vulnerable conservative Republican House and Senate incumbents in the same way that the Club for Growth, a Republican-oriented pro-free-market political action committee targets moderates by fielding more conservative challengers in Republican primaries, Mr. Moody said.

> "We're looking for primaries to support moderate Republicans and keep safe seats. We know the Club for Growth will support right-wing extremists. On the Republican side, if a moderate loses and a right-wing candidate wins, we've lost that vote."

The Club for Growth does not support right-wing "extremists". The Club for Growth concentrates on electing politicians that believe in small government and economic growth-strategies. The Club is not affiliated with a particular party. It just turns out that most Democrats are of the tax-and-spend ideology (and a growing number of Republicans as well).

> The problem for Democrats is that the Republicans have stolen many of their issues," such as education and Medicare prescription drug coverage, the lobbyist said.

> The NEA will counter in the coming election campaign by emphasizing "how extreme they are," he told the delegates.

The problem for Democrats is that they have dominated the federal political sphere for decades and done an increasingly poor job (especially in education). Some people are finally waking up to that fact, including their minority base.

> Two major issues, Mr. Moody said, will be Mr. Bush's support for school vouchers, which permit families to use their children's public school funding toward expenses in alternative schools, and his faith-based initiative to provide federal grants to religious charities and service organizations to help school, antipoverty and criminal justice programs.

Silly NEA, minorities overwhelmingly support school choice. And I just can't see the administration's desire to send money into poor black churches to support community programs as a bad thing.

> "We support the separation of church and state. This administration's whole philosophy has been to blur those lines, to move us away from political stability and good public policy. They want to bring in religious groups to share in that [federal] largesse. What they really want to do is allow them to continue to discriminate in who they hire and use federal money to do that. We oppose that."

I love this! Allowing parents to choose the best educational opportunity for their children is going to destabilize the political structure of America. Oh . . . my . . . goodness . . . run for the hills!

Of course they oppose using federal money to discriminate against people they want as teachers. Why would the NEA want to spend money only on good teachers and successful programs when those monies would be away from the greedy clutches of NEA administrators and lobbyists?

> Many delegates who attended the weekend plenary sessions expressed optimism that Democrats could defeat Mr. Bush next year.

> "Bush is going to defeat himself," said Peggy Lear Bowen of Reno, Nev., a member of the state board of education.

> "How? Are his lips moving?" said Miss Bowen, a middle school history teacher who is allied with Sen. Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat and deputy Senate minority leader.

It is teachers like these, my friends, that are why little Johnny and little Jane can't read.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 06:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## July 09, 2003

### Medical Malpractice Propaganda War

Democrats successfully stopped legislation that would cap the amount of damages that we-the-little-people could sue for in cases of medical malfeasance. Senator Dr. Frist played politics by rushing this to the floor, bypassing many of the usual steps in the legislative dance.

What is more disturbing is that lessons of history is being ignored: California already tried capping awards way back in 1975, with further tort reform in 1988. Unsurprisingly, it did not work. Proposition 103 (passed in November 1988) forced the insurance industry to reduce rates and open their books, and suddenly rates stabilized. It worked so well that serious consideration is being given to repeal the award caps passed a quarter century ago.

The problem is that rising insurance costs and trail lawyers have been unfairly demonized by the AMA, the Republican party, and a surprisingly willing media. USA Today conducted a six week study and found that doctors pay a relatively small percentage of their income for malpractice insurance, ranging from a median cost of 1.5% (for a surgical cardiologist) to 6.7% (for an OB-GYN). Granted, these are median costs and they will vary from state to state, but these figures are a far cry from a medical industry debacle that threatens to bring down the entire health care infrastructure. Our medical services are not "in crisis".

In fact, the whole "rapidly rising malpractice insurance" scare is just that - a scare. A myth. Insurance rates rise and fall in cycles, responding to a large number of factors (return on investment, entry of new insurers into the market, etc.). And when one adjusts for inflation one finds that malpractice premiums actually dropped from 1991 to 2000 - by nearly a third. In fact, government regulations and mandates is twice as damaging to our health care costs.

Another problem is the way costs are allocated. Rather than penalizing those doctors that make mistakes, litigation costs are shared by all doctors in a given specialty or area

Rather than demonizing lawyers who represent victim's of malpractice, the medical community should do a better job of policing itself. The Philidelphia Business Journal found that

> Most of the malpractice claims paid in Pennsylvania are due to negligent treatment by a relatively few number of doctors. According to the National Practitioner Data Bank, only 4.7 percent of Pennsylvania's doctors are responsible for 51.4 percent of all payments in malpractice cases and those doctors have had three or more claims.

How bad is it? In spite of the fact that less than 2% of malpractice claims result in an award at trial, the Campaign for Patient Protection claims that, "Medical malpractice is the eighth leading cause of death in the United States, more deaths than breast cancer, AIDS and traffic deaths." Also:

> Eight times as many patients are injured by a medical malpractice as those actually file a claim; 16 times as may suffer injuries as receive any compensation. One in five Americans has suffered a serious medical or prescription error.

All I know is that if my daughter received the care that Jesica Santillan did (who died after a heart-lung transplant because the blood type of the donor did not match), or my wife received the care given to Linda McDougal (who underwent an unnecessary double mastectomy because the lab mixed up biopsy samples), I would want the ability to retain a lawyer and sue. Moreover, if a janitor with six children had an experience like this, he should be able to find a lawyer willing to take the case. That won't happen very often with a $250K cap on awards.

However, even if one agrees with the lawyers in this particular case, one should not miss the opportunity to take a jab at them:

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 06:56 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

## July 06, 2003

### Strom's last laugh?

Gene, over at Harry's Place, made a fascinating observation about one of Strom Thurmand's last wishes.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 10:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### Government Information Awareness

In response to the Total Information Awareness program being pursued by the government, a pair of MIT researchers are setting up a Government Information Awareness web site designed to allow citizens to create dossiers on government officials:

> The system will start by offering standard background information on politicians, but then go one bold step further, by asking Internet users to submit their own intelligence reports on government officials -- reports that will be published with no effort to verify their accuracy.

> [SNIP]

> But the controversy gave McKinley the idea for the GIA project. "If total information exists," he said, "really the same effort should be spent to make the same information at the leadership level at least as transparent -- in my opinion, more transparent."

Right on! Find the site at opengov.media.mit.edu.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 04:52 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## July 04, 2003

### Scandal-free

Bush White House untouched by scandal:

> Mr. Bush, by contrast, largely has been untainted by scandals as he nears the midway point of his third year in office. Political experts said that has helped the president enact more of his agenda than they initially thought possible.

> "Political capital is a very finite commodity and you want to spent it strategically," said Matthew T. Felling of the Center for Media and Public Affairs. "Previous administrations have had to spend their political capital — or have just had it deducted from their account — through various scandals."

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 12:09 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## July 02, 2003

### Hardball

You are either with us or against us:

> The Bush administration yesterday suspended all U.S. military assistance to 35 countries because they refused to pledge to give U.S. citizens immunity before the International Criminal Court.

> The administration warned last year that under a provision of the new U.S. anti-terrorism law, any country that became a member of the new court but failed to give exemptions to Americans serving within its borders would lose all U.S. military aid -- including education, training and financing of weapons and equipment purchases.

I love a president that says what he means, and stands by what he says. Even when it means playing hardball.

Now, if we'll only quit giving money to Arab governments that sponsor anti-American newspapers.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 12:11 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## July 01, 2003

### Dr. Ruth at Bush Fundraiser

The president continues his full-court press and raises over $34 million in six weeks for his campaign fund, and even famous democrats on jumping on board as Dr. Ruth headlines at a Florida Bush fundraiser:

> Decked out in a red, white and blue silk outfit made for her by designer Bill Blass, Dr. Ruth said she came to the Bush fund-raisers as a favor to the Saulls, who often support her charitable causes.

> "I'm a Democrat, everybody knows it," she said. "But when they said they needed me, I am here."

> An Israeli freedom fighter at the age of 16, Westheimer said she told the president Monday she was pleased with the recent progress being made on the Israeli-Palestinian peace plan. She said she was also supportive of the administration's efforts to improve reading among school children.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 11:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## June 26, 2003

### Thurmond Dead at 100

Former South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond was the nation's longest-serving senator. He died Thursday in his hometown of Edgefield, South Carolina.

> Thurmond participated in the Normandy invasion on D-Day and was awarded five Battle Stars. In all, he earned 18 decorations, medals and awards for his military service. Thurmond served 36 years in Reserve and on active duty, attaining the rank of major general in the U.S. Army Reserve.

Rest in peace, Senator.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 11:27 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

### Government Waste

Microsoft landed a $471 million deal to provide software for 494,000 US Army personal computers. Doing the math, this works out to $953 per computer. And for what? As noted on Slashdot:

> The great things about this deal: the Army is going through a reseller, when clearly they have the purchasing power to buy direct; and most of the computers they purchase are normal consumer machines which will be purchased with Windows and Office already installed, so the Army will be paying twice for each machine.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 11:28 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## June 25, 2003

### I hate the 2 party system

Yet more on Republicans worried that a Davis recall will hurt the party:

> Some recall supporters believe President Bush would become more likely to seriously contest California in 2004 if Davis gets ousted and is replaced by a Republican governor. But other party strategists believe that if an unpopular Davis remains in office, he could become a weight on the eventual Democratic presidential nominee, thus boosting Bush's prospects.

> Said one senior national GOP operative, referring to Davis: "I'm not sure that we are not better off having someone who is so unpopular ... representing Democrats there. The quagmire is if you get a new Republican in office, and the [state's] problems are just translated to them."

As I posted before, the single, most-important consideration in the decision as to whether or not the governor of California should be replaced is what is best for the citizens of California! The national party should be concerned about all their constituents, not the health of the party.

While it is true that most American voters are about as intelligent as lemmings, I don't believe that anyone would relate the performance of a new state governor that must undo a decade of troubles would "transfer" the blame to an incumbent president. Besides, Bush as about as much chance of carrying California as I do of becoming Pope (and I'm not Catholic).

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 08:43 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## June 21, 2003

### Morris Interview

Why I like Dick Morris:

> Q: Before we get to the real serious stuff, what do you think of Hillary Clinton's book "Living History"?

> A: Well, it's selling really well, but I question the editorial judgment of those who list it as a best-seller under nonfiction, as opposed to fiction.

> Q: Are you a Democrat or a Republican or both?

> A: I'm an independent. I hate both parties equally. I think the Republican is run by the NRA, the Christian Coalition and is dominated by intolerance. I think the Democratic Party is the wholly owned subsidiary of the AFL-CIO, the labor unions and various other special interests. I think that both of these parties are crooked to the core.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 11:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## June 20, 2003

### Effective Advocay?

From the Mercury News:

> When state lawmakers voted down a financial-privacy bill Tuesday afternoon, consumer advocate Jamie Court wanted to give them a taste of their own medicine.

> So he hopped on the Internet, bought their Social Security numbers for $26 a pop and posted parts of them on his group's Web site.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 05:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### Where are You on the Compass?

This is not a bad test for determining your political compass, although I think some of the questions are up to interpretation (and I think I ended up not nearly libertarian enough):
Take the test here.
Hat tip to The Smallest Minority for the link.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 05:11 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## June 19, 2003

### Zero-sum Game

Remember when Bush was running for president and said that he wanted to give tax cuts to the people who pay taxes? According to the Washington Times, the Bush tax cuts mean even more families have no tax liability at all:

> Thanks to the 2001 $1.35 trillion tax cut and last month's $350 billion tax cut, 39.6 million families will have no income tax liability in 2003, according to numbers by the Tax Foundation and Citizens for Tax Justice.

And that's only the first two tax cuts. Soon we'll have to add in the latest procreation-subsidation program currently under consideration by congress:

> The figures apply even before Congress acts on a bill to provide 6.5 million families, who are already off the tax rolls, with up to another $400 per child, bringing the total per-child tax credit to $1,000. The bill would extend the full $1,000-per-child credit to married couples making up to $150,000, eliminating the eligibility "marriage penalty."

So far Bush has further subsidized those who pay no taxes, has failed to cut the size of government, said he would sign the 'assault weapons' ban extension, and enthusiastically endorsed an education bill sponsored by blonde-in-the-pond Kennedy.

As far as I'm concerned, this president has a disastrous domestic agenda.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 09:51 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## June 18, 2003

### Sibling disagreement

Concerning the child tax credit, one of my brothers said to another in an email debate:

> But the real issue here is should people who pay no taxes get money for not paying any taxes because they are poor. Sounds like welfare to me. If, on the other hand, the working poor are paying too much in Social Security taxes, then let's reform the Social Security system. But the Dem-Wits don't want to address that issue, so they "frame the debate" as a refund to the working poor instead of Social Security reform.

> Just another way of lying.

True enough, but I disagree on one point. The real issue is why is there a child tax credit at all? What constitutional basis is there for using tax monies to subsidize the act of procreation? Why is it that someone with children should have their tax burden reduced at all? If a family consists of two parents and seven children, does it not stand to reason that they consume substantially more government services than a family of four? If so, what kind of twisted logic does it take that says they pay less and get more?

It is said that teenagers are God's punishment for enjoying sex. If I didn't get to enjoy the sex, why should my money help support your teenager?

If you can't afford to have kid and pay your taxes, the don't have a kid! You're broke! What in the name of all that is holy makes you think you can feed, clothe, and educate another human being? If you absolutely must have a kid, write your congressman and get taxes reduced. Vote for smaller government. But do not expect me to help support you in your drive for genetic immortality. I don't care if you have a kid or not.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 05:20 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

### Hatch on a Rampage

69 year-old Senator Orrin Hatch, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, made news Tuesday when he expressed the desire to give copyright holders the ability to hack into citizen's computers and destroy them whenever illegal copyrighted information is found.

One wonders what comes next. Placing explosives in photocopy machines that can be set off any time magizine articles are copied for illegal distribution?

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 11:37 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## June 15, 2003

### Bush in Germany

One man's perspective of A Compassionate Conservative visits Auschwitz, excerpted here in the hopes it will make you go read the whole thing:

> Last weekend, the president and First Lady Laura Bush toured Auschwitz, the Nazi death camp where, sixty years ago, Polish Jews endured one of the world's worst real-life nightmares. It is said that to visit one of these camps is a life-changing experience for all who go there. Apparently, the president was no exception.

> "Powerful...so sad...all the little baby shoes..." These words were all Mr. Bush could manage to express verbally after the two-hour tour.

> [SNIP]

> So the next time you hear an angry liberal spew hateful epithets like "Fascist" or "Nazi" at this good and decent man, just visualize him walking through Auschwitz, holding his wife's hand, his throat choked with emotion, moved beyond words.

> Then get down on your knees and thank God that at this moment in our nation's history, this compassionate conservative is our president.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 01:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## June 11, 2003

### Hispanics back Estrada Nomination

From Reuters:

> Hispanic Americans, by a nearly nine-to-one margin, believe judicial nominee Miguel Estrada deserves a confirmation vote in the U.S. Senate where he is being blocked by Democrats, a poll released on Wednesday showed. While about half of the 800 respondents were identified as Democrats, 87 percent said they back Republican President Bush's bid to make Estrada the first Hispanic judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

I wonder how many results did they have to discard to get a 50/50 Democrat/Republican Hispanic population?
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 05:51 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

## June 10, 2003

### Micromanagement

As a relative novice in the political community, allow me to express some shock and awe as to exactly how our government works. Today I found myself perusing the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004. This is where our august Congress sets aside monies for our armed services to operate. In it, I found such mundane and seemingly reasonable things as:

> Funds are hereby authorized to be appropriated for fiscal year 2004 for procurement for the Army as follows:
> (1) For aircraft, $2,158,485,000.
> (2) For missiles, $1,553,462,000.
> (3) For weapons and tracked combat vehicles, $1,658,504,000.
> (4) For ammunition, $1,363,305,000.
> (5) For other procurement, $4,266,027,000.

Seems innocent enough. My company approves the next year's budget for capital expenditures in a similar manner. Monies are allocated for missle defense R&D, which makes sense - we don't want run-away costs nor do we want to underfund vital research. Even $1,661,307,000 for DOD working capital and $65,279,000 for running military retirement homes appear reasonable enough.

Under section 321 (general definitions applicable to facilities and operations) I am relieved to find that highly technical terms are laid out, by Congressional Decree, such as:

> The term `unexploded ordnance' means military munitions that--

> > (A) have been primed, fused, armed, or otherwise prepared for action;
> > (B) have been fired, dropped, launched, projected, or placed in such a manner as to constitute a hazard to operations, installations, personnel, or material; and
> > (C) remain unexploded either by malfunction, design, or any other cause..

Whew! I'm sure glad we got that straightened out!

Then we start getting into a little more detail. Wetlands management. The rules governing how naval vessels can be used for artificial reefs (i.e., scuttled in shallow waters). Rules for transferring equipment between ships. Bonus increases (e.g., hostile fire and imminent danger pay went up from $150 to $225 - I hope that's per week and not per month).

I grew in a military family and I often heard the phrase, "It would take an act of Congress to get that changed!" I heard it so often and in relation to such mundane matters that I never took it seriously. But in this act of Congress we have:

> SEC. 632. PAYMENT OR REIMBURSEMENT OF STUDENT BAGGAGE STORAGE COSTS FOR DEPENDENT CHILDREN OF MEMBERS STATIONED OVERSEAS.

> > Section 430(b)(2) of title 37, United States Code, is amended in the first sentence by inserting before the period at the end the following: `or during a different period in the same fiscal year selected by the member'.

Congress controls accumulation of leave time, shipment of military personnel's vehicles, and medical and dental screenings for reserve units that have been mobilized. They set bonuses and incentives, lay out 'disciplinary actions...for misuse of defense travel cards', approve funds for improving housing in specific locations, and, in Subtitle B - Education and Training (8) they make certain that Section 3142 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Years 1990 and 1991 is:

> (D) amended in the section heading by adding a period at the end.

Wow - glad we caught that missing period!

It seems to me that at some point we should hire good people, give them general guidelines, and say, "Make it so!"

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 06:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## June 08, 2003

### Current Events

In this country, incumbents have to really screw up to lose reelection. So why would three-term County Sheriff Williamson switch parties to seek a fourth term?

> “I think that the local Democratic philosophy has changed over time and I can no longer identify,” Williamson said on Monday. He cited his fiscal and social conservatism, which he said is no longer in step with the county Democrats. “It’s a philosophical difference between me and the current Democratic Committee.”

Meanwhile over in Toledo City, Council member Betty "Lucas County’s longest-serving Democrat" Shultz switched to the Republican party:

> "I, and many others, feel very strongly that the Lucas County Democratic Party has moved too far to the political left. So far, in fact, that I no longer agree with the local professional party leadership."

And back in Maryland, two mayors leave the Democrats for the GOP:

> "I am coming back home," said Goldsborough, 56. "Thirty-eight years ago, I was a registered Republican, but I changed 26 years ago because I couldn't vote in the Democratic primary. This party is moving and shaking, and I just want to be in it."

> Willey, 61, a lifelong Democrat who described himself as a "pro-business candidate" in favor of development on the Shore, said he received more help from Republicans than members of his own party during his last campaign. He said it made sense for him to switch party affiliation

To remind us that defections go both ways, Jim "it's all about timing" Jeffords is celebrating the two-year anniversay of his defection from the president by insisting that he is still relevant and "attacking President Bush for a pattern of 'deception and distortion' in his policies and governing."

Hey Jimmy, how's that milk-protection legislation going?

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 08:54 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## June 05, 2003

### Integrity in the Real World

Since 1994, US Representative Zach Wamp has represented his district without accepting any PAC donations. Assuming Frist keeps his promise of two terms, Zach is going to run for his seat. To do that he needs big money, and the slick little weasel he's running against is a Ford of the Memphis Fords - a family with a long and rich political history (if scandals make for a rich history).

So Zach has decided to begin accepting PAC donations for his Senate campaign fund. Still, ten years of federal-level service and no PAC funding? Pretty damn impressive.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 05:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### Taking out the Trash

A recall of California's miserably-performing governor is looking more and more likely:

> The Republican-led campaign to recall Democratic Gov. Gray Davis has rapidly gained cash and credibility, but it has failed to pick up support from top GOP officials, business leaders or donors. Some of these people fear the recall could hurt the party and distract from President Bush's re-election campaign. And they said the White House has signaled that California donors should stay focused on Bush 2004.

> "I don't think running around trying to recall the governor is in the best interest of either the party or the president at this point in time," said GOP donor Mark C. Johnson, who was finance chairman for Republican Richard Riordan's failed 2002 gubernatorial bid.

Call me niave, but shouldn't it be about what is in the best interest of the citizens of California?

> Gerry Parsky, Bush's top adviser in California, said his focus was on Bush and the GOP. "I understand why people might be upset about the financial condition of California. However, my priorities are the re-election of the president and financially strengthening the state party," Parsky said.

The fact that this mindset exists is revolting. If this is how the Republican Party treats its Californian citizens, it is no wonder why it is a Democrat stronghold. Californians should take out the stinking garbage before worrying about the trash.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 04:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## June 04, 2003

### I love . . .

Go read Mrs. Bubba's post and feel her pain. Really, it is an excellent piece and this won't make as much sense unless you read it.

Let me start off by saying that I am sure that both Mr. and Mrs. Bubba are fine, gracious people. I am certain that they would make me feel welcome in their home and Mrs. AlphaPatriot and I could spend an enjoyable evening of BBQ, beer, and stimulating conversation. I say all this because I feel compelled to answer Mrs. Bubba's post and I do not wish to appear less than respectful of someone who is undoubtedly a wonderful person.

However, I also know the feeling of listening to "many things I find insulting and with which I disagree".

I believe that the most important vote that one can make is made every time you take out your wallet. Virtually every dollar spent goes in some small part to support an ideology. Buy a Gateway computer and give money to the DNC. Buy a Dell and give it to the RNC. Buy a Hallmark card, go to Disney on vacation, or use Monster.com to get a job and give aid to those who would strip us of our rights to defend ourselves. I love Freedom Fries and Australian wine. Boycotts work and the perfidious French have felt its power in spite of their early protestations to the contrary (although I hate that they hired Woody Allen as their spokesperson).

I love it when a woman tells me that because she has a uterus, she is able to divine that point in time that separates stopping a process from murder. I love it when I am labeled NeoCon because I support a strong foreign policy and a strong economy, and because I believe that businesses that hire people drive the economy better than wasteful government programs.

I love it when people say that "the people" means the people in the First, Fourth, Fifth and Ninth Amendments, yet the same phrase means the state in the Second Amendment. I love it when people say prayer and religion should be removed from all aspects of public life. I love it when people say that they believe in giving people a helping hand up, yet fight to protect a welfare system that works to keep people down. I love it when people say we need to spend more money on schools, rather than giving loving and concerned parents the choice of removing a good child from a failing environment. I love it when people want to give tax cuts to people who don't pay taxes.

I love it when people proclaim Clinton a hero for using a degraded and neglected military (for which he showed eight years of contempt) in every hotspot around the world, as long as it did not serve any American interests. I love it when people tell me that Bush manipulated America into attacking Iraq as part of his war on terror, even as Saddam sent checks to families of terrorists in Palestine and maintained terrorist training camps on his soil. I love it when they claim Bosnia and Kosovo were worthy causes, but didn't see the need to remove a man whose sons fed people into plastic shredders and acted as official rapists.

I love it when people say that perjury is fine for the Commander in Chief, even though the same offense would send any soldier to Levenworth. I love it when people suggest that a president that has restored honor and integrity to the White House was responsible for 9-11. I love it when people wail that our President waged an unjust war because there are no weapons of mass destruction, yet when those weapons are found they will be the first to say that they were planted. I love it when people attacked Bush for acting "unilaterally" (with a huge coalition) in Iraq, yet berated him for not acting unilaterally in confronting Korea.

Turning sarcasm off, I love it when honorable and truthful men and women are elected to public office, because these are the people to whom we entrust the lives of our children and to spend our money wisely. These people should be held to a higher standard, and if they do not measure up then they are not worthy to serve. We are simultaneously their customer and their employer, and we should demand better.

I do love my President, because he is a man that says what he means and stands by what he says. I love that the Saudi's and Egyptians and even the "Arab street" are finally "getting it", and are therefore taking him seriously. This president will try to bring peace to the Middle East and he will probably fail. But it will not be because he lacks conviction or stature. And when he wearily turns over the reigns to the next president, we will be much further along the road to peace and history will recognize that he laid the groundwork which will eventually make it possible.

Mrs. Bubba, I hope I never descend to calling you names (and if I call Mr. Bubba names, rest assured that it will be in good-natured fun because I know he can take it and will return it in kind). I love that idealists come in liberal and conservative flavors, because one side is never totally right and there is a need for discussion and balance. I love that this country allows you and I to both express our opinions, and hope that the same is true a hundred years from now.

God Bless America.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 10:15 PM | Comments (8) | TrackBack

## May 27, 2003

### Political schizophrenia

In Reinventing Libertaria, Gary Cruse captures the essence of why I'm half Republican and half Libertarian:

> Should the Libertarian Party, a party that barely shows up on political radar as it is, be further split? Has the LP written itself out of post 9/11 America?

> [...]

> Completely out of step with America today,a'foreign policy of non-intervention and peace' sticks out and resonates with recent anti-Iraqi war sentiments. ... Anti-terrorism cannot be a winning hand without the cooperation of nations capable of harboring future Osamas.

> [...]

> The other disconnect I have with the LP platform is the elimination of all restrictions on immigration, which, coming from the Libertarian Party of Texas is a 'kick me' sign I wouldn't want to wear around the Alamo. I'd still be laughing at that if I didn't know they were serious as a front yard fiesta del tercer mundo. Can the Libertarian Party even coexist with War on Terrorism?

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 05:51 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## May 26, 2003

### WD-40

The makers of the popular super-oil have told Texas Democrats to stop calling themselves WD-40. The group of lawmakers started calling themselves that because "they're white Democrats over 40". Perhaps it is also because they are slicker than fresh doggie pooh on a morning dew-covered lawn.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 06:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### Scare issues

The Democrats routinely use social security and medicare to scare old people into voting for them. It seems that the Republicans have a scare issue of their own:

> ...the Soccer Mom. Since 9/11, polls suggest she has morphed into Security Mom — and that development is frightening to Democrats, who have come to count on women to win elections. She used to say she would never allow a gun in her house, but now she feels better if her airline pilot has one. She wanted a nuclear freeze in the 1980s and was a deficit hawk in the 1990s, but she now believes the Pentagon should have whatever it wants. Her civil liberties seem less important than they used to, especially compared with keeping her children safe. She's someone, in short, like Debbie Creighton, a 34-year-old Santee, Calif., mother of two who voted for Bill Clinton twice and used to choose the candidates who were most liberal on abortion and welfare. "Since 9/11," Creighton says, "all I want in a President is a person who is strong."

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 12:58 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## May 25, 2003

### The Pendulum Returns

Even the NY Times is noticing that the Republican party is in acendency. Sunday's paper carried an article entitled Buoyed by Resurgence, G.O.P. Strives for an Era of Dominance. Of course, the party's future is built on recruiting young. This is from the NYTimes weekend magazine article The Young Hipublicans:

> The College Republican National Committee, a group that mobilizes students to campaign, has tripled its membership since 1999 to an all-time high of 1,148 chapters.

> [...]

> They [Elliot and Boland] describe themselves as defenders of ''individuality'' and ''freedom'' against a campus, and world, overrun by groupthink liberalism and pious political correctness. They also share a belief that despite the common perception of youth being synonymous with progressive, liberal ideals, the true spirit of their generation is solidly, if quietly, conservative. The polls bear this out. According to the U.C.L.A. Higher Education Research Institute, which has been tracking the attitudes of incoming freshmen at hundreds of colleges nationwide since 1966, student conservatism is increasing in many areas. Asked their opinion about casual sex, 51 percent of freshmen were for it in 1987; now 42 percent are. In 1989, 66 percent of freshmen believed abortion should be legal; today, only 54 percent do. In 1995, 66 percent of kids agreed that wealthy people should pay a larger share of taxes; now it's down to 50 percent. Even on the issue of firearms, where students have traditionally favored stiffer controls, there has been a weakening in support for gun laws. ''We're at a record low on this item,'' says the U.C.L.A. Institute's associate director, Linda Sax, an associate professor of education at U.C.L.A. ''We've seen a decline over the last four consecutive years.''

Even Canada seems to be jumping on board:

> A new media poll says the Tory election platform is resonating with voters -- and could turn the coming provincial election into a horse race.

> The Compass poll, aired on Global TV last night, shows 43% of voters like the idea of mortgage interest deductibility, 37% favour teacher strike bans, 34% support getting the homeless off the street and a full 55% want more tax cuts to stimulate the economy.

On the other hand, South America continues a leftward direction with the "election" of the latest Argintine President.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 11:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## May 24, 2003

### Bush's Third Tax Cut

President Bush has finally succeeded in getting his latest tax cut through congress (his third in 2 1/2 years). Although seemingly far smaller than his originally proposed $726 billion, some say it will actually be far higher:

> Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, which advocates deep tax cuts, said the trimmed-down tax package will ultimately swell into one that conservatives will cheer. The 2001 tax cut, scored at $1.3 trillion, will actually amount to $1.9 trillion when certain tax provisions are extended, he said, and the current tax cut could amount to $1 trillion.

> ''If this was the only tax bill of the Bush administration, then the difference between $726 [billion] and $350 [billion] would be of concern. If this was the last bill, it would be of concern,'' Norquist said. ''But because we're looking at an annual tax cut, it's less of a problem. They'll be back.''

Democrats, of course, are crying about the increasing deficit. Although deficits sound bad, the impact of a large deficit is still a subject of debate. Political scientist Steven Taylor at PoliBlog has some interesting notes about deficits, ending with:

> The recent spate of surpluses ceased to be exactly at the same time economic growth slowed. In 1997 GDP growth was 6.5%, in 1998 and 1999 it was 5.6%, in 2000 it was 5.9% and in 2001 it was 2.6%. And guess what? deficits returned in 2002. Funny how that works.

But assuming that keeping a handle on the deficit is a good thing, the one common-sense method that is never talked about enough is keeping a handle on spending. President Bush has vowed to work with congress to do just that ("Moving toward a balanced budget also requires that we hold federal spending to a responsible level,'' he said during today's radio address. "Spending discipline is crucial to my economic program."), he is responsible for the largest unfunded mandate (to the states) currently in existence: the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Federal government will continue to strangle the economy until both the president and congress stops pumping up social programs and wasting our money on pork.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 05:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## May 20, 2003

### Bush's domestic policy

In the usual quirky, round-about route through the net I came across this from isntapundit. Damned impressive writing for some professing not to be a pundit:

> Unlike some people, I thought Bush's carrier stunt was awesome. Hell, I'd do it too; what good is it being President if you can't play with the toys? I also love his France-crumbling, Germany-ostracizing, Russia-humiliating, UN-relegating, Iraq-smacking foreign policy.

> But his domestic policy is pure puke. For once, I'd like to have a war without some gnarly policy hangover. FDR won WWII and slapped us with the New Deal; Korea left us with, well, Korea; Vietnam landed us in Carter Soup; Reagan won the Cold War and gave us the Drug War to make up for it; and now we apparently can't kick Ba'athist ass without creating a Department of Homeland Security.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 10:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## May 19, 2003

### Legislated protection

Although the actions of 'big tobacco' over the years has been abhorent, the way that the government tried to sue tobacco companies out of existence was disgraceful. The federal legislature is trying to make sure that this does not happen to gun manufacturers by passing the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act. The House passed their version back in April (see how your rep voted). Although I was in favor of this act in the beginning, after listening to the debate and much reflection I find that allowing the federal government to get involved in this issue scares me more than lawyers. Still, as Wayne Stayskal at the JWR shows us, there is a humorous side:

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 02:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## May 18, 2003

### The slimey truth

Is it just me or does anyone else think Adel al-Jubeir (the "foreign policy advisor" to the Saudi crown prince and primary Arab apologist) is as trustworthy as Bill Clinton in an all-girl high school? Personally, I put him somewhere between mildly offensive and completely repugnant (or to put it another way, somewhere between a used car salesman and a personal injury lawyer running for president).

Today we were subjected to his usual verbal contortionistic performance on Fox News Sunday:

> SNOW: Your government, a Wahhabi Muslim government, has a great deal of say over which clerics sit in judgment and make statements. At least three clerics before the attacks recently -- Ali al-Kudur (ph), Nasser al-Fad (ph), and Ahmed al-Khalidi (ph) -- all had not only defended but praised some of the people responsible for carrying out the bombings in Riyadh.

> AL-JUBEIR: Well, Tony, the thing to keep in mind is that a lot of these clerics are underground. A lot of these clerics issue their fatwahs, which are really their opinions, on the Internet, and that gets bandied about.

Hey Adel, answer the question! Tony asked you about the government-sanctioned clerics that are still spreading poison, not the "cleric underground" that your government is totally ineffective in shutting down.

But I will say that for the first time in his life Adel answered a question completely and give a truthful answer when Tony was finally successful in pinning down an issue: amongst the "democratic reforms" that the Saudi's are promising, will freedom to worship be included?

> SNOW: But would this mean also the establishment of other religious facilities? In other words, a church, a Christian church, a Jewish synagogue?

> AL-JUBEIR: I doubt that, because Saudi Arabia is the heart of the Islamic world. The role of Saudi Arabia in the Muslim world is similar to the role of the Vatican. And so, that's -- I think that's -- I doubt that that will happen.

That's right - the Saudi's can't control underground fundamentalist clerics but they can make sure that there aren't any dangerous underground churches or synagogues!
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 03:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## May 17, 2003

### Politicians lie?

Reuters has the scoop of the year decade. They report, "After intensive research, scientists have concluded that politicians lie."

> Bill Clinton famously lied about his affair with Monica Lewinsky, while earlier philandering US presidents never had to lie about their affairs, because nobody ever asked.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 11:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### The French Democrats return

Texas Democrats returned to work after hiding out of state to avoid doing their job. WaPo paints the Dems as heros:

> "Welcome home, Texas heroes," one sign read as the lawmakers, all from the Texas House, arrived, smiling and waving to a cheering crowd.

The Washington Times presents a more even account:

> A few dissenters booed and motioned with thumbs down. "I drove all the way from Waco to be here," said one gallery spectator, Edith Grimsley. "You can be sure I won't vote for my cowardly representative again next year," she snapped . . .

But only WaPo can put the French spin on it:

> "We've weathered some troopers, we've weathered a tornado and we weathered Denny's," said Rep. Jim Dunnum, the group's ringleader. "No matter what happens, democracy won."

No Dunnum, democracy was shut down by the minority party, just like in the federal Senate.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 11:59 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## May 15, 2003

### More on DMCA

Bill Hobbs broke the story about the family connection today. Senator Person, sponsor of SB 213, is father to Curtis Person, III who happens to run Charter Communications. Read the entire post - it's worth it.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 10:24 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## May 14, 2003

### EU in decline

A French thinktank has issued a report saying that the EU's share of the global economy will shrink over the next 50 years, while the US will retain its 25% share and China will match or even overtake the US:

> "The enlargement of the European Union will not be sufficient to guarantee parity with the United States," says the report from the prestigious French Institute of International Relations. "The EU will weigh less heavily on the process of globalization and a slow but inexorable movement onto history's 'exit ramp' can be foreseen."

I knew that my switching from French to Australian wine would have an impact!

Addendum: The Germans have very possibly lost a contract to coat the exterior of the Pentagon. As Rep. Steven LaTourette (an Ohio Republican) said, "It is especially galling that this German firm was chosen for work at the Pentagon when America is at war and Germany has snubbed its nose at the U.S."

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 06:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### Poker anyone?

Buried in the last paragraph of an article about the Texas Democrats in hiding from Statesman.com is this jewel:

> During all that down time, lawmakers stuck in the House could read a book, chat on the phone or play cards — with images of their missing colleagues pasted on the backs. State Rep. Dianne Delisi, R-Temple, has crafted playing cards with photos of the missing Democrats.

Who says Republicans don't have a sense of humor? Along these lines, the Young Conservatives of Texas have published the Top Ten Differences between Fugitive Texas Democrats and Saddam Hussein, which include:

- Saddam concealed his weapons of mass destruction. Texas Fugitive Dems are concealing their weapons of mass obstruction.
- Saddam ran an oil for food program. Texas Fugitive Dems are running a blackmail for quorum program.
- Saddam hates President Bush. Texas Fugitive Dems despise him.
- Saddam was targeted by GPS. Texas Fugitive Dems are targeted by DPS.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 05:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### DMCA

Bill over at HobbsOnline is rightfully slamming the primary Nashville paper for failing to cover the horrendous MDCA legislation currently moving through the Tennessee legislature. This got me curious as to whether the Memphis paper (Communist Appeal) is giving this matter any ink. I searched for "MDCA", "Senator Person" (Senate sponsor), "Briley" (House sponsor), "SB213", "HB457", variations on these, and even the generic "digital". Unsurprisingly, I came up empty. Once again, news that informs is not a priority.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 11:36 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## May 13, 2003

### Texas outlaws

So it seems that the only way to get a Democrat to do his job is to arrest him. Or her, in this case. In a strange tale of unprecedented truculent behavior, the Democrats of the Texas state legislature has decided that since they don't run things any more (having lost the majority in the last election for the first time since Reconstruction), they just won't play. More than 50 Democrats didn't show up for work on Monday morning, depriving the legislature from the needed 2/3 participation needed for a quorum. It seems that a good many of them skipped town, indeed - skipped state, holing up in a Holiday Inn in Oklahoma like outlaws hiding from the law.

And hiding from the law is exactly what they are doing. Because the law says that they can be arrested and returned to the capitol, which is exactly what happened to a Dallas Democrat. She was arrested, put into the back of a squad car (sans cuffs, I imagine), and driven to work.

But my favorite part of this baby-drama (or drama created by babies) is the way that the liberal Austin American-Statesman spins the story. Democrats walk out, shutting down state govenment, because they can't win by debate. But who does the paper blame? Why, the Republican Speaker of the House of course! Democrats act like French babies because Craddick shows a lack of leadership!

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 02:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

### Axis of Weasels

A guy from NewsMax.com was on Fox and Friends this morning pushing a Deck of Weasels. Based on the military's "Most Wanted" playing cards, this is damn funny. I like the suit of diamonds, almost entirely composed of U.S. politicians.
Posted by AlphaPatriot at 10:18 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## May 09, 2003

### Outrageous

Rich Galen over at Mullings has an excellent dissection of King of Pork Senator Byrd's outrage about the outrageously-successful Bush carrier landing. Among other things, Rich relates that:

> In 1993 Clinton flew onto the deck of the USS Theodore Roosevelt which was about 100 miles off the coast of Virginia from which he did his Saturday radio address. A year later he went by launch from Portsmouth, England onto the USS George Washington which was cruising through the English Channel. According to former Clinton staffers he: "toured the ship top-to-bottom, ate dinner with the crew, gave a speech on deck (repeat: gave a speech on deck), did live network interviews from the flight deck (repeat: did live interviews from the flight deck), attended a memorial service, met with the crew and ..." sit down. Are you sitting? Are you sure? Ok:

> "He steered the ship part-way across the English Channel."

> After he was done not wasting taxpayer money, President Clinton helicoptered to France where he participated in D-Day commemoration activities.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 12:48 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## May 02, 2003

### Arab News not so vitriolic

The Arab News interviewed several young Soudi men that had been studying at US universities but were forced to return to Saudi Arabia after September 11th. The article is titled, curiously enough, "Stranger in Their Own Homeland".

> "Here, it's not what you know, it's who you know," he said. "People have no respect for creativity, no respect for original thought."

Which is why, in spite of our grieviously poor public education system, we continue to lead the world in scientific and technological advancements, fueling an economy that even Clinton had a hard time wrecking.

> "Everything here is segregated - men from women, rich from poor, and foreigners from locals. This is a land of segregation. The majority of people try to justify this, but I feel that we should focus on integration, not segregation."

The young man obviously paid attention to societal issues while here. Anyone can tell that diversity through classes is a destructive force. Diversity working towards a common goal is how to make E Pluribus Unum work.

But what is most telling, perhaps, is the last quote of the article. It seems to point to the same culture of victimization that American blacks suffer. Those that try to get ahead are spurned by their former brothers:

> “Let’s not forget that the young Saudis who came back were forced to come back,” he said. “Most of them are in a state of culture shock. These students who go and study abroad don’t have a welcome sign waiting for them when they return.”

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 03:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## April 28, 2003

### The two faces of Bill becomes increasingly evident

Excerpt from a rather excellent discourse on "double-talking Bill".

> Boy Bill unleashed this bitter tirade before a New York-based nonpartisan business research group: "Our paradigm now seems to be: Something terrible happened to us on Sept. 11, and that gives us the right to interpret all future events in a way that everyone else in the world must agree with us. And if they don't, they can go straight to hell."

> Just a few days earlier in St. Louis, the master of doublespeak told an audience, "Mr. Bush has done the right thing in removing Saddam Hussein from power." Heaven knows what he'll be telling audiences three weeks from now.

> Lest anyone forget, Clinton employed the greatest fighting force on the planet as the world's police while terrorists conspired and carried out plots against the United States.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 08:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## April 08, 2003

### French Prisons

Not only are there more people in French prisons than ever before, Chirac has promised to build 28 more jails. I think a wall around the entire country would be more appropriate.

Speaking of prisons, the get-out-the-vote drive that Democrats did in Florida prisons in the 2000 election is legendary. Seeing how successful it was, they continue to do it today. It seems that sex offenders are overwhelmingly vote Democrat. Like President, like felon!

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 05:45 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

## March 24, 2003

### Civil disobedience

Tony Parsons writing in (of all places) the Mirror pens a brilliant piece about changing attitudes and supporting your troops. Inspiration for the column arises from the declining numbers of participants in the UK anti-war rallies.

A similar trend is happening in America, and USA Today explores the deeping schism between peaceful protesters and the "civil disobedience" crowd.

Lately I have heard the sound of Henry David Thoreau spinning in his grave, for spinning he must be. Over a hundred and fifty years ago he wrote an elegant disertation called "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience". Thoreau's motivation for writing this particular essay was his insistence each individual must make moral stands based on their personal beliefs rather than submit to a government simply because "a majority" thought it right.

> There will never be a really free and enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly.

In this essay, Thoreau lays out the the concepts loved by Libertarians everywhere, the most famous being "That government is best which governs not at all." Yet modern-day, air-headed socialists (who believe in big government to support even bigger entitlement programs) have seized on the concept of Civil Disobedience and twisted it to mean violent demonstrations designed to destroy private property and disrupt the lives of ordinary citizens.

Thoreau promoted the peaceful protest of the conscientious objector or refusal "to pay their quota into [the state's] treasury" (for which Thoreau spent a night in prison), the term "Civil Disobedience" has come to mean shutting down of financial districts and clashing with cops. Where Thoreau sought resistance and wondered, "What force has a multitude?", activists use his concepts to create anarchy and cost taxpayers millions. Whereas Thoreau wrote of individual choice and conscience, the anti-war crowd chain themselves together in an orgy of self-congratulatory conformity. Do you hear that? Poor Henry's spinning again.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 12:27 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

## March 22, 2003

### Success = Popularity

For weeks, I've been hearing how Tony Blair has ended his political career because of his conviction that supporting the war is the right thing to do. While I have always agreed that PM Blair is showing a surprising degree of courage, I have always maintained that nothing breeds political popularity like success.

And what do you know. The same thing goes here at home, too.

Posted by AlphaPatriot at 03:07 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack