AP Attacks Gov. Palin EVEN in Birth Announcement of Grandson

December 31, 2008 | Filed Under 00Publius Contributor, Democrats/Leftists, Elections, GOP, Media Bias, News, Republicans, Sarah Palin, Society/Culture, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Associated Press is classy, indeed. They can’t even keep sniping at Sarah Palin out of a story announcing the blessed birth of her grandson. Ah, but wait, it gets even more annoying because not only did the AP snipe at Palin in its first birth announcement story, once called on it the AP went back twice to rearrange the piece rewriting history to make it seem as if they never sniped at her in the first place.

Initially, the AP attacked Palin in its very first paragraph saying that daughter Bristol’s pregnancy was the thing that caused Palin’s candidacy to “go downhill.” At 7:20 PM the AP gave us this: (Bold my emphasis)

Read more

Skewz.com Predicts Top 5 Trends for 2009

December 31, 2008 | Filed Under 00Publius Contributor, Barack Obama, Congress, Constitution, Democrats/Leftists, Elections, GOP, Government, Corruption, Inernet, News, President, Republicans, Security/Safety, Society/Culture, Technology, The Law, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Skewz.com has put together its top 5 predictions for how political communications under the Obama presidency will be changed in 2009.

Now, in some ways, I can see where the Skewz team is coming from seeing as how they are in that Internet bubble, but I think that their assumptions of Internet domination of politics is a bit overblown. Still, I think in many ways the predictions are right if not quite as strong as presented nor as immediate.

Here are their predictions and my replies to them:

1. Blogging Gets Issue-Specific : The 2008 election re-enforced and validated the need for candidates to have a strong outreach program to the blogosphere to amplify their message. While it’s apparent that bloggers are becoming more important and tightly linked to campaigns, the increasing number of blogs is pushing many bloggers to become “issue specific” as a way to differentiate themselves. For example, rather than being just a “right” or “left” blog, specific topics such as crime, the housing crisis, government bailouts, poverty, etc. will dominate. In addition, day-to-day issues such as crime and poverty will become more relevant to larger portions of the electorate.

I think this is less a reaction to “differentiation” among bloggers, more an act of going with what one knows based on the growing legitimacy of the medium. Over the year 2008, Blogs have become a legitimate news source and this has spurred even more people with specific fields of knowledge to feel confident that they won’t merely be laughed off with their blogging efforts. Smart people with detailed knowledge and a passion to debate the issues have migrated to blogs in great numbers over the year. And with the growth of social networking sites like Twitter and FaceBook — all of which rely heavily on linking to stories on news media and blogs — the Internet has really come into its own as an “official” news source. Witness the recent survey that shows a far grater number of people than ever before saying the Internet is their news source.

Read more

Technological Parking Meters Manifest Statist Mindset

December 31, 2008 | Filed Under 00Publius Contributor, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Frederick Meekins, Government, Corruption, News, Socialism, Society/Culture, Taxes | No Comments

-By Frederick Meekins

One of the simple delights in the age of vehicular travel is coming across an empty parking space that still has time on the meter. Since the beast — namely the municipalities obtaining revenue from the meter — is still getting the amount of money it is due whether the spot is occupied by one or two cars in the purchased amount of time, one would think the taxmasters wouldn’t care and simply let the lucky motorist enjoy one of the few pleasures remaining in our increasingly bleak and overcontrolled world.

However, it seems that technology is being used once more to tighten the noose of government around the neck of the law abiding citizen.

According to a Washington Post story titled “Meters Deny Parking Handouts“, a number of companies are developing devices sensitive enough to reset themselves once they detect that the space is no longer occupied. Instead of harassing motorists, perhaps these tech-heads should turn their sophisticated detection sensors towards securing America’s border.
Read more

Tough Guy John ‘François’ Kerry Wants ‘Hot Pursuit’ of Pirates

December 31, 2008 | Filed Under 00Publius Contributor, Crime, Democrats/Leftists, Foreign Policy, Humor, Islam, Islamofascism, Media Bias, Military, News, Security/Safety, Society/Culture, War on Terror, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

It’s like handing a sheriff’s badge to Don Knotts. Like entering Gary Coleman in a Mr. Universe contest. Like expecting Michael Moore not to lie. In today’s laugher, the Associated Press is presenting John ‘François’ Kerry as a tough guy out to bring the law to the new Barbary pirates.

Seriously. Stop laughing.

The AP sternly informs us that, “As a young Navy swift boat commander in Vietnam, Senator John F. Kerry was no stranger to the perils of hot pursuit in combat.”

I am SURE them thar pi-rates is a shakin’ in their boots. The tough guy is after ‘em!

But, just like John ‘François’ Kerry always does, there is “nuance” in his seeming braggadocio. (my bold)

Read more

Darn Israel and Hamas for… Wrecking Obama’s Great Foreign Policy Plans?

December 30, 2008 | Filed Under 00Publius Contributor, Barack Obama, Democrats/Leftists, Foreign Policy, Islam, Islamofascism, Israel, Media Bias, News, Religion, Security/Safety, Society/Culture, War on Terror, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Palestinians raise their kids to hate Jews. The Israelis have endured decades of acts of terror against their own children and have generally acted with forbearance in reply. The UN has been vehemently and irrationally anti-Israeli since day one. The questions of “right of return” and the “two state solution” have dogged international politics for a long time. And what is the Timesonline worried about? Are they worried about the safety of Jewish children. Are they concerned of the improvement in quality of life for Palestinian children? No, none of that. The Times is worried that all this will hurt poor Barack Obama and his wonderful plans for a foreign policy that will at last bring us peace in our times.

I’m not kidding. In all this mess, the Times is most concerned that Obama’s foreign policy promises will be harmed because of what Hamas has forced upon itself. While Obama skips church and runs off to the gym on a daily basis, the Times is all concerned for Barack’s foreign policy.

In a perfect emulation of their most beloved countryman, Neville Chamberlain, the peace-in-our-times London Times proves that Brits are entirely feckless where it concerns a moral understanding of foreign policy. In times like these, the delicate feelings of Barack Obama should be the last thing that anyone should care about. On top of that he isn’t even president, yet, so his ideas and opinion are meaningless at this point in time. But, this is the point the Times wants to explore in theirs headlined, “Barack Obama’s hopes for early peace deal shattered in minefield of Middle Eastern politics.”

Read more

Munchausen’s by Proxy

December 30, 2008 | Filed Under 00Publius Contributor, Communism, Congress, Conservatives, Constitution, Dan Scott, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Founders, Government, Corruption, Jobs, News, Rights, Security/Safety, Socialism, Society/Culture, Taxes, The Law | 1 Comment

-By Dan Scott

As a normal person viewing the entire taxation and government benefit program structure one could not blame them as concluding it is a Rube Goldberg approach to governance. Government policy or more accurately liberal policy is about taking money only to give it back in a convoluted scheme to somehow bring about equality. A myriad of taxes are taken at every level of business and personal activity. This is justified under the guise of government meeting the needs of the people. To decide whose needs the government should be serving, groups of people are stereotyped and assigned victim status being called the poor. The poor it is said needs the government to help them because poverty is not a choice but an accident of birth. The logic goes like this, if you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth, you obviously will want for nothing since your caretakers will meet all your needs and give you every advantage to succeed in life whether that be a guaranteed income for life, a job in the family business, a higher education to work a well paying job, good health care, etc. On the other hand if that same baby were born into a poor household, he/she would have none of those advantages and therefore is it unfair. Since America is a wealthy society, it falls upon society to make it fair by giving everyone a chance to be equally successful.

On the surface such an argument about equality may make some sense until you delve into it’s assumptions. The first assumption is about poverty and wealth being an accident. Neither is an accident, making bad financial decisions doesn’t make you wealthy nor does making good financial decisions make you poor. Success is a choice, not an accident. This is called sophistry, making false assertions using false arguments. It follows that parents are responsible for the care of their offspring and therefore how that parent carries out that responsibility affects the outcome. It is the parent’s responsibility to make good decisions that will benefit the child and themselves. The ability of a parent to give equal opportunity as another parent is an impossibility. The ability of one individual to be equal in every way (both mentally and physically) to another one let alone an entire nation of individuals is also impossible. Inequality is a fact of life and therefore to demand what is impossible is sophistry. The equality argument advanced by liberals is based on the fallacious impossible premise of total equality. The equality as advanced by the Constitution and Declaration of Independence is one of opportunity under the Law with limitations on “government’s ability” of giving one group or individual more to one than others.
Read more

The Nutrooters Newest Hope for Hope-n-Change

December 29, 2008 | Filed Under 00Publius Contributor, Anti-Americanism, Barack Obama, Communism, Congress, Conservatives, Constitution, Democrats/Leftists, Elections, Government, Corruption, Media Bias, News, President, Republicans, Socialism, Society/Culture, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Eli Pariser, the delusional Nutroot kingpin of MoveOn.org, has been allowed a few column inches of space in the Washington Post to reveal his hope for some Obama hope-n-change, and his op ed is a doosie, for sure. Headlined “Will He Bring Change.gov We Can Believe In?,” Pariser gives voice to his most hopiest of hopeiness that Obama is the True One that they all hope he is. All joking aside, this is a pretty revealing op ed for its utter inability at introspection or, on the other hand, its complete lack of honesty — I’m not sure which.

In fact, Pariser’s very first paragraph reveals his own extremism, an extremism that he pretends doesn’t exist (that being the lack of introspection, or the cynical attempt at covering the truth to which I was alluding).

So, how’s the Obama administration doing so far?

It’s a trick question: We’re still about minus-23 days in. But already, folks on the left and the right are furiously reading tea leaves, worrying about whether he’s as progressive as promised or trying to turn lemons into lemonade (”Hillary Clinton at State: a victory for conservative foreign policy values”). Through all this, there’s been surprisingly little focus on what may be the most important question Obama faces.

As Pariser mentions, Obama hasn’t taken office and so far all he has are appointments and a lot of vacation time, so no administration exists. This isn’t Obama’s fault, nor something to hold against him, but Pariser’s fevered imagination is running amuck, here.

Read more

Another Journalist Proclaims The Masses Are Stupid, Internet is Pernicious

December 29, 2008 | Filed Under 00Publius Contributor, Inernet, Media Bias, News, Society/Culture, Technology, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

In another of a never ending line of self-congratulatory but quickly fading news paper journalists, Newark Star-Ledger writer Paul Mulshine has bravely taken it upon himself to warn us all that we’ll miss him and his kind when they are gone. By his kind, of course, he means print journalists.

Mulshine assures us all that, Mencken-like, he feels that the masses are idiots that cannot even pronounce pundit much less spell it well enough to become citizen journalists on the Internet. He is certain that without the assistance of professional journalists we lowly citizens will never be able to find out what’s going on in our local governments. This is because, he says, bloggers won’t take the time and haven’t the ability to, “sit through town-council meetings and explain to you why your taxes will be going up.”

Of course, he is completely wrong. Left and right there are many such bloggers doing just that on a daily basis.

Read more

Ayers and Dohrn are Liars

December 29, 2008 | Filed Under 00Publius Contributor, Anti-Americanism, Barack Obama, Crime, Democrats/Leftists, Elections, Media Bias, News, Security/Safety, Society/Culture, Thomas Brewton | No Comments

-By Thomas E. Brewton

Everything, from people within the Weatherman Underground, to Bill Ayers’s own words, proves his mendacity.

Doug Welsh on his Twitter site posted a link to Larry Grathwohl’s reply to Ayers.

Mr. Grathwohl, from his personal knowledge as an FBI infiltrator in the Weatherman underground in the late 1960s and early 70s, confutes the self-serving, hypocritical rationalizations that Mr. Ayers and his wife Bernadine Dohrn are now peddling.
Read more

Government Theft of Private Property

December 29, 2008 | Filed Under 00Publius Contributor, Constitution, Government, Corruption, Media Bias, News, Society/Culture, The Law, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

Check out the YouTube page for Begging for Billionaires.

UAW Union Bosses Abusing Positions for Pay

December 28, 2008 | Filed Under 00Publius Contributor, Business, Crime, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Jobs, News, Society/Culture, Unions, Warner Todd Huston | 3 Comments

- By Warner Todd Huston

TV News 4 in Detroit did an excellent expose on a few union bosses that routinely rip off the unions and the auto makers they work for with fake time cards and paid for but unworked overtime pay.

One of the bosses, Ron Seroka, a union job security officer, takes off half a day nearly everyday to go home to lounge around the house while he is on the clock. Seroka punches in at the plant at 6AM every single day and is home by 11:30 AM for some nice leisure time at home. Yet he gets a steady 10 hours pay every single day despite the fact that he is rarely at work.

Seroka’s union boss is even worse. Union chairman Jim Modzelewski buys beer on a daily basis while on the clock and clocks himself in for overtime pay hours before he even wakes up to go into the plant. TV 4 found that after he punches in, he typically leaves for a beer run mere hours later. Again, all this is on a daily basis. He is also paid overtime pay on a daily basis as he sits home drinking his daily beer. With over 2,500 hours of overtime, Modzelewski made a six-figure salary last year. TV 4 also discovered that Modzelewski even played in a bowling tournament while on the clock — as at overtime pay, too!

Read more

A Fundamentalist Christian Looks at Fundamentalist Islam!

December 28, 2008 | Filed Under 00Publius Contributor, Anti-Americanism, Europe, Foreign Policy, Islam, Islamofascism, Media Bias, News, Religion, Security/Safety, Society/Culture, War on Terror | No Comments

-By Don Boys, Ph.D.

Have American Christians misread or misinterpreted historic Islam? I am afraid many have, and as a Bible-believing Christian concerned with the truth, I want to challenge their thinking.

Many believe that all Muslims are uneducated fanatics; however, many Muslim clerics are highly educated, urbane, and politically informed.

Another false conception is that all Muslims are terrorists, and while State Department testimony reveals that the extremists in Saudi Arabia control 80% of U.S. mosques, some Muslims are anti-terrorists. Some Muslim leaders, especially in Europe and Egypt have taken anti-terrorist positions at the risk of their lives! I have great respect for those clerics. (However, where have mass demonstrations of American Muslims taken place since 9-11 to show abhorrence for terror?)
Read more

Flight 93 Update

December 27, 2008 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Democrats/Leftists, Flight 93, Government, Corruption, History, Islam, Islamofascism, Media Bias, Military, News, Religion, Security/Safety, Society/Culture, War on Terror | No Comments

Another stealth jihadist plants another evil hidden Islamic message

Blogburst logo, petition

What could be as evil as sneaking a memorial to the 9/11 terrorists onto the Flight 93 crash site? How about sneaking a hidden message of Islamic indoctrination into the soundtrack if an adorable baby doll, repeated every 30 seconds to thousands of 2-5 year old girls without parental knowledge?

If you haven’t heard it before, check out this AP video from October:
Read more

Controversy Over RNC Chairman Selection, Emineth Commeth

December 27, 2008 | Filed Under 00Publius Contributor, Conservatives, Elections, GOP, News, Patriotism, Republicans, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

To some conservatives, what North Dakota Republican Party Chairman Gary Emineth told The Hill last week is proof of the arrogance of an out-of-touch Republican Party. Emineth says he is being misunderstood, but his words were badly chosen regardless.

The Hill quoted Mr. Emineth concerning the selection of the next Republican National Committee Chairman. Mr. Emineth has made a special request during this process, one that has not been contemplated in the past. He is circulating a petition to have all six candidates for the position of RNC Chairman appear before the entire 168 member RNC committee to take questions from the whole body during this deliberation.

Read more

‘Dear Mr. Obama,’ Why are our Kids so Brainwashed?

December 27, 2008 | Filed Under 00Publius Contributor, Barack Obama, Democrats/Leftists, Education, Energy, Global Warming, Government, Corruption, Media Bias, News, President, Society/Culture, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has launched a wonderful little feature that will run until Barack Obama takes the oath of office next month. They are calling it “Dear Mr. Obama” and it is a heartwarming exercise in child indoctrination and brainwashing. The Post-Gazette will be publishing letters from local students to Obama asking him for all sorts of global warming fixes, Iraq war enders, and big government programs.

Sadly, it appears that the government schools these kids have been subjected to have failed to teach their charges about anything like the American system, federalism, even science seems neglected. But they SURE taught their kiddies that government is there to spend, spend, spend, that government is to be treated like our collective parents, and that the war in Iraq is obviously an evil venture. Obviously.

And, yes little kiddies, The One, your very own Obamessiah, is flying to the rescue like a super hero. Cue the theme music — I’d suggest the theme to 2001, like Elvis used, is appropriate for the sentiment here. The Obamessiah has entered the building!

Read more

Pennsylvania’s Corrosive Strike Culture

December 27, 2008 | Filed Under 00Publius Contributor, Budget, Democrats/Leftists, Education, Government, Corruption, Jobs, News, Society/Culture, Taxes, Unions, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Wall Street Journal recently had an interesting article on the extremely high percentage of teacher’s strikes in the State of Pennsylvania. The Journal noted that Penn. teachers account for an astonishing 42% of all teacher walk outs in the nation.

This, apparently, despite the fact that Pennsylvania’s teachers are some of the highest paid in the nation.

The strikes take place despite the state’s ranking in the top 20% nationwide for teacher salaries in 2006-2007 — the most recent data available — with an average of $54,970. Those paychecks go even further when adjusted for the state’s cost of living compared to top-spending school districts in places like California.

The Journal notes that 37 states have passed various laws that limit or eliminate teacher walk outs but union bigwigs in Penn. have succeeded in burying all attempts to implement such laws in the Keystone state.

Read more

The 99 Most Memorable, Interesting and Outrageous Political Quotes of 2008

December 27, 2008 | Filed Under 00Publius Contributor, David Huntwork, Democrats/Leftists, GOP, Government, Corruption, Humor, Media Bias, News, Society/Culture | No Comments

-By David Huntwork

The year 2008 was politically the most exciting and unusual in a generation. It hosted a long, divisive and drama filled campaign season that featured the rapid rise and fall of Rudy Guiliani, Fred Thompson and Mike Huckabee, the unlikely rise of John McCain and Barack Obama, and the eventual bitter defeat of Hillary Clinton. It brought us an unusually long and brutal primary with emotional charges of racism and sexism, the rise of the Superdelegate, and the explosion of Sarah Palin upon the national stage. All of this was followed by a rough and tumble presidential campaign whose outcome may have never been truly in doubt but was still a never ending soap opera of charges, counter charges, personal attacks, character assassinations, rumors, smears and the occasional, unexpected surprise.

2008 also also brought us a huge spike in gas prices, more political scandals, a mortgage and credit industry in a state of panic and a sitting president who was almost completely politically powerless in the face of such challenges. Rarely does such an alignment of events occur in a single year and the resulting deluge of memorable political quotes is a goldmine for the blogger, columnist, political junkie, and all those who follow current events. Without further ado I present to you my selection of the 99 most memorable, interesting, and outrageous political quotes of 2008.
Read more

The NYTimes’ PC Christmas — Imagine There’s No Religion But Global Warming’s True

December 26, 2008 | Filed Under 00Publius Contributor, Democrats/Leftists, Family, Global Warming, History, Jobs, Media Bias, News, Religion, Society/Culture, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

- By Warner Todd Huston

Imagine there’s no religion, it’s easy for The New York Times to do — even in a Christmas Day editorial that somehow forgets that Christmas is about Christ’s birth. In fact, the NYT decided that this Christmas was its opportunity to wallow in worse-than-ever sentiments and to bemoan that this year’s Christmas isn’t as good as it used to be. Oh, they tried to dress it up a bit by saying it is great to have a Christmas that gets us back to basics and also by slipping in some global warming clap trap, but it is still a lament that we all have it so darn bad these days.

The Christmas Day editorial starts off surmising that “you may be wondering about the carbon equation of a Christmas tree,” though it is a bit amusing to see them make such a silly assumption. I’d rather bet that even most environuts weren’t thinking about their Christmas carbon footprint when they awoke that morning! But, not the NYT. They are all worried that those old Christmas lights are going to cause the end of the planet as we know it!

Read more

Obama’s First Gift to Unions

December 26, 2008 | Filed Under 00Publius Contributor, Barack Obama, Business, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Elections, Jobs, Media Bias, News, President, Society/Culture, Unions, Warner Todd Huston | No Comments

- By Warner Todd Huston

Barack Obama’s pick for Secretary of Labor is his first gift to labor unions. Hilda Solis is quite a union extremist and has already promised to push the misleadingly named employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) once she takes over her new role in the Obama administration.

A recent Wall Street Journal report reveals that Solis, a California Congressman, has been in the back pocket of unions since she first ran for Congress.

Barack Obama’s pick for Secretary of Labor — Hilda Solis — brings impeccable big labor credentials. The California Congresswoman first rode to power with labor backing against a fellow Democrat, has voted with the AFL-CIO 97% of the time, and got three-quarters of her campaign contributions from unions.

But the WS Journal rightfully worries that Solis will also try to gut the Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS). In recent years the OLMS has tightened financial disclosure rules on the unions, an effort that is responsible in just one case for catching hundreds of thousands of dollars being illicitly spent by Tyrone Freeman, the head of the California office of the Service Employee International Union.

Read more

Risking our Nation’s Sovereignty

December 26, 2008 | Filed Under 00Publius Contributor, Congress, Constitution, Democrats/Leftists, Foreign Policy, Founders, Frank Salvato, Government, Corruption, News, Security/Safety, Society/Culture, War on Terror | No Comments

-By Frank Salvato

Anyone who is successful at forging relationships has mastered the art of diplomacy. There are a few simple rules. There is a time and a place for everything. You cannot change another person, only yourself. You have to give to receive. Maintaining a balance of power is probably the most difficult. If one person denies another a relationship, there can be no balance of power because that person has taken all the control. Both parties have to want the relationship for one to occur. Any parent soon realizes that a dictatorial style will not foster loyalty or the intrinsic motivation to behave within a child. At the same time, giving in to a child’s demands grants the child all the power. A well-timed tantrum can put an end to a parent’s agenda.

When people learn and respect each others’ boundaries, they can interact within them and have no fear of upsetting the balance. On the other hand, if a person has difficulty accepting or respecting another’s boundaries, that can be a recipe for a confrontation, a break in the relationship, or an unbalanced relationship. Learning how to practice diplomacy is a worthwhile endeavor. By granting each other mutual respect, we can usually get along.
Read more

Next Page »

Help the Soldiers!


Our American Genius

Links to our founding documents

"Governments are instituted among men,deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." Declaration of Independence July 4, 1776






Enter your Email


Preview
Powered by FeedBlitz


Illini Alliance
Blogroll



Featured Sites







For Foreign News
Translated Into English



Conservative Leadership
Conference Blogroll


Links

Other Blogs

MilBlogs

Religion

 Politics
Blogarama - The Blog Directory



Gun Rights

Radio Hosts

Political Parties

Organizations

Education

Technorati Profile
Add to Technorati Favorites
Clicky Web Analytics