Saturday, December 30, 2006

CNN Media Bias?

Everyone should cut and paste the link below, go to the page and look at the second picture in the first row. The one which shows the Illegal immigrants protesting. Now read the caption which appears when you move the cursor over the picture. Go now and then come back here.

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2006/yir/your.picks/

There is a clear bias among those within the left-wing media which not only opposes any substantive immigration reform, but also heavily favors amnesty. Everyone from AP down refuses to even call Illegal immigrants, "illegal" They're just called "immigrants" in just about every form of media from the time stories originate on the wire services until the story appears in the next day's newspaper.

Now I am not coming from a hardline perspective on illegal immigration. I believe that all illegals currently in this country should be given amnesty, but that it should be the last time, and that the amnesty should be given in conjunction with a serious increase in border security. I do believe that CNN is being overly sympathetic to Illegals in this example, and I base that on the words which they chose to use in conveying their simple message.

Then again I could be over reacting, because I'm bored. Let me know what you think.

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Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Friday, December 15, 2006

I've been saying this for years.....and I'll keep saying it....

.....but I've been busy with finals and a whole mess of other stuff, so I'll let Matt Ladner say it for me this time.

Lot's of year end punditry coming soon.


Want to reduce poverty? Lower those tax rates.
Building a strong economy – and helping the poor – means keeping taxes and government spending low.
By Matthew Ladner

PHOENIX – When the US government ended "welfare as we know it" in 1996, it handed responsibility for reform to the states. In so doing, it also created a real-world test of two competing economic strategies used to fight poverty. The results are in and the lessons are clear: Low tax rates lift up the lives of America's poor.
Many people argue that government can reduce poverty by "redistributing" wealth through progressive taxation - imposing higher tax rates on higher income brackets - and through more government spending.

Most economists, however, say the best way to reduce poverty is through stronger economic growth. Growth means more jobs, a surefire antipoverty plan. Building a strong economy means keeping taxes and government spending low.

A study published last month by the Goldwater Institute, "How to Win the War on Poverty: An Analysis of State Poverty Trends," tests these different theories by examining state poverty rates from 1990 to 2000.

Nationwide, states took great strides in reducing both general and childhood poverty. Poverty fell by 5.3 percent and childhood poverty by 9.4 percent. Some states, however, reduced poverty much more than others, while some states suffered large increases.

Take Colorado. It reduced its childhood poverty rate by almost 27 percent. Meanwhile, Rhode Island's childhood poverty rate increased by almost the same amount. What accounts for those differences?

Using data from the Census Bureau, the report found that states with the lowest tax rates enjoyed sizable decreases in poverty. For example, the 10 states with the lowest total state and local tax burdens saw an average poverty reduction of 13 percent - two times better than the national average. The 10 highest-tax states, meanwhile, suffered an average increase in poverty of 3 percent.

Some high-tax states, such as California, Hawaii, and New York, suffered catastrophic increases in poverty. As California began to reject the low-tax legacy of the Reagan governorship, the state's poverty rate jumped 13 percent in the 1990s.

Some will be quick to dismiss this as a consequence of illegal immigration. But lower-tax border states such as Arizona and Texas had substantial declines in poverty while also experiencing large increases in immigration.

In fact, California's high taxation has been so damaging to the economy that another increase like the one in the 1990s would result in poverty exceeding Mississippi's by 2010.

When a state has a low tax burden, economic growth is stronger. Economic growth delivers more job creation and higher per capita and median family incomes. Economic growth is a powerful means to pull people out of poverty.

Although some policymakers justify high taxes for the sake of the poor, the data show that higher taxes and related spending do little to reduce poverty rates. Rather, states with healthy economic climates have much more success in lifting people out of poverty.

The causes of, and solutions to, poverty are complex, but one policy is clear: Low tax rates are a significant factor in achieving the universal goal of poverty reduction.

Matthew Ladner is vice president for research at the Goldwater Institute, a public policy organization in Phoenix



Any liberal's out there care to respond? Anyone? Beuller?

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Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Idiots In The News # 2

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New 007 Daniel Craig says he wants the secret agent to do a gay love scene in the next Bond film saying:
"Why not? I think in this day and age, fans would have accepted it."
First they ruin the rainbow for everyone and now James Bond.
Possible new Bond catchphrase: "May I push in your stool?"

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It's official. Idiocy is contagious.

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Operation: "Make Paris Hilton look like less of a skank" appears to be off to a pheonomenal start.

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So Gwen thinks that "The British are much more intelligent and civilized than the Americans." This from a woman who named her kid Apple. I suppose however that compared to her collegues in this nation's music and film industry who Gwen spends most of her time with, George Galloway is a real MENSA candidate.

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"All I'm saying is..hic..that besides you Rosie..hic, my wife is the hottest woman in Hollywood...hic. "

Where are the human rights advocates? They should be all over this guy for making fun of the mentally ill and people who stutter. Once again "The View" proves itself as a breeding ground for stupitity.

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"Happy Kwanza Everyone."
Question: What's dumber, Michael Richards or Kwanza?

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Monday, December 04, 2006

Bolton's Departure Is Bad News For The U.N.

Anyone who still opposes John Bolton's presence as the U.N. either hasn't been paying very close attention, or is so blinded by partisanship that they have ceased to do what's in the best interest of the US and the broken world body which it hosts and funds.

In other words....The Democrats and their liberal money men.

Will the UN ever work again? Rumor has it that George Mitchell will be pegged to fill Bolton's position, more on this later.

As I have said before, it's going to take someone who is going to honestly tell the beuracrats at the UN that they are on the verge of making the world body irrelivant, to fix the problem.

Bolton was perfect for the job, but it's obvious that the Democrat's are not as inerested in "Draining the Swamp" at the UN as they claim to be about draining the one in Washington.


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December 05, 2006
Partisan Politics Defeat Bolton Nomination
By Jack Kelly

Now more than ever we need a strong voice at the United Nations. But petty partisan politics has deprived us of one of the strongest ever. Most important is what the UN will or won't do about Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons. An effective UN sanctions regime may be the only step, short of war, that can keep weapons Hitler only dreamed of out of their hands.

Push is coming to shove. The U.S., the four other permanent members of the Security Council, and Germany are meeting in Paris Tuesday to agree on the text of a UN resolution. This is not a time for the US delegation to be leaderless.

Push is also coming to shove in Lebanon, where Hezbollah, the Shiite militia backed by Iran and Syria, is trying to force the democratically elected Lebanese government to resign. The purpose of the Hezbollah putsch, many think, is to derail the UN inquiry into the 2005 assassination of former prime minister Rafik Hariri, in which Syria is implicated.

The Oil for Food and related scandals have shown the UN bureaucracy is rife with corruption. There will be no meaningful reform of the UN without vigorous American leadership.

But the White House announced Monday that UN Ambassador John Bolton will leave his post when Congress adjourns this week.

This is not because of any shortcoming in Mr. Bolton. He has been the most effective UN ambassador since Jeanne Kirkpatrick (1981-85) and Daniel Patrick Moynihan (1975-76). But he was serving as an interim appointee because he could not obtain senate confirmation.

Mr. Bolton's resignation "represents a tremendous blow to the effectiveness of U.S. leadership at the UN, as it disrupts the continuity of our diplomacy at a critical moment," said Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn, who in the expiring Congress chaired a subcommittee which investigated the Oil for Food scandal, in which Saddam Hussein bribed UN staff members and officials in France, Russia and Britain.

"Ambassador Bolton's tireless diplomatic efforts yielded considerable results, including Security Council resolutions condemning North Korea's nuclear activities and a call for UN peacekeepers in Darfur," Sen. Coleman said. "He has built a consensus among our allies on the need to constrain Iran's nuclear program and work towards reform of the UN."

It's been customary for the senate to confirm a president's nominees for executive branch positions -- provided the nominee is qualified, and there are no issues of moral turpitude. (Federal judges, who serve for life, are another story.) But most Democrats in the senate -- including all those on the Foreign Relations committee -- opposed Mr. Bolton when the president nominated him in January, 2005.

There were enough votes on the floor of the senate to confirm Mr. Bolton. But the defection of two liberal Republicans on the Foreign Relations committee sealed his fate.

Initially, it was Sen. George Voinovich of Ohio. But after watching Mr. Bolton at work for a year, Sen. Voinovich changed his mind: "He has demonstrated his ability...to work with others and followt he president's lead by working multilaterally," Sen. Voinovich said in a statement in July.

Then the fly in the ointment became Sen. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, an initial supporter of Mr. Bolton, whose switch doomed hope the lame duck senate would confirm him.

"The American people have spoken out against the president's agenda on a number of issues, and presumably one of those is on foreign policy," said Sen. Chafee, who was defeated in the election. "At this late stage in my term, I'm not going to endorse something the American people have spoken out against."

But Americans are unhappy about Iraq, not about Mr. Bolton's stellar performance at the UN.

Ostensibly, Democrats opposed Mr. Bolton because he'd been an outspoken critic of the UN, and because he'd been said by some to be a difficult person to work with...a criterion which, if universally applied, would sharply circumscribe Hillary Clinton's opportunities in public service. But I suspect much of the Democratic pique was derived from Mr. Bolton's role in the Florida recount in 2000. When it comes to politics, Democrats have long memories, and hold grudges.

It's appalling to me that Democrats would let partisan pique deprive America of as able a public servant as John Bolton at this critical time.

James Webb, the senator-elect from Virginia, made headlines when he snubbed President Bush at a White House reception last month for the new members of Congress. Some commentators described his behavior as uniquely boorish. But I think he'll fit right in

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Friday, December 01, 2006