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9/26/2003

CATO's Edwards on Gov't Cost Overruns

CATO's Edwards on Gov't Cost Overruns

FOXNews.com - Views - CATO - Our Over-budget Government


Governments will always be wasteful users of resources because they tend to replace competition with monopoly and market pricing with bureaucratic regulations. In addition, since public officials do not risk their own personal funds, they are more likely to support unsound schemes and less interested in making sure programs stay on budget. As a consequence, we would be better off if Congress scaled back entitlement programs rather expanded them, privatized infrastructure such as airports and energy projects, and let entrepreneurs put up their own capital for risky pursuits such as space exploration.

Junk Science v. Neo-Prohibitionists

Junk Science v. Neo-Prohibitionists

FOXNews.com - Views - Junk Science - Prohibitionists Write Federal Alcohol Report

A federal panel on underage drinking recently called for higher taxes on alcoholic beverages to reduce alcohol consumption by minors.

While this recommendation may seem reasonable at first glance, it’s unlikely to work. Moreover, it’s part of an ongoing effort by neo-prohibitionists to reduce alcohol consumption in general.

Blasphemy from Both Sides

Blasphemy from Both Sides

From the Left because she is saying things which make Bush look good. From the right because they are quoting the NY Senator in a positive light and praising it for her. It's a lose/lose for the politically fanatic.

Hillary Gets Tough

PRESIDENT BUSH has a surprising defender of his contention that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction--Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York. "The intelligence from Bush 1 to Clinton to Bush 2 was consistent" in concluding Saddam had chemical and biological weapons and was trying to develop a nuclear capability, Clinton said this morning. And Saddam's expulsion of weapons inspectors and "the behavior" of his regime "pointed to a continuing effort" to produce WMD, she added.

The senator said she did her own "due diligence" by attending classified briefings on Capitol Hill and at the White House and Pentagon and also by consulting national security officials from the Clinton administration whom she trusts. "To a person, they all agreed with the consensus of the intelligence" that Saddam had WMD.

Clinton isn't normally a defender of the Bush administration. And on other issues, especially Bush's handling of postwar Iraq, she was highly critical. But she agreed, with qualifications, that preemptive military action may be necessary in certain cases, as Bush has argued was the case with Iraq. . . .

On preemption--attacking an enemy before he attacks you--Clinton said the president shouldn't have announced it as a doctrine. "It's a strategy, it's a choice, it's not a doctrine," she insisted. But she said it would be justified in certain circumstances, citing a possible terrorist attack or proliferation of WMD.

If WMD are not found in Iraq, she said this would suggest a huge intelligence problem. And a probe would be needed to find what sources were being relied on and why the United States was "so misled, so wrong." . . . .

And she declined to discuss any similarities between Republican dislike of President Clinton and Democratic "hatred" of Bush. "I don't think that's a useful exercise," she said.

Coulter on Religious Tolerance

Coulter on Religious Tolerance

Ann Coulter: It's the winter solstice, Charlie Brown!


Between issuing laws prohibiting discrimination against transgendered individuals and running up a $38 billion deficit, the California Legislature mandated a three-week immersion course in Islam for all seventh-graders. A 'crash course' in Islam, you might call it, if that weren't so ironic. Students are required to adopt Muslim names, plan a trip to Mecca, play a jihad game, pray to 'Allah, the Compassionate' and to chant 'Praise to Allah! Lord of Creation!' They are encouraged to dress in Muslim garb. Students are discouraged, however, from stoning girls at the school dances, abusing their 'Jew' math teachers or blowing up their classmates.

Lowry on What Dems Believe

Lowry on What Dems Believe

Rich Lowry: What Democrats believe

That library records are sacred, but the Constitution -- a 'living document' subject to manipulation by judges -- is not.

Religious Paranoia in Texas

Religious Paranoia in Texas

I am all for the government not proscribing a religion nor promoting one. But to tell religious people that they cannot even posses religious materials in school in ridiculous. What if a Muslim student shows up to school with a prayer rug so that they may observe their religion? would these same officials take it away, throw it in the garbage, and call it "trash"? I doubt it. As long as those same people do not go around proselytizing others, I have no problem with religious materials on campus.

Garbage for THE BOOK!

Officials at the Lynn Lucas Middle School in Willis, Texas, have been served with a lawsuit filed on behalf of three students who allege that one teacher forbade two teens from carrying their Bibles in school while another prohibited a student from using a book cover displaying the Ten Commandments.

9/25/2003

Universal Jurisdiction

Universal Jurisdiction

Imagine the uproar if the U.S. claimed "universal jurisdiction" over foreign nationals who have done nothing in or two America.

FOXNews.com - Top Stories - Belgium Nixes War-Crimes Charges Against Bush, Powell, Cheney, Sharon

BRUSSELS, Belgium — Belgium's highest court dismissed war crimes complaints Wednesday against former President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Colin Powell and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, ruling the country no longer has a legal basis to charge them. . . .

The cases were based on a Belgian universal jurisdiction law allowing for foreigners to file genocide and war crimes complaints against foreign leaders.

Affirmative Action Bake Sale Closed

Affirmative Action Bake Sale Closed

Question for Mr. Houston below: If affirmative action is "based on brinigng a diverse community to a certain organization", what factors are used to deicdee what constitutes a diverse community?

FOXNews.com - Top Stories - University Shuts Down Anti-Affirmative Action Bake Sale

'My reaction was disgust because of the ignorance of some SMU students,' said Houston, who is black. 'They were arguing that affirmative action was solely based on race. It's not based on race. It's based on bringing a diverse community to a certain organization.'

Limbaugh on Clark

Limbaugh on Clark

OpinionJournal - Featured Article

The mainstream media and inside-the-Beltway crowd are very excited about their new favorite presidential candidate, retired general Wesley Clark. The soft-on-national-security Democrats want to persuade us that, well, they're not really antiwar. They're just opposed to any war when the commander in chief is a Republican. You know, not enough coalition building, postwar planning, U.N. consulting and so forth. Never mind that Bill Clinton launched cruise missiles into Sudan and Iraq, and invaded Haiti, with little concern for international niceties and postwar consequences. And he did so with the unequivocal support of today's naysayers.

9/24/2003

New Republic Senior Editor Admits Hating Bush

New Republic Senior Editor Admits Hating Bush

Now will everyone start labelling the New Republic "radical left" anytime they quote it or interview someone from it? I doubt it. Maybe "left", but probably not "fringe left".

His column relates lots of half-truths ("Certainly Clinton had his defenders and admirers, but no similar cult of personality." and "While liberals have pretty much quit questioning Bush's competence . . . .") and outright deceptions (" . . . liberals do not see their view of Bush given public expression." and "Just as mainstream Democrats and liberals ceased to question Bush's right to hold office, so too did they cease to question his intelligence." and "I was (and remain) a supporter of the war in Iraq. But the way Bush sold it--by playing upon the public's erroneous belief that Saddam had some role in the September 11 attacks . . . .").

To this last point, he argues that the only time you hear anyone bring up the "Bush is stupid" gambit is to debunk it. I want to know what papers this guy reads or what evening news he watches. He quotes no example of this. He certainly does not show this to be a widespread phenomenon as he seems to be claiming. He does talk about how making fun of Bush's intelligence is a bad play, as ranked by political pundits, but that does not do anything toward demonstrating his most-media-deny-Bush's-lack-of-intelligence angle.

He makes some good points (e.g. "Have Bush haters lost their minds? Certainly some have. Antipathy to Bush has, for example, led many liberals not only to believe the costs of the Iraq war outweigh the benefits but to refuse to acknowledge any benefits at all, even freeing the Iraqis from Saddam Hussein's reign of terror.")

At one point he says, "The trouble with this parallel is, first, that this sort of Bush-hating is entirely confined to the political fringe. . . . The Clinton haters, on the other hand, drew from the highest ranks of the Republican Party and the conservative intelligentsia." As if statements by Senator Kennedy and Democratic presidential candidates (three different links) did not reflect the "highest ranks" of the party nor its "intelligensia". Is that really what he wants to say here?

The New Republic Online: Mad About You

I hate President George W. Bush. There, I said it. I think his policies rank him among the worst presidents in U.S. history. And, while I'm tempted to leave it at that, the truth is that I hate him for less substantive reasons, too. I hate the inequitable way he has come to his economic and political achievements and his utter lack of humility (disguised behind transparently false modesty) at having done so. His favorite answer to the question of nepotism--'I inherited half my father's friends and all his enemies'--conveys the laughable implication that his birth bestowed more disadvantage than advantage. He reminds me of a certain type I knew in high school--the kid who was given a fancy sports car for his sixteenth birthday and believed that he had somehow earned it. I hate the way he walks--shoulders flexed, elbows splayed out from his sides like a teenage boy feigning machismo. I hate the way he talks--blustery self-assurance masked by a pseudo-populist twang. I even hate the things that everybody seems to like about him. I hate his lame nickname-bestowing-- a way to establish one's social superiority beneath a veneer of chumminess (does anybody give their boss a nickname without his consent?). And, while most people who meet Bush claim to like him, I suspect that, if I got to know him personally, I would hate him even more.

Ultrasound Makes Waves

Ultrasound Makes Waves

No greater smile - The Washington Times: Commentary

Allison Herwitt, director of government relations for NARAL Pro-Choice America in Washington, also attacked pro-life supporters of the bill. 'They don't want women to go to Planned Parenthood, where they'll get their full range of options,' said Alison Herwitt. 'They just want them to go to crisis pregnancy centers, where women will be exposed to this weapon at taxpayers' expense.'
Liberals in America are all for the government giving away any health services for free — except if it's a service that has the ability to persuade a wavering patient to preserve a life instead of end it.

What "weapon" is she talking about? The new high-resolution ultrasound machines which have shown babies to smile before birth.

Williams on Freedom of non-Association

Williams on Freedom of non-Association

Walter E. Williams: The right to deal

The bottom line is that the true test of one's commitment to freedom of association doesn't come when he allows people to associate in ways he deems acceptable. The true test comes when he's willing to permit others to associate in ways he deems grossly offensive.

9/23/2003

Child Support Payment Issues

Child Support Payment Issues

FOXNews.com - Views - ifeminists - Do Poor Fathers Deserve Debtors' Prison?

A point on which both sides agree: Children are being deprived of financial support, and that should be corrected. One side -- consisting largely of those who enforce or benefit from current policies -- wishes to track down and imprison fathers who owe money. The other side -- consisting largely of father's rights advocates -- calls for an overhaul of current child support policies, claiming they are unjust and unworkable for both fathers and children

Socialized Health Care in America

Socialized Health Care in America

WorldNetDaily: Socialized medicine in U.S. is inevitable!

Logic cannot support the premise that health care is a right. Health care is a service that is administered by another human being with the requisite skills and knowledge. To claim that healthcare as a 'right' is to claim a right to the services of the health-care provider. In effect, this means you are claiming a 'right' to a portion of that person's life – both a portion of the time already spent developing his skills, and a portion of the time spent practicing those skills on you. . . .

A few weeks ago, the Telegraph of London had a rather interesting story about major surgery under Britain's National Health Service as compared to the current system in America. It seems that a patient is four times more likely to go on to the eternal celestial dirt nap after undergoing major surgery in Great Britain than in the United States. This study was conducted by University College in London and Columbia University in New York and followed 1,000 patients undergoing similar surgeries. One of the researchers explained the results of the study by pointing out the higher quality of post-operative care in the United States.

I guess the Brits should quit complaining about this disparity, shouldn't they? After all, it's not like they're paying for their operations over there, is it? I guess you get what you pay for.

9/22/2003

9/11 Plans Altered - Would Have Been Bigger

9/11 Plans Altered - Would Have Been Bigger


9/11 Mastermind: Plan Involved 10 Planes (washingtonpost.com)


Mohammed also divulged that, in its final stages, the hijacking plan called for as many as 22 terrorists and four planes in a first wave, followed by a second wave of suicide hijackings that were to be aided possibly by al-Qaida allies in southeast Asia, according to the reports.