More on the Cicinnati Jones Case

More on the Cicinnati Jones Case

From her comments below, his grandmother apparently hasn't seen the tape.

Think of it this way: if Jones was willing to attack uniformed police offocers, what are the chances we would attack someone else? An innocent bystander, perhaps?

The police showed remarkable restraint in NOT drawing their weapons when he attacked. What if he had gotten ahold of one of the officers' guns? What would these protestors say after three bystanders and a cop or two had been shot by this drugged up maniac with a policeman's weapon?

I can hear it now: "The police in this town do not do enough to protect our citizens. They allowed a convicted felon to take one of their guns and it cost two people their lives and put another two in the hospital. Why couldn't they control or stop this man? Why?"

FOXNews.com - Top Stories - Coroner Rules 350-Pound Man's Death a Homicide

CINCINNATI — The coroner said Wednesday that a struggle with police was the primary cause in the death of a 350-pound black man whose scuffle with officers outside a fast-food restaurant has prompted outcry among black leaders.

Hamilton County Coroner Carl Parrott said Nathaniel Jones (search), 41, suffered from an enlarged heart, obesity and had intoxicating levels of cocaine, PCP and methanol in his blood.

Parrott said the death will be ruled a homicide, but added that such a ruling 'should not be interpreted as implying inappropriate behavior or the use of excessive force by police.' Homicide rulings are issued when someone dies at the hands of another person.

Jones' death certificate will list a cause of death as an irregular heart beat because of a stress reaction from the violent struggle, Parrott said. . . .

"They talk about Skip like he was an animal," said his grandmother, Bessie Jones. "He wasn't. Skipper was just a good old, fat jolly fella. He wasn't violent."

"Everyone he met, that he touched, loved him," said his aunt, Diane Payton. "He was never mean. . . ."

Jones' body had bruising on the lower half, but did not show signs of blows to the head or organ damage, Parrott said.

Jones was carrying cocaine and three hand-rolled cigarettes that had been dipped in methanol, an ingredient in embalming fluid that gets people high, authorities said.

Sowell's Thoughts Part II - Land Rights

Sowell's Thoughts Part II - Land Rights

Thomas Sowell: The high cost of busybodies: Part II

People who lead crusades to preserve farmland usually know little about farming and less about economics. Yet they think that they have a right to prevent other people from making mutually agreeable transactions, when that goes against the fetishes of third parties.

Busybodies may flatter themselves that they are wiser or nobler than others -- which is perhaps the biggest benefit from being a busybody -- but the Constitution of the United States says that all citizens are entitled to the equal protection of the laws.

In other words, people who want to wring their hands about farmlands or wetlands, or about some obscure toad or snake, have no more rights than people who don't care two cents about such things. It is hard for those who have presumptions of being the morally anointed to accept that, but that is what the Constitution says.

Sowell's Thoughts Part I - Organ Transplants

Sowell's Thoughts Part I - Organ Transplants

Thomas Sowell: The high costs of busybodies

With more than 80,000 people on waiting lists for various organs, and many dying while waiting, why prevent such transactions? One reason is that third parties would be offended.

You know the words and the music: How terrible that the rich can buy other people's body parts -- and that the poor are so desperate as to sell.

If you think that you have a right to forbid other people from making such voluntary transactions, then you are saying that your delicate sensibilities are more important than the poverty or even the deaths of other people.

Bush's Numbers Rise

Bush's Numbers Rise

Poll: President's approval on the rise after Thanksgiving

President Bush's standing with the public has improved since his surprise Thanksgiving trip to Iraq amid signs of a stronger economy and following congressional passage of a prescription drug benefit under Medicare.

Bush's job approval was at 61 percent in the National Annenberg Election Survey conducted the four days after the holiday, up from 56 percent during the four days before Thanksgiving. Disapproval of the president dropped from 41 percent to 36 percent, according to the poll released Tuesday.

Bush visited the troops in Baghdad on Thanksgiving -- a move that even won praise from political opponents.

Public opinion about Bush personally also improved during the four-day, post-holiday span, with an increase in the number who view him favorably from 65 percent to 72 percent. Republicans shifted from 83 percent with a favorable view of Bush personally to 94 percent. Democrats moved from 46 percent to 55 percent.

Public opinion on the war in Iraq did not shift significantly, however. People were about evenly split on whether the war in Iraq was worthwhile before the holiday and afterward.

Approval of Bush's handling of Iraq increased slightly, with 44 percent approving and 53 percent disapproving before Thanksgiving, and people evenly split on that question now. The public view of his handling of the economy also shifted from a 45-51 percent split before Thanksgiving to a public divided almost evenly on his handling of the economy, 50-48, afterward.

The margin of sampling error for the 789 people interviewed before Thanksgiving and the 847 interviewed after was plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Orson Scott Card on The Dems Campaigning

Orson Scott Card on The Dems Campaigning

War Watch - November 16, 2003 - The Campaign of Hate and Fear - The Ornery American

In one of Patrick O'Brian's novels about the British Navy during the Napoleonic wars, he dismisses a particularly foolish politician by saying that his political platform was "death to the Whigs."

Watching the primary campaigns among this year's pathetic crop of Democratic candidates, I can't help but think that their campaigns would be vastly improved if they would only rise to the level of "Death to the Republicans."

Instead, their platforms range from Howard Dean's "Bush is the devil" to everybody else's "I'll make you rich and Bush is quite similar to the devil. . . ."

Am I saying that critics of the war aren't patriotic?

Not at all -- I'm a critic of some aspects of the war. What I'm saying is that those who try to paint the bleakest, most anti-American, and most anti-Bush picture of the war, whose purpose is not criticism but deception in order to gain temporary political advantage, those people are indeed not patriotic. They have placed their own or their party's political gain ahead of the national struggle to destroy the power base of the terrorists who attacked Americans abroad and on American soil. . . .

Think what it will mean if we elect a Democratic candidate who has committed himself to an anti-war posture in order to get his party's nomination.

Our enemies will be certain that they are winning the war on the battleground that matters -- American public opinion. So they will continue to kill Americans wherever and whenever they can, because it works.

Our soldiers will lose heart, because they will know that their commander-in-chief is a man who is not committed to winning the war they have risked death in order to fight. When the commander-in-chief is willing to call victory defeat in order to win an election, his soldiers can only assume that their lives will be thrown away for nothing. That's when an army, filled with despair, becomes beatable even by inferior forces.

Bozell on Kroc's Gift to NPR

Bozell on Kroc's Gift to NPR

Bozell's News Column -- 11/04/2003 -- ABC’s Empty Assault on Jesus -- Media Research Center

In short, Joan Kroc was a Mommy Peacebucks. Her massive favoritism toward NPR leads to the inescapable conclusion that she felt that putting her money on "All Things Considered" and "Morning Edition" and "Talk of the Nation" was in line with the rest of her political giving. It was, she hoped, just another effective avenue for defunding the Pentagon and lobbying against American military action of any kind.

So what does this say about NPR?

Let’s leave our senses for a minute and enter a strange alternative universe. Imagine that the generous conservative philanthropist Richard Mellon Scaife left one tenth Kroc’s amount to NPR in his estate. You know exactly what would happen, from coast to coast. The political left would rush to the rooftops to proclaim, in a panic, that NPR was being dangerously compromised, politicized, dragged to a right-wing extreme. Everywhere, there would be a call for NPR to honor its commitment to objective journalism by returning that gift.

So where are they now with Kroc? Most reporters are not just comfortable with this cozy leftist arrangement, they’re awed by it all. The Washington Post published (without giggles or groans) a Kroc spokesman insisting "She loved NPR and its unfiltered presentation of the news....It wasn't liberal and it wasn't conservative. It was as objective as you're going to find."

Let’s be clear about something here. NPR didn’t need that money. They report their annual budget is $100 million a year from public and private sources, more than enough for even lazy liberals to run a radio network. So it begs the questions: in an age of roaring budget deficits, shouldn’t we be reducing the federal outlay to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting by an equivalent$200 million? By $100 million? By $10 million? Dream on.

Notes on the Geneva Accord

Notes on the Geneva Accord

Charles Krauthammer: The 'Geneva accord' is not a treaty

This is not a treaty, this is a suicide note -- by a private citizen on behalf of a country that has utterly rejected him politically. That it should get any encouragement from the United States or from its secretary of state is a disgrace.

Russia Makes Right Decision on Kyoto

Russia Makes Right Decision on Kyoto

Where's the hue and cry from the left on this one? More to come . . . .

FOXNews.com - Top Stories - Russia Won't Ratify Kyoto Protocol

MOSCOW — A senior adviser to President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that Russia cannot ratify the Kyoto Protocol limiting greenhouse gas emissions, dealing a mortal blow to the pact that required Russia's ratification to take effect.

"In its current form, the Kyoto Protocol (search) places significant limitations on the economic growth of Russia," Putin's economic adviser, Andrei Illarionov, told reporters in the Kremlin. "Of course, in this current form this protocol can't be ratified."

Soldier Risks Lives of Comrades for Girl

Soldier Risks Lives of Comrades for Girl

They just don't get it. His defenders in this story say that he is being discharged for "falling in love". Wrong. He told people he thought he could trust WHEN and WHERE his patrol was going to be. What would these same people be saying if their beloved son had not only managed to get killed but also helped terrorists murder his ENTIRE PATROL at the same time? Well, THEN it would be the Army's fault for letting them hook up with the local or some such nonsense.

Certianly this poor love-struck boy did nothing wrong. It was just for love. Anything is allowable for looooove. Horsesh*t!

local6.com - News - Soldier Who Married Iraqi To Be Discharged

An American soldier has been reprimanded and will be discharged for taking a break from a foot patrol in Baghdad to marry an Iraqi woman, his lawyer said Monday.

Sgt. Sean Blackwell, 27, is being punished for divulging the time and location of the patrol to his bride and the Iraqi judge who married them, his attorney said. The Florida National Guardsman avoided a possible court-martial for dereliction of duty and disobeying orders. . . .

"The more they punish him, the more negative publicity the military likely will receive," he said. "He is guilty of falling in love."

"He's a little ticked off at the government right now," she said. "I'd hate for him to get a dishonorable discharge because he fell in love."

More on Controlling the Internet

More on Controlling the Internet

Imagine the US' "Fairness Doctrine" imposed on the internet. No company's servers could hold more conservative or libertarian content than liberal content. Not to mention what China and Cuba could do with international gov't control. The horror. The horror.

FOXNews.com - Politics - Critics Balk at Efforts to Place Internet in Global Grip

Critics of the global Internet idea say certain nations like China want to take away ICANN’s duties and place them under governmental auspices, along with increased control over security and content, placing freedom of press and individual freedom of expression at serious risk.

“Those governments don’t have any democracy or free speech, it’s dangerous and we’re trying to stop it,” said Julio Munoz, executive director of the Inter American Press Association in Miami. “Of course we are concerned they will try to manipulate the free flow of information.”

Social Security Fix?

Social Security Fix?

OpinionJournal - REVIEW & OUTLOOK

Letter From Saddam

Letter From Saddam

Op-Ed Columnist: Letter From Tikrit (Link requires registration)

Dear Bush: Well, it's been a while since we last communicated. It's not easy getting tapes out from this basement in Tikrit, but I thought it was time we had a little chat. Heard your speech on Arab democracy on the BBC Arabic Service. I'll give you this, Bush, you and Blair do understand the stakes. It's your willpower I doubt.

You see, Bush, this really is "The Mother of All Battles." You may not have meant to, but you have triggered a huge civilizational war — the war within Islam. Who wins in Iraq will have a big impact on this war — which is now spreading to Indonesia, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

By now you've realized that I was prepared for this war. I got rid of all my W.M.D., hid explosives and set up an underground network to fight you once you were in country. But God bless the Turkish Parliament. By not allowing you to use Turkey to invade from the north, my boys in the Sunni Triangle were spared. By the time you got here from the south, we just receded into the shadows. You occupied our Sunni towns, but never defeated them. Had you been able to sweep down from the north, my boys would have had to engage you, and you would have killed them wholesale by the hundreds. Now you have to kill them retail — one by one.

We're not fanatics. We're I.B.M. We have a business plan and we're executing it: We started by eliminating the U.N., the Red Cross and attacking oil pipelines. Then we moved against the countries that have sent troops or might — Italy, Jordan and Turkey. And now we're killing all Iraqis who collaborate with you — police, army, judges, technocrats. We know who everyone is and where they live. We're "a learning enemy." When you adapt to us, we re-adapt to you. Yes, we're secular Baathists, but we've made contact with Islamic militants from Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Syria, and they drive our suicide vans. So many volunteers, so many good targets.

What we all believe is that if we can defeat you here, American cultural, political and economic influence in this part of the world will be finished for a long time.

So far, I feel pretty good. As isolated as I am in my bunker, I know that my view of this war — which is that you Americans have come here to put the Arabs down and steal our oil — still dominates Arab public opinion. I am bolstered by the fact that ill-qualified, intolerant Arab religious educators, spiritual leaders and "intellectuals" — who have long dominated our schools and mosques because tyrants like me found them useful — still feed this view to our youth. They think the only reason we are backward is because you put us down.

As long as the Arab street is locked in this view, I win. Because it means the people would rather have a cruel Arab leader like me or bin Laden — who momentarily lifts their pride by sticking a finger in your eye — than looking in the mirror and admitting that our society, religious leaders and culture have failed to prepare our people to succeed at modernity.

Changing all this is what this war of ideas is all about, and I am so pleased you are so bad at it. As long as you let one of your top generals and your pals on the Christian right spew hate against the Prophet Muhammad, you only strengthen the will of my young people against you. And your "moderate" Arab allies are good at the police tactics to repress our angry, humiliated youth, but they have no serious strategy to give them new jobs, new ideas and new beliefs.

Yes, Bush, you and Blair have kicked off something very big — a war of ideas with, and within, Islam. It's as big as the cold war. But to win, you have to mobilize your whole society, as you did in the cold war. You are talking about trying to change a whole civilization, whose backward, fanatical elements — when combined with modern technology — now threaten you.

Yet your Pentagon only talks about pulling troops out of Iraq, when you should be putting more in. What are you thinking? You should have brought every soldier you have in Europe and Japan right here. The whole game comes down to security. We are in a race to see who gets to the tipping point first. Iraqis will follow the strong horse. My bet is that I can generate enough insecurity among Iraqis to shun you, before you can induce them to carry out your program to build a democratic alternative to me.

I still think I can win, because I prepped my base for the Mother of All Battles, and you prepared yours for Mother Goose — a short war, with few troops, few funerals and no sacrifices for average Americans. Sorry pal, but that's no way to win The Big One.

Boortz on Halliburton

Neal Boortz Show Prep Notes - HALLIBURTON .. THE REAL STORY

I am so completely sick and tired of hearing these Bush-hating, left-wing, Saddam-appeasing neo-socialists rant and rave about Halliburton that I could ..... well ... I could just spit. What morons. These are people who hate capitalism, hate the profit motive, and believe that every evil visited on the world is done so in the name of corporate greed. Losers all.

To listen to these irrational cretins you would think that this entire war in Iraq was being fought for one purpose, to enrich Halliburton. It would be not at all surprising if some of these anti-capitalist geeks believed that Bush arranged for those airplanes to fly into the World Trade Towers for that one purpose .. enriching Halliburton.

Try this experiment. The next time you hear some liberal parrot squawk about Halliburton just ask them one simple question. "Well, pal --- since you're such an expert on Halliburton, why don't you tell me just what it is that Halliburton does? Name one product or one service that Halliburton provides."

Don't hold your breath waiting for cogent answer.

Part of the perceived evil that is Halliburton is the fact that Dick Cheney once ran the company. As everyone knows, we should strive mightily to avoid ever placing anyone with the know-how and ability to run a multi-million dollar corporation in a position of responsibility in the political realm. Actually making a success of yourself in the private sector disqualifies you for public service, while not having any actual discernable private sector job skills is the supreme qualification for public service.

So ... let's get to the bottom of this. Did Bush or Cheney do something underhanded or illegal in handing some rather lucrative contracts to Halliburton for infrastructure and other work in Iraq?

We'll start with another question you can ask your bedwetting leftist friends. Ask them if they've ever heard of LOGCAP. They will tell you that they don't know what that is. You won't be at all surprised. LOGCAP is the Logistics Civil Augmentation Program created by the United States Army. It is a program that uses a competitive bidding process to award a contract to a corporation to be on call to provide whatever services the Army might need ... right then. Some brilliant thinkers in the Army came to the conclusion that it might not be such a swell idea to screw around with competitive bidding processes for logistics and other services during wartime. Imagine that.

Halliburton won the competitive bidding process for LOGCAP in 1992. They then lost that bidding process five years later in 1997. In spite of the fact that Halliburton no longer held the LOGCAP contract, Bill Clinton went ahead and awarded a no-bid contract to Halliburton to do some work in the Balkans supporting U.S. peacekeeping actions. Odd, isn't it. The same people who are screaming about Halliburton right now had absolutely nothing .. nada .. nunca .. not one thing to say about Halliburton when it was the Clinton Administration that was handing out contracts .. with no bidding, by the way. You might also be interested in knowing that Al Gore was quite a fan of Halliburton. Gore's reinventing government panel had some very complimentary things to say about Halliburton and the services it provides to the U.S. government. Ahhh ... but what does Al Gore know, right?

That brings us to 2001. It's time for bidding on the LOGCAP contract again. Halliburton is right in there, and wins the bid. This means that at the time of the Iraq War Halliburton had the bid for providing logistical and other services to the U.S. government. They were the go-to company. So, along comes the U.S. Army with a fat contract for Halliburton to put out oil-well fires in Iraq and all hell breaks loose. To the left this is all the proof you needed to show that this whole war was about oil and enriching Bush pals.

Recap: Clinton awards no-bid contract to Halliburton at a time when Halliburton did not hold the LOGCAP contract. Bush awards contract to Halliburton at a time when Halliburton DID hold the LOGCAP contract.

So ... one last question for your mindless leftist friends. Well .. make that two questions. Ask them if Clinton went into the Balkans to enrich Halliburton. They'll say no. Then ask them if Bush went to Iraq to enrich Halliburton. They'll say yes. At this point do all that you can to have your friend institutionalized .. for they are beyond all help.

Some Groups Just Hate It . . .

Some Groups Just Hate It . . .

. . . when you pull on of their own stunts on them. Using their tactics to make your point just frosts them to no end.

Conservatives leave 'closet' during rally

Darn Tax Cuts!

Darn Tax Cuts!

But the deficit has nothing to do with spending, honest!

FOXNews.com - Business - Third-Quarter GDP Revised Full Point Upward

WASHINGTON — The economy roared ahead at an astounding 8.2 percent annual rate in the third quarter, the fastest pace in nearly two decades and a much stronger performance than previously thought. It raises hope that a long spell of lackluster business activity is finally over.

Bush Avoids Bowing to Unions - Voids Steel Tariffs

Bush Avoids Bowing to Unions - Voids Steel Tariffs

Yahoo! News - US to Repeal Steel Tariffs This Week-Post

Iraqi's Screw Up in Ambush

Iraqi's Screw Up in Ambush

FOXNews.com - Top Stories - U.S. Forces Kill 46 Iraqis Attempting Ambush: "It was a well-organized and complex ambush, but they obviously picked the wrong convoy to attack. They could not have known,' the source told Fox News. "