Tac Cut Issues

Yeah! Now To Move it Closer to the $550B the House Passed

CNN.com - Senate approves $350 billion tax cut - May. 16, 2003

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Senate narrowly approved a $350 billion tax cut late Thursday after earlier agreeing to temporarily eliminate taxes on dividends.

Tax Issues

Tax Issues

Great Q&A about the Bush Tax Cut.

Chris Edwards on the Bush Tax Cut on NRO Financial

Q: Won't the tax cut blow a $550 billion hole in the federal budget?
A: No, the $550 billion is cumulative over 11 years (2003-2013), averaging just $50 billion a year. It's like Congress labeling your $600 child tax credit a $6,600 tax cut.

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Soft Money Issues

Dems Raise Soft Money

Look, Reps do it, too. But at least they are up front about wanting to do it. I don't have a problem with soft money. I do have a problem with the Dems saying the want soft money out and then, as soon as a court overturns McCain-Feingold, running out and garnering as much as possible.

Nashville City Paper

The Hill, a newspaper that covers the doings of Congress, reports that the Democrat's campaign finance documents show a pattern of giving by low-level employees at law firms, a number of whom appear to have limited financial resources and no prior record of political donations. Indeed, it is hard to believe that so many paralegals — earning an average pre-tax salary of $44,416, according to the Legal Assistant Management Association — have so much extra cash lying around that they are able to cut the Edwards campaign $2,000 checks, the maximum allowed under McCain-Feingold.

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School Choice Issues

CSE: School Choice is a Good Thing

Giving Students a New Choice

On May 9, the U.S. House of Representatives Government Reform Committee held a hearing on alternative schools and educational reform in the District of Columbia. Legislators heard from various witnesses who testified on H.R. 684, the “D.C. School Choice Act of 2003” sponsored by Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.). Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE) supports this sensible reform measure, which would increase significantly parents’ control over their children’s education.

Giving parents the choice among the widest possible array of schools will provide these learning institutions with the incentives to make available the best education for every student. Without school choice, schools get students and funding regardless of how well they perform. CSE supports policies that will increase competition, innovation, and diversity in the education system. This includes vouchers, charter schools, and tax credits.

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Onion: Zoloft for Everything

Onion: Zoloft for Everything

The Onion | Pfizer Launches 'Zoloft For Everything' Ad Campaign

Continued Pugh: "How many millions of people out there are suffering under the strain of a deadline at work or pre-date jitters, but don't realize there's a drug that could provide relief? Zoloft isn't just for severe anxiety or depression. Got the Monday blues? Kids driving you nuts? Let Zoloft help. Zoloft."

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SAI - III

Second Amendment Issues - III

I am disappointed that he has said he would sign to extend this window-dressing law. It is ridiculous that because a gun looks a certain way, it should be banned. Plus, it is the first step in banning most or all guns eventually. Stop the Anti-Self-Defense Crowd NOW!

CNN.com - Bush keeps low profile on gun ban - May. 14, 2003

The White House on Wednesday restated President Bush's support for renewing a ban on Uzis and other semiautomatic weapons, but the president is keeping a low profile on the issue.

Some Tax Cut Facts

Some Tax Cut Facts

We haven't gotten the full story on tax cuts - Tuesday, 05/13/03

''Many taxpayers would see relief come in three waves:
• a $400-per-child rebate check this summer for families with children under 17;
• a lowering of federal taxes withheld from paychecks by the fall;
• and a larger refund check a year from now when 2003 tax returns are filed.''

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Diversity Trumps Skill

Diversity As A Goal Rather Than Excellence

OpinionJournal - Diversity's Stigma: Jayson Blair and the cost of racial preferences. BY JASON L. RILEY

Somewhere in between the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1978 Supreme Court Bakke decision on university admissions, blacks forfeited the right to be judged by society as individuals. The most unfortunate consequence of racial preferences is not that they produce the occasional Jayson Blair. (Indeed, the existence of a Stephen Glass would seem to make that link tentative at best.) Far more troubling is that racial preferences, however well-intentioned, strip blacks of their individuality, their pride, their humanity.

Race-based policies make black achievement a white allowance and black failure a group stigma.

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Traffic versus War

What Is More Dangerous? War or Going to the Stop and Rob?

Yahoo! News - WHO: Traffic Is Four Times as Lethal as War

Such fatalities were twice as prevalent among men as women, the reports said. Three times as many men, for example, died in road traffic accidents as women. And men were also three times as likely to be murdered.

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HillaryCare Part Deux

Go Dean Go!

Please let him push this for all it's worth! Let the Dem's try for HillaryCare II. I would love to see it drown them again.

Dean has $88 billion health care proposal -- The Washington Times

Mr. Dean also said he would cut tax breaks for corporations that don't provide health insurance but did not specify which tax breaks he would go after. He said his plan would be funded by repealing part of President Bush's tax cuts, but it was not clear how far he would cut back.

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Reps from Belgium?

Nuclear Option Still an Option

I am beginning to think the Reps don't have the ba . . . courage to pull it off.

GOP eyes 'nuclear' end to filibuster -- The Washington Times

If Mr. Frist and his fellow Republicans use the option, they can thank some of the very Democrats leading today's filibusters for paving the way 25 years ago.

Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, Vermont Democrat and ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat and influential member of the committee, were among those who voted in 1975 to force changes to Senate rules with a majority vote.

At issue in 1975 was a growing consensus in the Senate that a 67-vote requirement for breaking filibusters was too onerous. Democrats reduced that requirement to 60 using the bare-majority nuclear option.

"We cannot allow a minority, a small group of members, to grab the Senate by the throat and hold it there," Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield, Montana Democrat, said at the time.

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The Cost of Affirmative Action

The Jayson Blair Saga

Bozell's News Column -- 05/13/2003 -- Jayson Blair, Star Pupil -- Media Research Center

When a major corporation is caught fabricating its materials to the public, rapid disclosure and abject apologies are required. No one requires that ritual more than the major media. So what happens when the fabricators are the major media? The punishment ought to be even stronger.

Gun Control by Bush?

Second Amendment Issues II

The gun control debate -- The Washington Times

Fueled by false images of machine guns, the debate next year is likely to be very emotional. Hopefully, it will not be fact free.

Nuclear Strategy Sounds Good 'bout Now

Dem Political Shenanigans

Bill Murchison: They know the stakes, all right

A word needs to be said in praise -- yes, I said praise -- of the Democratic senators now blockading the confirmation of judicial nominees Miguel Estrada and Priscilla Owen. A word not in praise of the senators' motives, which are grimy, or of their political ideology, which stinks. No, a word in praise of their native cunning.

Let's Hope the Supreme Court Weighs In On This

Second Amendment Issues

Judges rap court on gun-rights case -- The Washington Times

"The panel opinion erases the Second Amendment from our Constitution as effectively as it can, by holding that no individual even has standing to challenge any law restricting firearm possession or use. This means that an individual cannot even get a case into court to raise the question," the 32-page main dissent said.

It said "rights" were retained by individuals while "powers" were delegated to governments, so "the right of the people to keep and bear arms" means what it says.

A barbed postscript by Judge Alex Kozinski, writing alone, said history would be vastly different had American slaves or Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto been able to arm themselves.

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Dems Try to Scuttle Affordable Health Care

Health Insurance Shenanigans

Closing the health insurance gap -- The Washington Times

The cost of health care continues to rise, as does the number of uninsured workers. In 2001 alone, health-care costs rose by $67 billion, almost 14 percent. Because of the steep increase in premiums, many small businesses have dropped their policies. This trend threatens the coverage of millions, as 52 percent of the private-sector workforce is employed by small businesses. Association health plans (AHPs) are one way to close the widening coverage gap without increasing government spending.

In a nutshell, association health plans offer small businesses a way to pool their resources to buy insurance . . . .

The two biggest impediments to an AHP law are resistance from major insurance companies and liberals in the Senate. . . .

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Disney Funds Michael Moore

Disney Hires Michael Moore

In a move sure to upset many Americans, Disney has agreed to fund Michael Moore's next "documentary," to use the term loosely. It will, of course Bash Bush and Republicans, except this time, it will be even more explicit.

He has every right to say what he says. Disney has every right to spend its money how it sees fit. But be damned if any more of my money will go to them if they go through with this.

Then again, itmay just be a rumor. We'll see how it turns out.

DRUDGE REPORT 2003®

The WALT DISNEY CO. is set to spend millions financing a new explosive Bush-bashing documentary from Michael Moore [BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE] -- a documentary which claims bin Laden was greatly enriched by the Bush family!

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Bloomberg - Smoking Ban is Good

Gee, thanks, Dallas Mayor Laura Miller for putting Dallas in the same situation with its new smoking ban.

Bloomberg was responding to a survey of 50 establishments in yesterday's Post that found many had been hurt since the ban took effect. In some bars and restaurants, business was down as much as 50 percent, The Post found.

Now I agree that the survey above is not valid. It's junk science and there should be a more complete survey done, taking into account such factors as debt rate, unemployment rate, other economic downturns, etc. My guess is that is would show the same or similar results.

"I'm not trying to hurt anybody's opportunity to smoke. If you want to, you can do it. You just don't have the right to kill somebody else. That's what secondhand smoking does," Bloomberg said.

Can I be the first to call BS on the mayor's statement? Check out the following links to study this claim:



NYPOST.COM Regional News: BLOOMBERG LIGHTS INTO CIG-BAN BIZ BROUHAHA By FRANKIE EDOZIEN