New York Mag: Obama’s ‘Want Each Other’ Unlike Other Presidents?

March 17, 2009 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Democrats/Leftists, Liberals, Media Bias, News, President, Society/Culture, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Did you know that no presidential couple ever “wanted each other” until the coming of The One and his Michelle? Well Stacy Schiff of New York Magazine knows, blurting out like a star-struck 13-year-old at a Jonas Brothers concert the question, “How long has it been since a First Couple seemed to want each other?” What about George W. and Laura’s love? Must have all been a head fake. H.W. Bush and Barbara, it’s all a sham I tell you. Nancy and Ron? Fuggedabout it. Bill and Hillary… OK, you might have something there. None of the rest really care about each other who can doubt? Not Schiff, anyway. No, as far as Schiff is concerned, love’s been reinvented by Michelle and her beau, The One.

It’s either a sole example of love in the Oval office… or it’s just another appalling exercise in Old Media sycophancy that takes slobbering devotion to a new level. I guess this is what passes for “reporting” these days, but it still seems like maudlin hero worship to me. It causes one to wonder what crackerjack box Schiff found her mind reading cap in to enable her to learn that no other presidential couple “want each other”? Still, Schiff has divined the fact for us like a late-night informercial psychic, nonetheless.

Living Like it’s 1899, What does ‘Sacrifice’ Mean?

March 17, 2009 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Family, Liberals, Media Bias, News, Society/Culture, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Newsweek has some prescriptions to save us all. We should live like it’s 1899 instead of 2009. Don’t use a dryer for your clothes, chop your own wood for heating fuel, buy a black and white TV because it’s “just as good,” and don’t get the Internet or cable TV. Sheese, talk about a kill-joy!

Of course, the piece by Steve Tuttle isn’t all stone-ageie, new-ageiness. Some of the points Tuttle makes are sensible enough — not buying what you can’t afford being the most salient. But, Tuttle’s harkening back to his parent’s depression era scrimping is a bit much and makes a mockery of the sensible suggestions he does make.

Naturally, a Newsweek piece isn’t complete unless it has some gratuitous (and in this case off base) Obamaisms as homage to the brilliance of The One. In this case, Tuttle invokes Obama’s exhortation for us all to engage in a little “personal sacrifice.”

Conflation Junction: Tenn. Columnist Thinks Criminals and Madmen Obey Laws

March 17, 2009 | Filed Under 2nd Amendment, Crime, Democrats/Leftists, Government, Corruption, Guns, Liberals, Media Bias, News, Security/Safety, Society/Culture, State Government, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

See, the thing that makes crazy people, well… crazy, is that they don’t do things like normal people. Laws, rules, even simple human kindness is meaningless to such unbalanced people. The same can be said of criminals. See the thing that makes them criminals is that they don’t obey laws. But the Memphis Commercial Appeal’s Rich Locker seems to think making a law will magically make a wacko suddenly heed reason. On top of that, to illustrate his allusion he conflates the criminal actions of a man in Alabama to laws in Tennessee in order to justify his anti-gun sentiment for Tennesseans. Will these disingenuous Old Media types never learn a love of logic?

The tragic and criminal actions of the nut in Alabama that killed 10 people in a wild traveling rampage served as Locker’s platform to advocate for a Tennessee law that would make illegal the carrying load guns in a vehicle. He seems to insinuate that such a law would have prevented the sicko in Alabama from driving around killing people. Locker neglects to reveal how some words on a piece of paper, though, could prevent a madman from transporting a loaded gun in a car.

The opening paragraph is a perfect example of this conflation in order to draw out an emotional reaction in the reader.

Illinois Republicans Can’t Stop Eating Their Own

March 16, 2009 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Elections, GOP, Government, Corruption, Media Bias, News, Society/Culture, State Government, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

There is a website in Illinois called Illinois Review that often has some of the best coverage of Illinois Republican happenings. It’s usually a good source for GOP info statewide. But today’s entry is just another example of Illinois Republicans eating their own. And in an unfortunate turn of events, it involves me.

Over the past weekend I was a visitor at a planning session for the Republican candidate aiming to take Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel’s 5th Congressional District seat. I wrote about my impression of the meeting and headlined it Planning to Turn Rahm Emanuel’s Seat Red.

But, Illinois Review got its tinfoil hat screwed down a little to tight and revealed a bit of arrogance that pervades so much of the Illinois Republican Party. This time imagining that Illinois Review was more important than RedState,com and deserved special attention.

Union’s Card Check is the New Jim Crow Poll Tax

March 16, 2009 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Barack Obama, Communism, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Elections, Government, Corruption, History, Jobs, Liberals, Media Bias, News, Socialism, Society/Culture, Unions, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

One of the most odious aspects of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) is the card check feature. This feature gives unions the “option” to supplant a secret ballot election held among workers for instituting a union with a publicly signed card that announces the voter’s intentions for all to see. In this way, unions clam, “elections” will be easier. Unions also point out that the language of the act still makes provision for the normal secret ballot election should all involved still so desire.

Because the act does not specifically say in plain language that the secret ballot will necessarily be eliminated in all cases, union activists and apologists claim that fears of the elimination of the ages old democratic practice of the secret ballot to assure a fair election isn’t being eliminated. They claim that opponents of this act are merely engaging in hyperbole and fearmongering by claiming the secret ballot will be a thing of the past if the EFCA is passed.

Planning to Turn Rahm Emanuel’s Seat Red

March 16, 2009 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Elections, GOP, Government, Corruption, Liberals, Media Bias, News, Republicans, Society/Culture, State Government, Warner Todd Huston | 3 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

On Saturday afternoon, in the midst of Chicago’s famous St. Patrick’s Day celebration with its tradition of turning of the Chicago River green, a cadre of concerned Republicans met to plan a way to capture the Congressional seat of Chicago’s 5th District, the one being vacated by Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.

The candidate charged with this task is Rosanna Pulido and she only has about three weeks to do it. The special election for Emanuel’s seat is to be held as soon as April 7th.

Her supporters and other interested parties (me included) met at the top of a Michigan Avenue high rise in the comfortable setting of a decades old executive dining room of a Chicago insurance company. The rich wood decor was meant to invoke an old Irish pub, but carousing wasn’t on the schedule that day. Planning a political campaign was, however.

Cause For Celebration: An Examination Of The Cosmological Argument

March 16, 2009 | Filed Under Education, Family, Frederick Meekins, News, Religion | Comments Off

-By Frederick Meekins

Often the classics rank among the best. Even though time passes and intellectual fashions change, certain insights and perspectives address something so profound they forever earn a place as a steadfast pillar among sifting seas of opinion. Much of what comes after such a point simply serves as either confirmation, renunciation, clarification, or criticism. Though he lived and labored during the Middle Ages in the 1200‘s, the cosmological argument of Thomas Aquinas has withstood the test of time as one of those stalwart pillars of the mind pointing to a rational basis for belief in God.

Though the term “cosmological argument” sounds intimidating and the concept it strives to convey seems profound, this series of propositions endeavors to express a most elementary idea in a highly rational form. The thrust of the cosmological argument seeks to prove that the universe must have a cause and that only God can serve as an adequate explanation for the existence of the universe. Norman Geisler in Introduction To Christian Philosophy states the basic argument in the following manner: “(1) Finite changing things exist. (2) Every finite, changing thing must be caused by another. (3) There cannot be an infinite regress of causes. (4) Therefore, there must be a first uncaused cause of every finite changing thing that exists (page 267).” From here, Aquinas proceeds to argue that only God is powerful enough to serve as an explanation behind this uncaused cause.
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Publius Podcast

March 15, 2009 | Filed Under Abortion, Democrats/Leftists, Government, Corruption, Liberals, Media Bias, News, Science, Security/Safety, Society/Culture, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Should we use baby parts for science?

Feel free to visit the Publius Forum TalkShoe page to see my past podcasts. New podcasts appear approximately monthly, or whenever the mood strikes me to do one.

Sorry About Your Loss, Mom. Now Can We Use Part of Your Baby?

March 15, 2009 | Filed Under Abortion, Family, Liberals, Media Bias, News, Rights, Security/Safety, Society/Culture, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Professor Sir Richard Gardner, a leading scientist for stem cell research at Oxford University, England, proposed using parts of aborted fetuses as transplantable material for the ill last week causing great concern for those believing in the sanctity of human life.

Sir Richard called for studies into the feasibility of transplanting fetal organs into adults and found it curious that it hasn’t been done already. He claimed it would take much research to prove the feasibility of the idea.

Imagine what this concept would result in, however. Who cannot realize the Pandora’s box of horrors that would be opened with this idea? Should such an idea take hold we necessarily would find doctors telling mothers that it is OK to abort their children because it “might save a life” all so that researchers would have more fetal material to study.

And it could get even worse if such research would find the idea feasible. We would then end up with doctors pushing abortion so that we could begin to disseminate fetal tissue to prolong other people’s lives. We would therefore be setting up a system of purposefully killing infants to prolong the lives of older humans.

What sort of society kills its young to provide spare parts to make older people live longer?

Oh, it DOESN’T Take Away Secret Ballots? Um… YES, it Does.

March 15, 2009 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Communism, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Government, Corruption, Liberals, Media Bias, News, Rights, Socialism, Society/Culture, Unions, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

Obama’s Nominee to Justice Dept. Was a Terrorist’s Lawyer

March 14, 2009 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Democrats/Leftists, Islam, Islamofascism, Liberals, Media Bias, News, President, Security/Safety, Society/Culture, War on Terror, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

On March 9, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on one of Barack Obama’s latest nominees. This time it was to assess the suitability of Tony West, Obama’s nominee for the assistant attorney general in charge of the U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Division. Things went “smoothly” according to the San Jose Mercury News, also publishing a nice bio of West. The Washington Post merely mentioned the hearing was “notable.” Similarly the East Bay Express simply makes mention of the hearing having occurred. Apparently there was nothing of interest in West’s nomination.

Curiously enough, though, not one of these brief reports mention that Tony West was “American Taliban” terrorist John Walker Lindh’s defense lawyer. Another key bit of info left out of these announcements was that Tony West raised $65 million for Obama’s presidential campaign. Money well spent if it gets a cushy government job, I suppose.

Scandal on Scandal — Another One for Calif. Union

March 14, 2009 | Filed Under Communism, Crime, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Jobs, Liberals, Media Bias, News, Socialism, Society/Culture, Unions, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

The L.A. Times has done it again; reported on another California Service Employees International Union (SEIU) corruption scandal. SEIU California has had so many corruption scandals that it boggles the mind and they all center around union bosses double dipping salaries and misusing purported charities to enrich themselves, as well as getting family members into the game with pseudo jobs at these false-front charities. This report is no exception to that mode of business-as-usual for the powerful state employees union.

This time SEIU chief James Bryant has been found making more salary from the supposed charity he heads out of his home than the city job he is supposed to be working at. The union also funnels money his way and he has given his son a “job” that the union backed charity is funding.

Obama Wanted To Fire GOP US Attny To Fill Job With Dem

March 13, 2009 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Democrats/Leftists, Judges, Liberals, Media Bias, News, President, Society/Culture, The Law, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Is is being reported that President Obama wanted to fire a Republican US Attorney in Missouri and to replace her with a Democrat.

Now, can we revisit the agonized wailing that emanated in 2006 from the unhinged left when President Bush fired some US Attorneys? Remember how they screamed that it was all “just political” and that it might even be an illegal action? Remember how they gyrated over Bush’s supposed “destruction” of the US Attorney offices in the land, how he was trying to ruin our system?

Their wailing went on for several years quite despite the fact that these same US Attorneys serve at the discretion of the president in the first place. Quite despite the fact that past Democrat presidents also fired them at will. (Here is a perfect example of how the uniformed and unhinged left took this story back in 2006.)

Despite Massive Losses NYT Execs Enjoy Bonuses, Salaries Steady

March 13, 2009 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Business, Communism, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Government, Corruption, Jobs, Liberals, Media Bias, News, Socialism, Society/Culture, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Apparently the long knives President Obama has out for the blood of CEOs and high paid executives does not apply to the bigwigs at The New York Times. In a March 11 piece ABCnews.com posted a Reuters report that the suits at The Times are still doing quite well despite the downwardly spiraling fortunes of the newspaper they helm. Not only are salaries holding steady, even rising, but they are also receiving bonuses. All of this while profits have plummeted along with advertising sales.

While other large corporations are freezing executive salaries and or even cutting them, the top two NYT execs have seen salaries holding at the same rate since 2006 if not rising. Arthur Sulzberger, Jr, even got a one-time bonus of $38,045. NYT CEO Janet Robinson saw her total compensation rise from $4.1 million to $5.8 over last year.

So, where is President Obama to ask for their heads on a pike?

Former Union Leader Opposes Card Check Bill

March 13, 2009 | Filed Under Business, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Government, Corruption, Jobs, Liberals, News, Socialism, Society/Culture, Unions, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

The City Wire of Fort Smith, Arkansas, published a piece giving a former union leader space to announce that he opposes the elimination of the secret ballot that is the card check feature of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA).

His reasoning is spot on with why card check is a bad idea that will materially hurt American workers.

And then there is Neal Catlett, a former president of the union representing workers at Whirlpool’s Fort Smith plant who has more than 20 years of leadership experience in the local union.

Catlett, now retired from Whirlpool, opposes card check. He told The City Wire that he has seen plenty of “nonsense” among Whirlpool leaders and union leaders to know that anything other than a secret ballot will lead to intimidation, coercion and corruption on all sides.

ARE WE UNAFRAID? Are we powerful?

March 13, 2009 | Filed Under Democrats/Leftists, Foreign Policy, GOP, Government, Corruption, History, Islam, Islamofascism, Israel, Liberals, Military, News, Resa LaRu, "Warchick" Kirkland, Security/Safety, Society/Culture, War on Terror | Comments Off

-By Resa LaRu Kirkland

Evil is powerless if the good are unafraid – Ronald Reagan

My dear friend Audrey Russo put a note up on her FACEBOOK page that inspired me to write this piece. The following excerpt explains it:

…the Revolutionary Guards Chief, Mohammed Ali Jafari…said, “Today, the Islamic Republic of Iran has missiles with the range of 2,000 km (1,250 miles), and based on that all Israeli land including that regime’s nuclear facilities are in the range of our missile capabilities.”

Jafari also believes that neither the US or the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) “had the ability” to strike Iran…

…The two greatest militaries in the world did not have the ability to strike Iran? Right…

…this is a simple illustration of how…PC paralysis has become the fuel for ‘the little regime that could’ and the mushroom cloud that it will produce. — Iran: The Little Regime That Could by Audrey Russo
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Look me in the eye when you say that, pardner

March 12, 2009 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Democrats/Leftists, Government, Corruption, Liberals, Media Bias, News, Society/Culture | Comments Off

-By Ann “Babe” Huggett

It’s pretty much an open secret that President Obama is worthless as a public speaker without his teleprompter. What little media footage that does exist of him speaking extemporaneously has more “Uhs”, “Ers” and stammering than a gangly teen asking the object of his juvenile fantasy out on their first date. In fact, Obama’s groping for words and verbal dead ends make his predecessor, George W. Bush, seem positively flawless in his speech patterns and that is saying quite a bit.
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And Abe told the boys…

March 12, 2009 | Filed Under Barack Obama, GOP, Humor, News, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

To great guffaws, Abe told the gang: “So, I says to Barack, I says, I knew me an Abe Lincoln once, and you ain’t him.”

Andy Thomas is the artist of this great piece titled Grand Old Gang. His site can be found at: www.presidentart.com/

Brits Officials Can’t Get Obama Folks on Phone, U.S. Media Not Picking Up Either

March 12, 2009 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Democrats/Leftists, Foreign Policy, Government, Corruption, Liberals, Media Bias, Military, News, President, Security/Safety, Society/Culture, War on Terror, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

If the snub of British PM Gordon Brown at the hands of President Obama and his wife weren’t enough, now British Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O’Donnell is saying that Downing Street is finding it “unbelievably difficult” to get hold of officials from Obama’s administration. British officials can’t seem to ever get past the administration’s answer machines as they call here to try and coordinate plans for the coming G20 summit.

In frustration O’Donnell said that that when he tries to get in touch with key members of Obama’s Treasury Department “there is nobody there.” The phones ring and nobody answers or they get messages and that is all. “You cannot believe how difficult it is,” O’Donnell told participants at a civil service conference.

While the Obama Administration ducks the Brit’s phone calls, the U.S. media also seems to be ignoring this story as they’ve widely ignored several of the stories that detail the new administration’s offhanded treatment of our closest ally.

Dems Push Another Fake ‘Fair’ Bill That Will Kill Online Science Research Publishing

March 12, 2009 | Filed Under Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Education, Government, Corruption, Liberals, Media Bias, News, Science, Society/Culture, Technology, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Why are Democrats such liars? I know that sounds harsh, but this penchant for labeling a law, act, or bill with a lie as a title is gallingly Orwellian and it’s getting tiresome. We have the “Employee Free Choice Act” that takes away employee choice, the “Freedom of Choice Act” that takes away the freedom NOT to chose abortion, and now we have the “Fair Copyright in Research Works Act” that takes away the public’s fair access to scientific research papers without having to first spend a ton of money to access it.

In all the three laws above noted, we have either “free,” “Freedom,” or “fair” in the bill title and yet not one of these pieces of legislation is free, fair or assures any freedoms — in fact, quite the opposite. It’s like calling a crap sandwich corned beef on rye! It’s getting so that all we have to do is read a bill’s title and imagine the direct opposite effect to learn what the bill is about.

Earmarks And The GOP

March 12, 2009 | Filed Under Budget, Congress, Dan Scott, GOP, Government, Corruption, News, Republicans, State Government, Taxes | Comments Off

-By Dan Scott

Since I have repeatedly taken the Democrats to task for their lack of transparency regarding the federal appropriations process, it is only fair that the GOP should be chastened for their part and collaboration with our dysfunctional government. What I heard recently from two GOP politicians caused me to shake my head violently in revulsion as to how my tax dollars were uselessly appropriated and my future mortgaged by a group of people who were playing the proverbial victim game instead of being in control of the budget process. Listen closely to the rationalization both these men used to justify their actions. If members of the GOP think this way, is it any wonder the Democrats are mystified at the decrying of earmarks?

Senator Robert Bennett (UT – R) made an argument about earmarks on FNC the other day which was later repeated by Representative Ron Paul (TX – R) . The premise of their argument is if they don’t earmark funds then the money allocated will not be specifically spent and the process will not be transparent! The argument advanced is the money will be spent regardless, so they want to insure some of the money goes to their district. In the case of Senator Bennett his earmark had to do with the Mormon Cricket . Every year he earmarks federal funds for eradication of the insect as a set aside from the Department of Agriculture funds. It’s ironic that the government is engaging in pest control when clearly the $375 million industry it effects has sufficient resources to deal with it’s own pest control issues not to mention it’s an annual natural phenomenon that will recur regardless of any actions taken. There is no defense for the waste of federal dollars even using the rationalization of making sure some of it is wasted in a specific geographic area under the pretense of fairness or proportionality.
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Flight 93 Update

March 11, 2009 | Filed Under Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Family, Flight 93, Government, Corruption, Islam, Islamofascism, Liberals, Media Bias, News, Patriotism, Security/Safety, Society/Culture, War on Terror | Comments Off

Senator Specter’s payoff for betraying his party: betrayal of his state

We now know one of the payoffs that Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter received for being one of three Republican Senators who allowed President Obama’s trillion-dollar Spendulus bill to become law. WPXI in Pittsburgh reports that Specter has a 5.5 million dollar earmark for the crescent-shaped Flight 93 memorial in the omnibus spending bill just passed by the Senate.
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The Difference Between President Bush and Barry? Ask the Marines…

March 11, 2009 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Humor, Military, News, Patriotism, President, War on Terror, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

You’re traveling from a dimension of raucous applause to one curiously subdued, even tepid. It is a dimension not only of oorahs but one of mild clapping. A journey into a proud land of service and country, if you dare. The next stop up ahead, the Semper Fi zone.

Some presidents are welcome in the Semper Fi zone… others…. not so much.

Dems ‘Must’ Keep Census Political — ‘Gerrymander and Gender-mander Away!’

March 11, 2009 | Filed Under Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Government, Corruption, Liberals, Media Bias, News, Society/Culture, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Bonnie Erbe, a columnist and blogger for U.S.News and World Report, is keen to make sure that Democrats continue to cheat on re-districting as much as possible. She is insisting that Democrats not fall for a bi-partisan or a fair approach to re-districting and says that the Census should stay “politicized” because, after all, it’s Democrats in power now! So, as far as she is concerned, the Democrats should “gerrymander away” and absolutely demands that the Census should be politicized.

Erbe writes that she wants to “gender-mander” the Census for “feminist leaders” and wants to make sure that “hispanics and Latinos” aren’t “under-counted.” She claims the Census is “part of the spoils of victory” and wants her lefties to be able to wield that power. She says that the Democrats should “spare us the theatrics of trying to look nonpartisan.” So, the Dems should continue to cynically use the Census merely for partisan political purposes.

So much for the new tone in Washington, eh?

Big Unions Angle to Eliminate Small Ones

March 11, 2009 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Communism, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Government, Corruption, Jobs, Liberals, Media Bias, News, Socialism, Society/Culture, Unions, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

We’ve talked about it several times here on the blog; the hostile takeover of smaller unions. It has been Andy Stern’s main modus operandi (President of the Service Employees International Union or SEIU). The idea is to roll into the territory of a local, smaller union, make back room deals with the employers to get their assistance, and then lead a forced take over of that smaller union eventually to vote it out of existence. Thereby the little unions that might stand in the way of the mega unions are eliminated and the mega unions now controlling everything from the top down get more even more massive.

It’s a perfectly legitimate strategy, of course… except for the fact that it makes the lie to every purported “principle” that unions claim to have. Local control becomes dashed and democracy summarily eliminate, yet local control and democratic process are the central themes of unionism. Without them they are little different than the supposedly evil corporate maters bent on domination that union claim their employers are. If a union member cannot feel that his local representatives are actually there for him then that impersonal attitude is no different than uncaring masters of industry.

Yet, this strong-arm takeovers of smaller unions is the current rage among big unions. And it is being noticed.

Is Libel Law Turning Against Us, New and Old Media Alike?

March 10, 2009 | Filed Under Censorship, Democrats/Leftists, Government, Corruption, Judges, Liberals, Media Bias, News, Society/Culture, State Government, The Law, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

This is not a story of bias in the media. It is a story, rather, that affects both the Old Media of newspapers, TV and radio, as well as the New Media of the Internet. Our disagreements with the Old Media aside, we both stand to see trouble if a recent court case in Massachusetts gains momentum or is applied liberally henceforth.

The Associated Press reports on a libel case in Boston that pits a fired employee of the Staples office supply chain against his former employer. Staples, as it happens, sent out an emailed newsletter informing its employees that salesman Alan Noonan was fired for padding his expense account. Noonan sued for libel. Alarmingly, even though the emailed newsletter was reporting the strict truth the court held that truth was no defense in this case.

Dems to Take up Card Check on Tuesday

March 10, 2009 | Filed Under Barack Obama, Budget, Business, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Elections, Government, Corruption, Jobs, Liberals, News, Socialism, Society/Culture, Unions, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Senate has secret elections for its leaders. The House of Representatives also uses a closed ballot, one not open to public view, for its own members. We all, you and I, have a secret ballot when we vote for president or for our local officials at our local polling place. It’s one of the oldest aspects of the democratic system.

Yet, Democrats want to take that oldest part of the democratic process away from 105 million Americans.

For their support in the last election Democrats are poised to launch an effort to force a payback to Big Unions through Congress, perhaps as early as Tuesday. That payback will be in the form of the woefully misnamed “Employee Free Choice Act” — which is neither free nor any choice. In this legislation, unions can dispense with the ages old secret ballot for union members and force them to sign public cards revealing their personal vote to everyone. Naturally, when a voter’s choice is known to everyone, pressure will be greater to conform and the conscience of the union member can easily take a back seat to that of getting along with union bosses.

Brothers At War

March 10, 2009 | Filed Under Family, Foreign Policy, Islam, Islamofascism, Military, News, Patriotism, Security/Safety, War on Terror, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

In Iraq a U.S. soldier told Jake Rademacher, “I’d give my life for America any day. Wouldn’t think twice.” Jake himself has two brothers serving in Iraq and he wanted to know why? Why are they doing it? So he packed his camera and embeded himself with his brother’s unit in Iraq to answer that burning question. What makes our soldiers put their lives on the line?

Brothers at War is the result of filmmaker Jake Rademacher’s experience with his own brothers serving in Iraq. This film, executive produced by Gary Sinise, is one of exquisite beauty and deep emotion and, even more importantly, is a salute to the patriotism and bravery of our men and women in uniform. Unlike the products of Hollywood, this film does not treat our soldiers as villains and criminals.

This is an Iraq conflict film worth promoting. Look it up and go see it, won’t you?

Dear School Choice Advocates:

March 10, 2009 | Filed Under Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Education, Government, Corruption, Israel Teitelbaum, Liberals, News, Society/Culture | Comments Off

-By Israel Teitelbaum

Please call your Congressman and Senators (202-224-3121) and urge them to save the Washington, DC school vouchers.

While you have them on the phone, please urge them to sponsor the Civil Rights Act for Equal Educational Opportunity (CRA for EEO).

This will mandate equitable funding for children in nonpublic schools, while respecting the liberty of schools in hiring and provision of services. In accordance with the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, academic standards and means of funding would be left to the states.
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First Kill all the Lawyers… or at Least Put Them Out of Work

March 9, 2009 | Filed Under Business, Conservatives, Constitution, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Government, Corruption, Jobs, Judges, Liberals, Media Bias, News, Society/Culture, The Law, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

With apologies to the many fine folks at law that visit these pages, and those of my colleagues on the web that ply the law, today I am going to act the vulgar Shakespearian and advocate to “first kill all the lawyers.” Well, if not kill them exactly, then at least put many of them out of work — not that I am any expert on Shakespeare, he says to a chorus of “you betchas.” Still, the thought comes to mind because of a recent story in the Boston Globe that waxes pathetic over the many Bean Town lawyers that can’t find a job in this faltering economy.

The Globe piece starts out with a pity party for Boston lawyer Paul Semenza, a lawyer for 25 years that cannot find a job in his chosen profession. He now sells sofas and mattresses in a furniture outlet. And to that I say, good riddance to Paul… at least figuratively as Paul may be the nicest fellow in the world. But may he take several thousands more of his kind with him into exile. Let them get real jobs that are useful to his fellows at long last.

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