Archive for December, 2007
By Daniel Clark
Memo to conservative pundits and talk show hosts everywhere: All right, so Hillary’s scary, but get a grip, already.
For decades now, abortion has been the touchstone issue that has defined Republican presidential primaries. Not only has it been a highly prioritized issue in its own right, but it has served as a reliable indicator of the candidates’ overall conservative credentials. It’s been understood that any politician who supported legal abortion was disrespectful of the Constitution, and therefore was not a legitimate contender for the nomination – until now.
Suddenly, under the threat of a Hillary Clinton presidency, terrified pro-life conservatives have been trampling all over each other in a race to declare that right-to-life issues really aren’t relevant to the presidency at all. Sounds like somebody owes Arlen Specter a profuse apology.
It would be one thing if the primaries were already decided, and a pro-abortion candidate had won the GOP nomination. Then, it would be understandable for pragmatic pro-life conservatives to support a pro-abortion Republican who would be vigilant in the War on Terror, over a pro-abortion Democrat who would leave us virtually defenseless. It’s quite another thing for them to nullify the issue before a single primary vote is cast, lest the nomination be decided by any criterion other than perceived winnability.
By Thomas Lindaman
In an already absurd political season, hearing the flap about Hillary Clinton’s campaign planting questions in the audience of a campaign stop made me look for a clown car and a three-ring circus. Then, I remembered she wasn’t in the well of the Senate at the time and I got my bearings.
Seriously, who gives a flying handshake about Hillary planting questions in the audience? At the risk of sounding like a teenager getting caught doing something I shouldn’t be, everybody or just about everybody does it. George W. Bush has done it. FEMA did it not too long ago. And Hillary’s done it since she announced she was running for Senate in 2000. It’s no big deal. And for the record, no, I wouldn’t jump off the side of a cliff just because everybody was doing it.
There are three reasons politicians are planting people and questions at campaign stops. One, it makes them look far more intelligent on issues. Two, it helps them craft an overall message for each stop and make it look like it just happened to be that way. And three, it cuts down on the likelihood that they’ll be surprised by…an honest question! Ultimately, each reason revolves around the politicians’ ego, which they prize more heavily than Gollum treasured Frodo’s ring from "The Lord of the Rings." And while we’re on the subject, doesn’t Dennis Kucinich kinda look like Gollum? I’m just sayin’…
By Alan Caruba
I am already quite sick of hearing Democrat candidates say that we have to “improve America’s standing in the world” as if the whole world holds our nation in contempt or disagrees with our actions.
All nations act upon what they believe to be their best interests and those interests are often shaped by their political philosophy. These things are subject to change. For example, there are some 200 sovereign nations in the world. Of these, 120 are multi-party democracies. Compare this with 1970 when there were fewer than 35 nations that were not outright dictatorships or operating under the iron fist of the single party rule of Communism.
One might conclude from this that democracy is catching on around the world and that in this new century most people want some form of representative government for their nation.
This is what inspires Buddhist monks to risk their lives to march against the military dictators in Burma (now Myanmar). This is what provokes outrage in the former Soviet satellite of Georgia when the rule of law is suspended or, most dramatically, when lawyers and judges, along with others, pour into the streets of Pakistan when its president seeks to extend his term in office by declaring an emergency and martial law. It’s thousands of Venezuelans filling the streets to try to stop the dictatorial ambitions of Hugo Chavez.
Where did these nations and people learn about democracy and representative government? For the most part, the United States of America has been both the example and the instrument for the spread of these concepts.
By Ken Marrero
We used to talk like that when we were ambushed. We used to know the difference between a legitimate disagreement, or even a conflict, and a deliberate, unannounced act of war. We used to have the will to see through to the end what had to be done to ensure the threat that revealed itself in that act of war never threatened us again. We used to think we’d always be able to do that. Sadly, it would appear that we are not.
Hawaii is 4 hours behind us here in Tennessee. At 7:55AM, December 7, 1941 the Japanese conducted a surprise attack on the US Naval base at Pearl Harbor. It was 11:55AM here in Tennessee. Over the next 2 hours that attack would claim the lives of 2,403 Americans and wounded another 1,178.
Time Magazine has an excellent timeline of the events. Here are a few excerpts.
07:55 The raid begins at Pearl Harbor as the Raleigh, Helena, Utah and Oklahoma are struck.
07:56 There are two explosions on the Arizona. Pfc. James Cory: "The bridge shielded us from flames … Around the edges in these open windows came the heat and the sensation of the blast. We cringed there … I think that at this moment I wanted to flee, but this was impossible. You’re on station, you’re in combat."
08:06 A 1,763-lb. missile fired by PO Kanai Noboru hits the Arizona. It demolishes the forward magazine and kills nearly 1,000 men. "It was so vivid in my mind," says Private Le Fan, who saw the action from the Marine barracks. "[The Arizona] just quivered, buckled and then settled. It looked like … well, that killed it … It was so devastating."
8:08 Two bombs strike the West Virginia, whose captain, Mervyn Bennion, is mortally wounded by a piece of shrapnel that flies over from the Tennessee.
08:10 (13:40 E.S.T.) In Washington, President Roosevelt is informed by Navy Secretary Frank Knox that there has been a sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. This is "just the kind of unexpected thing the Japanese would do," says FDR. "[A]t the very time they were discussing peace in the Pacific, they were plotting to overthrow it."
08:12 The Utah capsizes.
By Jim Kouri
In the United States, Tuberculosis infection and disease occur most often among people born in areas of the world where TB is common, such as Asia, Africa, and Latin America. In most cases, these foreign-born persons become exposed to and infected in their country of birth and bring the contagious disease into the US.
Of all TB cases reported to the Centers for Disease Control in 1997 — the last year studied — 39% were in foreign-born persons. This is an increase from 1986, when 22% of cases were in foreign-born persons. Tuberculosis case rates were seven times greater in the foreign-born compared with the US-born population.
Also, foreign-born individuals now represent 46 percent of all tuberculosis cases reported in the United States compared to 27 percent of cases eight years ago. The CDC is currently processing new data on the illegal alien-TB connection.
TB cases come from Mexico, Philippines, and Vietnam, by and large. All people who apply for immigration and refugee status are screened for TB disease before coming to the United States. Immigrants with TB disease who are infectious at the time of screening are required to receive treatment before they are allowed entry into the United States.
However, the majority of those entering the US are illegal aliens who undergo no physical exams nor do they undergo treatment for their diseases.
The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) signed by the leader of Mexico, US and Canada will lead to the North American Union. So far no legislative body in any country has raised a ruckus until now. Canada is calling for the citizens of Canada to make the decision on the SPP.
Connie Fogal, leader of the Canadian Action Party, rejects the idea that the vote on SPP should be taken solely in the Canadian Parliament.
"A decision about the restructuring of Canada into an integrated North America is not a decision for parliament, but for the citizens of Canada," Fogal says. "What every Parliamentarian should do is call for a no confidence vote on this issue to cease unification of Canada, the USA and Mexico, and then run a campaign on the life of Canada not its death."
Source: World Net Daily
by Thomas E. Brewton
New greenhouse-gas regulations will impinge upon personal freedom and distort the economy
Rising hysteria about the alleged greenhouse-gas role in global warming will predictably bring about a new miasma of self-contradictory and harmful regulations.
Socialism, the secular religion of liberals and Progressives, preaches that only intellectual councils, led by Al Gore, are smart enough to see clearly how everyone else must behave and to impose the necessary regulations. Universal, bitter experience demonstrates, however, that regulatory agencies cannot possibly foresee all the effects of their actions.
The free-market adjustment of millions of people can and does uncover a wealth of alternatives beyond the ken of any state-planning group and makes gradual adjustments without the unsettling abruptness of one-size-fits-all Federal regulation.
Steve Forbes, in the current edition of Forbes Magazine (DeCAFE is Healthier http://members.forbes.com/forbes/2007/0618/019.html ), notes a few of the destructive effects of mid-70s Congressional mandates for automobile fuel efficiency (CAFE). Among them: automobile accident death rates increased (smaller, lighter cars are more easily crushed); counter-productively, higher fuel efficiency induced more driving miles and higher gasoline consumption; and handing the automobile market to smaller, lighter cars undercut the American automobile manufacturers, leaving the industrial Mid-West a rust bowl with massive unemployment in the 1970s and early 80s.
In contrast, Mr. Forbes observes, the only really effective regulator is the free market via higher gasoline prices. In real life people ought to be able to make their own decisions about how to spend their money. The sharp decline recently in SUV sales makes clear that people can adjust rationally to economic market forces without the help of the Federal government.