Friday, October 19, 2007

$2,100,100.00 Top Bid for Dem Letter Bashing Limbaugh

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Iraq: Where Good News is No News

Charlie Gibson on ABC's World News Tonight recently reported the good news out of Iraq like this:
"One item from Baghdad today. The news is ... that there is no news. The police told us that, to their knowledge, there were no major acts of violence. Attacks are down in Baghdad and today no bombings or roadside explosions were reported."
And there it is, the mainstream media's template -- its fundamental, liberal bias -- exposed in its most basic form for all to see: good news about Iraq will simply not be reported.

The news that there is no violence in Iraq is HUGE news. However, the reporting template is all about burning cars; exploding IEDs; dead people in the streets; mangled children; crying mothers; blasted vehicles and buildings. But none of that happened today so Charlie Gibson tells us it's not news.

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Heritage Asks: Is the Surge Working?

Is Gen. David Petraeus’ surge strategy working? Despite negativity in the media, new figures show that violence has recently declined in Iraq.
“With about 160,000 combat troops,” writes Heritage national security expert James Carafano, “Gen. Petraeus managed to stem the rising tide of violence in Iraq. That is a statistic worth noting because, according to the ‘experts,’ it couldn't be done.”
Even the liberal-leaning Washington Post recognizes the progress. Citing the reduced violence, they wrote over the weekend that “it’s looking more and more as though those in and outside of Congress who last month were assailing Gen. Petraeus’s credibility and insisting that there was no letup in Iraq's bloodshed were -- to put it simply -- wrong.”

Read the Heritage article.

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Three Days of Peace, Love and Earmarks

The Senate voted Thursday to strip $1 million in federal funding for a museum at the site of the 1969 Woodstock music festival.

From The Politico:

Community leaders in upstate New York are building a $100 million museum there and sought money from the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education appropriations bill.

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) attempted to defend the earmark Thursday, but he failed, surprising even some critics of the project.

The Senate first rejected a motion to table the amendment, 42-52, shifting the $1 million earmark into the Maternal and Child Health Block Grant program. Five Democrats — Evan Bayh of Indiana, Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana, Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Jim Webb of Virginia — joined the entire Senate Republican Conference, including its reputed king of pork, Ted Stevens of Alaska, to oppose the Woodstock funding.

Senators then approved the amendment on a voice vote.

Schumer, as lonely as Charlie Brown, was the only senator to speak on Woodstock’s behalf.

“This is the largest economic program in one of our poorest counties,” he said, detailing how the rest of the $100 million project would be funded by private sources and the New York state government.

“It is a whole complex devoted to history in America from 1945 to the present," he explained. “If you believe in helping counties, if you believe that every one of us wants the federal government to not just pass broad-brush programs, but to help individual needs in our states ... this is the project.”

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) attached her name to the federal spending request, but Schumer was reportedly the main proponent. She still backed it, voting with Schumer to table the amendment.

Billionaire Alan Gerry, a longtime political donor, is the driver of the project. Days after a Senate committee approved the $1 million request, Gerry and his family contributed $20,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which Schumer heads, and $9,200 to Clinton’s presidential campaign, according to USA Today.

Clinton and Schumer aides said there was no connection.

Republicans, meanwhile, were eager to mock the project. After Schumer argued that Sullivan County, the site of the museum, needs job creation, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) pointed out that the county had a lower unemployment rate than the national average.

“Now, some of you may believe that it would be a neat thing to celebrate Woodstock again, and to do so with a museum,” said Kyl, who led the effort with Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.). “To the extent that one would argue that it’s only $1 million, therefore symbolic, the answer to that is, yes, it is. But I think the American people want us to begin to make some votes that demonstrate that we care about setting priorities.”

“Maybe." Coburn added, “this is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius for taxpayers.”

Not quite yet.

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Phony American, Dem Rep. Stark Should Resign for Remarks

Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.) caused an uproar today when he conjured up the Iraq War during a floor speech before the Democratic Congress's failed attempt to override President Bush's veto of the State Childrens Health Insurance Program or SCHIP.
"You don't have money to fund the war or children. But you're going to spend it to blow up innocent people if we can get enough kids to grow old enough for you to send to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the president's amusement."
In a statement, House Minority Leader Rep. John Boehner said:
“Our troops in Iraq are fighting against al-Qaeda and other radical jihadists hellbent on killing the people we are sent here to represent. Congressman Stark’s statement dishonors not only the Commander-in-Chief, but the thousands of courageous men and women of America’s armed forces who believe in their mission and are putting their lives on the line for our freedom and security. Congressman Stark should retract his statement and apologize to the House, our Commander-in-Chief, and the families of our soldiers and commanders fighting terror overseas.”
The very fact that the mainstream media is not all over this story implicates them as the biased, ideologues that they deny themselves to be. I don't care that the media is so obviously biased that it will smear Rush Limbaugh with an untruth yet not report this story; it is just an affront to reason for the mainstream media to expect that we accept their insistence that they are fair.

Republicans should DEMAND Rep. Stark resign.

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Forget Iraq, Rangel Starts Tax War

According to The Politico, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles B. Rangel had one message for the tax world: Rest up now, because next week a two-front war will begin.

Rangel said on Wednesday that he’ll introduce not just one, but two, major tax proposals. It’s a political power play by the New York Democrat, who aspires to completely revamp the entire tax code over the next two years.

One thing is for sure: Rangel isn’t waiting around. On Wednesday, he said he has gotten assurances from both Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) that “his slot is reserved for this year.” The chairman said he was leaning toward bringing the bill up for a vote next year but left open the possibility that — if the momentum is there — the bill could come this year.

I want to know, after so many Republican wrought Congressional failures under their belts this year, why would Democrats want to be dealt yet another one with this stupid tax war?

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Wednesday, October 17, 2007

New Poll: Americans Dislike Bush But Hate Congress

Deepening unhappiness with President George W. Bush and the U.S. Congress soured the mood of Americans and sent Bush's approval rating to another record low this month, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Wednesday.

Bush's job approval rating fell to 24 percent from last month's record low for a Zogby poll of 29 percent. A paltry 11 percent gave Congress a positive grade, tying last month's record low.
"There is a real question among Americans now about how relevant this government is to them," pollster John Zogby said. "They tell us they want action ... but they don't believe they are going to get it."
This is as good an excuse as any to say that, based on the polls, what we need is LESS not MORE useless government. To conclude anything else is simply stupid.

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Monday, October 15, 2007

Gov't Run Dental Services Decay in U.K.

Anyone who is successful in business knows that in order to to be successful you must delegate authority over projects to those who are experts in the area they are supervising.

Why is it, then, that we are constantly bombarded with the absurd idea that government, known more for their failures than successes at VA hospitals and clinics, should be charged with providing health care services for everyone?

I mean, the government can be somewhat trusted to provide infrastructure, and secure liberty (that is, unless you are a liberal or Democrat -- they want to replace liberty with fairness) but that is about all.

Why would we want government run health care, anyway? If I can pay for the best care, why would I want to settle for the same care provided a homeless bum?

Here is further evidence that mid-level bureaucrats make lousy health care administrators.

AFP reports falling numbers of state dentists in England has led to some people taking extreme measures, including extracting their own teeth, according to a new study released Monday.
Others have used superglue to stick crowns back on, rather than stumping up for private treatment, said the study. One person spoke of carrying out 14 separate extractions on himself with pliers.

More typically, a lack of publicly-funded dentists means that growing numbers go private: 78 percent of private patients said they were there because they could not find a National Health Service (NHS) dentist, and only 15 percent because of better treatment.

"This is an uncomfortable read for all of us, and poses serious questions to politicians from patients," said Sharon Grant of the Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health.

Overall, six percent of patients had resorted to self-treatment, according to the survey of 5,000 patients in England, which found that one in five had decided against dental work because of the cost.

One researcher involved in compiling the study -- carried out by members of England's Patient and Public Involvement Forums -- came across three people in one morning who had pulled out teeth themselves.

Dentists are also concerned about the trend.

Fifty-eight percent said new dentists' contracts introduced last year had made the quality of care worse, while 84 percent thought they had failed to make it easier for patients to find care.

Almost half of all dentists -- 45 percent -- said they no longer take NHS patients, while 41 percent said they had an "excessive" workload. Twenty-nine percent said their clinic had problems recruiting or retaining dentists.

"These findings indicate that the NHS dental system is letting many patients down very badly," said Grant.

"It appears many are being forced to go private because they don't want to lose their current trusted and respected dentist or because they just can't find a local NHS dentist."

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Mainstream Media Ignores 'rush-letter-for-charity'

A letter sent to Rush Limbaugh's boss demanding he be chastised for comments he made on the air about "phony soldiers" is now on the auction block, and the latest bid is a cool $45,000, reports Fox News.

Sadly missing from the mainstream media is any mention of the news, leading Limbaugh to speculate that reporters are simply waiting around for another controversial story about him.

One hundred percent of the money raised from the eBay auction will go to educate the children of Marines and law enforcement officers.

Check out the auction here.

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