Much of the world has greeted Ahmadinejad’s promise to wipe Israel off the map with something close to insouciance. In fact, it could almost be said of the Europeans that they have been more upset by Ahmadinejad’s denial that a Holocaust took place 60 years ago than by his determination to set off one of his own as soon as he acquires the means to do so. In a number of European countries, Holocaust denial is a crime, and the European Union only recently endorsed that position. Yet for all their retrospective remorse over the wholesale slaughter of Jews back then, the Europeans seem no readier to lift a finger to prevent a second Holocaust than they were the first time around.

Not so George W. Bush, a man who knows evil when he sees it and who has demonstrated an unfailingly courageous willingness to endure vilification and contumely in setting his face against it. It now remains to be seen whether this President, battered more mercilessly and with less justification than any other in living memory, and weakened politically by the enemies of his policy in the Middle East in general and Iraq in particular, will find it possible to take the only action that can stop Iran from following through on its evil intentions both toward us and toward Israel. As an American and as a Jew, I pray with all my heart that he will.

Source

Labels: iran

Clinton has merely updated the old and discredited (except among socialist dictators) Karl Marx saying: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need."

That's why I worry when I hear politicians say things like, "I believe in free trade, but it has to be fair trade". That particular quote is from a presidential contender, Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas.

"Fair trade" is code for protectionism disguised as retaliation against other countries that may or may not practice protectionism, and it's a bad sign when even Republicans talk about "fair" rather than "free" trade.

We should practice free trade no matter what others do. Why? Because freedom is good in itself. If foreign governments want to hurt their citizens, it's no reason for ours to hurt us.

Labels: clintons, economics, the good guys

Meanwhile, multiple sources around Caracas report that at a recent cabinet meeting, Chávez excoriated his ministers for disobeying his "orders" to stop inflation. Inflation has been spiraling as a result of Chávez's reckless economic "policies" (if that is not too charitable a term). As a result, Chávez was moved to impose price controls in many categories of basic foodstuffs, which has predictably led to food shortages (despite huge oil windfalls) which has led to decrees obligating farmers and supermarkets to keep producing and selling, even if they incur losses.

In his economic incompetence, as in his taste for dictatorship, as in his sadism, Hugo truly walks in the footsteps of his mentor Fidel – as much as he can. Let us hope that he does not as thoroughly ruin his beautiful country.

Source

Labels: democrats

Hillary Clinton announced that she would campaign on a platform that would emphasize the need for collective economics and move away from individual performance and success. It could be called an extension of "It Takes A Village," and it might have been -- had the newspapers bothered to cover it.

This kind of rhetoric isn't new for Hillary. She has promoted collectivist economics for two decades now. Her effort to nationalize health care reflected the same kind of thinking, and this statement shows that she hasn't learned much from that debacle. Almost three years ago, she promised that she would "take things away from [Americans] for the common good," back when the economy had just started its latest expansion. That's collectivism, and it's not limited to Hillary among Democratic candidates.

Source

Hillary: Who’s in the mood for a little collectivism? We’re all in it together!

Say this much for the Glacier: however much her surname, her accent, her choice of baseball team, or her position on Iraq may change, her belief in taking things away from you for the common good remains evergreen.

And the most charming part? How easily and naturally confiscatory rhetoric escapes her lips. “We might need to raise taxes” is a blue-party position; but “we’re going to take those profits”? That’s pure Green, baby.

Hey — that amnesty’s not going to pay for itself.

Source

"Fairness doesn’t just happen. It requires the right government policies."

Alrighty then. Question for Madame Hillary: Who in the government gets to decide what's "fair?"

Follow-up question: "And what exactly qualifies them as judges of 'fairness?'"

I thought so.

Labels: clintons, democrats, generational conflict

Labels: quotes

Marc Davis was one of Walt Disney's original Nine Old Men, and is a Disney Legend. As an artist he was single handedly responsible for the design of so many of the iconic female Disney characters.

But one of Marc's most beautiful designs never came to fruition. The Enchanted Snow Palace would have taken guests out of the Californian sun and into a world of magic and wonder, an oasis of cool and calm in the middle of the heat and excitement of Disneyland. Set in a building that looked like it had been carved out of a natural glacier, a river of melting ice would have taken guests on a boat ride past all manner of natural creatures in a frozen wilderness.

The boat would then pass underneath a display of the magical Northern Lights, the Aurora Borealis, and out of the 'real' world. Travellers would enter the realm of the Snow Queen...After being welcomed by the Queen's handmaidens the boat would eventually enter the throne room of the Snow Queen herself. She was to acknowledge the visitors with a wave of her beautiful pale hand, and as a parting gift she would cause snow to drift down upon them.

Labels: disney

ATLANTA -- John Smoltz became baseball's first pitcher with 200 wins and 150 saves, achieving the feat with a victory over one of his best friends.

Smoltz beat Tom Glavine with seven shutout innings and Matt Diaz homered to lead the Atlanta Braves to a 2-1 win over the New York Mets on Thursday night.

Making his third start of the season against Glavine, his Atlanta teammate from 1988-2002, Smoltz (7-2) became the NL's first seven-game winner.

The 40-year-old Smoltz gave up seven hits without a walk and struck out five. In back-to-back wins over Boston and the Mets, Smoltz has thrown 14 scoreless innings while allowing 10 hits and one walk.

Smoltz, 4-1 in May, lowered his ERA from 2.85 to 2.58.

Glavine also pitched well, giving up only five hits and two runs in six innings for the Mets, who were denied their sixth straight series win.

The Braves won two of three in the series to cut the Mets' lead in the NL East to 1½ games.

Source

Labels: baseball

Labels: the good guys

Rosie says that "WE" are the terrorists. This might finally explain why Time Magazine named "US" as person of the year.

Rock on.

Labels: democrats, islamofascism, left-wing media

Labels: democrats

Those were significant issues. But they weren’t enough to capture the attention of some committee Democrats, for whom there were more important questions to consider. Questions like: Where did Monica go to law school?

The short answer is Regent University Law School in Virginia Beach, Virginia, founded by televangelist Pat Robertson. The longer answer was provided by newly-elected Tennessee Democratic Rep. Stephen Cohen. Cohen had apparently read Wednesday morning’s edition of the Los Angeles Times, which described Regent this way:

Regent University claims 150 past and present members of the Bush administration among its alumni. Accredited by the American Bar Assn., the law school boasts of a "distinctive" Christian-based mission "to bring to bear the will of our Creator, Almighty God, upon legal education and the legal profession," according to its website.

A quick student of the Times, Cohen asked Goodling, "The mission of the law school you attended, Regent, is to bring to bear upon legal education and the legal profession the will of almighty God, our creator. What is the will of almighty God, our creator, on the legal profession?"

Goodling seemed perplexed. "I’m not sure that I could define that question for you," she said.

Source

Angry Atheists Are Hot Authors

Richard Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary, a prominent evangelical school in Pasadena, Calif., said the books' success reflect a new vehemence in the atheist critique.

"I don't believe in conspiracy theories," Mouw said, "but it's almost like they all had a meeting and said, 'Let's counterattack.'"

The war metaphor is apt. The writers see themselves in a battle for reason in a world crippled by superstition. In their view, Muslim extremists, Jewish settlers and Christian right activists are from the same mold, using fairy tales posing as divine scripture to justify their lust for power. Bad behavior in the name of religion is behind some of the most dangerous global conflicts and the terrorist attacks in the U.S., London and Madrid, the atheists say.

As Hitchens puts it: "Religion kills."

The Rev. Douglas Wilson, senior fellow in theology at New Saint Andrews College, a Christian school in Moscow, Idaho, sees the books as a sign of secular panic. He says nonbelievers are finally realizing that, contrary to what they were taught in college, faith is not dead.

Signs of believers' political and cultural might abound.

Religious challenges to teaching evolution are still having an impact, 80 years after the infamous Scopes "Monkey" trial. The dramatic growth in homeschooling and private Christian schools is raising questions about the future of public education. Religious leaders have succeeded in putting some limits on stem-cell research.

Source

Labels: democrats

Labels: clintons

Is the Sky Falling on America?
By Victor Davis Hanson

Books by liberals assure us that our "empire" is kaput. Brace for the inevitable fate of Rome. Conservatives are just as glum. For them, we are also Romans - but the more decadent variety, eaten away from the inside.

Yet American Cassandras are old stuff. Grim Charles Lindberg in the late 1930s lectured a Depression-era America that Hitler's new order in Germany could only be appeased, never opposed.

In the last 60 years, we have been warned in succession that new paradigms in racially pure Germany, the Soviet workers' paradise, Japan Inc. and now 24/7 China all were about to displace the United States. None did. All have had relative moments of amazing success - but in the end none proved as resilient, flexible and adaptable as America.

That brings us to the United States' greatest strength: radical self-critique. We Americans are worrywarts, always believing we're on the verge of extinction. And so, to "renew," "reinvent" or "save" America, we whip ourselves up about "wars" on poverty, drugs and cancer; space "races;" missile "gaps;" literacy "crusades;" and "campaigns" against litter, waste and smoking.

In other words, we nail-biters have always been paranoid that we must change and improve in order to survive. And thus we usually do - just in time.

Read more

Labels: end times

Labels: clintons

Crisis forces Teheran to ration petrol

The scale of Iran's economic crisis became clear yesterday when the regime increased petrol prices by 25 per cent overnight and prepared to introduce fuel rationing.

These measures may damage President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's popular standing still further. In a country with 70 million people - at least half of whom are under 25 - the economy is stagnant and failing.

High unemployment means that millions of students are unable to find jobs while prices of basic goods rise every month.

Source

Navy Stages Show of Force Off Iran Coast

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - The U.S. Navy staged its latest show of military force off the Iranian coastline on Wednesday, sending two aircraft carriers and landing ships packed with 17,000 U.S. Marines and sailors to carry out unannounced exercises in the Persian Gulf.

The carrier strike groups led by the USS John C. Stennis and USS Nimitz were joined by the amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard and its own strike group, which includes landing ships carrying members of the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit.

Source

Labels: iran, left-wing media

Bestiality: It’s Dubya’s fault!

I’m a pretty tolerant sort of gal and I can feel empathy for a wide variety of folks, but come on! They’re men...having sex...with horses!

And it’s apparently the fault of George W. Bush and his war.

Read more

Labels: democrats, left-wing media

Labels: disney, weekend

Labels: weekend

El Burro Es Muy Quieto

Not a single hee-haw on DNC website about the major issue of the day. Absolute silence. No praise for Teddy for rolling W on immigration.

Analysts at the Heritage Foundation have the current legislative text of the immigration deal and are alarmed at provisions they view as dangerous loopholes. They point out that once the bill is signed its language appears to create a "cease and desist" order on law enforcement given what looks like a prima facie assumption that any illegal alien is eligible for amnesty and can therefore be given preliminary legal status. Under the "Treatment of Application" section, once an application for the new "Z" visa has been filed, it appears that the government has only "one business day" to identity a disqualifying factor or the visa must be issued. And lots of provisions are apparently able to be waived by Cabinet secretaries so there's plenty of discretion for the next Clinton administration.

Labels: immigration

There are some things that you just know are a bad idea. Leaving teenagers unsupervised on a weekend. Letting the neighbor who can't even remember your name "borrow" your new rider mower. And trusting a "bipartisan" bill from Congress.

What a piece of work, this latest thing on "Immigration Reform".

It's got something for everyone, which is what usually happens when committees of poll-driven narcissists put out public policy. There are Republicans who like it, there are Republicans who hate it, there are Democrats who like it, there are Democrats who hate it, there are both Republicans and Democrats who won't say whether they like it until they find out from their staff which position is more poll-popular in their state or district. The whole issue of Immigration Reform has been a total mess for years, and it's not as if putting Pelosi and Reid in charge of the whorehouse has improved the character of the lineup.

As you might expect, I give President Bush a little slack for this. The GOP-controlled Congress sat on its hands rather than deal with this for years, so it's not as if he could expect Donkey Kong to get it right. And like it or not, President Bush's 2007 position on Immigration Reform is the same as it was in 2000 when he first ran for President...

Labels: immigration

Congress Approval Down to 29%; Bush Approval Steady at 33%

According to the May 10-13, 2007, Gallup Poll, 29% of Americans approve and 64% disapprove of the way Congress is handling its job. Congressional approval is down 4 percentage points since last month, and is 3 points lower than the 32% average measured during the first five months of the year. The high point for the congressional approval rating so far this year was the 37% approval measured in February. Although ratings are quite low, Americans have been more positive in their assessments of Congress this year than last year, when an average of just 25% approved of Congress.

Source: Gallup

Labels: democrats

Labels: immigration

Clinton aide forfeits law license in Justice probe

Samuel R. Berger, the Clinton White House national security adviser who was caught taking highly classified documents from the National Archives, has agreed to forfeit his license to practice law...

Labels: clintons, democrats

I began the day as I begin most weekdays - by quickly flipping on my local NPR affiliate. Please don't panic. This is because they have an outstanding local weather broadcast, which is their only redeeming feature. The danger of catching that is that one often catches the tail end of the "local news" (sic), and this can too often be emetic.

This was one of those mornings - in spades.

Apparently, NPR secular-saint Cokie Roberts was in the general vicinity yesterday to receive an honorary doctorate. I figured this out near the end, since I had the partial good fortune to only catch the latter part of the associated drivel-fest, but that was enough...

Labels: left-wing media

Despite what happened to Democrats as a result of that tax hike, the budget they submitted their first year back in control of both houses of Congress — and pushed through Thursday on a party-line vote — provides a framework for tax hikes a full three times larger than the one that put them in the minority back then. It means a tax hike on every single American — working, retired, rich or poor — and, even as it aims to raise nearly $1 trillion with new taxes, does absolutely nothing to rein in spending or shore up an entitlement system badly in need of reform.

Everyone takes a hit. Forty-five million working families with two children will see their taxes increase by nearly $3,000 annually. They’d see the current child tax credit cut in half — from $1,000 to $500. The standard deduction for married couples is also cut in half, from the current $3,400 to $1,700. The overall effect on married couples with children is obvious: Far from shifting the burden onto the wealthy, the Democratic budget drives up taxes on the average American family by more than 130 percent.

Seniors get hit hard too. Democrats like to crow that only the richest one percent of Americans benefit from the stimulative tax cuts Republicans passed in 2001 and 2003. What they rarely mention is how much seniors benefited from those cuts in the form of increased income as a result of lower taxes on dividends and capital gains. More than half of all seniors today claim income from these two sources, and the Democratic budget would lower the income of every one of them by reversing every one of those cuts.

Read more

Labels: democrats

In a Time Magazine article, Gore says that he has “fallen out of love with politics.” He fails to mention that politics was never in love with him. Is there any pain like unreciprocated love?

So what political implications does Al Gore’s purported change of heart have? According to the Goracle, “I'm not convinced the presidency is the highest and best role I could play.” Yes, this is the Al Gore we’ve come to know and love. Oh dear – the man’s ego is expanding more rapidly than his waistline.

What Gore fails to mention is that the race for the Democratic nomination is a ship that has sailed while he aimlessly lumbered about the dock. Unlike Republicans, Democrats are positively giddy with their slate of candidates. The Nutroots adore Edwards, and would enthusiastically support Obama. They would even hold their collective nose and fall in line behind Hillary because she is perceived to be electable.

Read more

Labels: democrats

Stare Down is Over, GOP Wins in Early Rounds

Earlier today, House Democrats, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), today sought to rewrite the rules of the House to prevent PAYGO offsets from expanding the scope of germaneness to further what Republicans may offer in their motions to recommit the bills to Committee. Such a change would allow House Democrats to more easily raise taxes and increase government spending without being held to account. The move would have marked the first change in the germaneness rule since 1822 and is a direct infringement on the rights of the Minority in the House and the Americans that they represent. The Republican Study Committee Floor Action Team, under the leadership of Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA), began requesting a series of procedural protest votes every 30 minutes in response to this power grab by the Majority, and was joined Rep. Tom Price, another member of the RSC floor Action Team. Today was a big win for all Republicans in the House.

Labels: democrats, the good guys

Freedom House has identified “the worst of the worst” — that is, the most repressive regimes on earth. (For a story, go here.) North Korea is there, of course, and Burma, and Sudan — and Cuba. That’s a head-scratcher. I was taught that Castro’s is a just society where health care and literacy abound, where black people are respected, and where the poor have dignity. Is that not true? Was I possibly misled? But Wayne Smith, Jorge Domínguez, Anita Snow, Lucia Newman, PBS, and NPR wouldn’t lie...would they?

For some people, George W. Bush can do nothing right. He is not allowed to do one thing right — because he is either a demon or a dufus, depending. Depending on what? Depending on his critics’ rhetorical, ideological, or psychological need at the moment.

Anyway, Bush was again absolutely charming when conducting a symphony orchestra in Virginia. You can read about it here. And the photos [including the one above] are especially good. The anti-Bushies will be nauseated — because Bush can do nothing right, nothing interesting, nothing endearing, nothing graceful, nothing human. Balanced people, I think, will smile.

Labels: the good guys

If you have any doubts about anything in the world – the purposes of money, the transience of joy, the point of it all, frankly – it is swept away the second you watch your daughter running barefoot through the grass in the dusk to see the fireworks burst over the lagoon.

You’d make many new urbanists bust a cerebral artery if you suggested that communities should resemble Disneyland – but it’s everything many theorists want. Few cars, central shopping accessed by walking or electric carts, circular feeder busses and a planned economy that set aside one-third of the land for preservation.

The music! The architecture! The trains! From the very first moment, it’s like a live wire jammed into your Disney Lobe, a part of your brain that’s been rewiring since you were very small, just so it could release endorphins at this very moment.

Labels: disney

The Anger Of The Left
By Thomas Sowell

That people on the political left have a certain set of opinions, just as people do in other parts of the ideological spectrum, is not surprising. What is surprising, however, is how often the opinions of those on the left are accompanied by hostility and even hatred.

Particular issues can arouse passions here and there for anyone with any political views. But, for many on the left, indignation is not a sometime thing. It is a way of life.

How often have you seen conservatives or libertarians take to the streets, shouting angry slogans? How often have conservative students on campus shouted down a visiting speaker or rioted to prevent the visitor from speaking at all?

Read more

Labels: democrats

In short, Selig, a former owner, has had an executive view of this sport’s underbelly for decades. When baseballs began flying out of stadiums like Superballs, when players like Brady Anderson morphed into statistical cartoons (from 16 home runs to 50?), when Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa did their best to obliterate memories of Roger Maris, Selig and owners didn’t investigate. They wore blinders in the light and counted ticket sales in the dark.

Never mind waiting until Bonds is only a swing away from tying Aaron. Selig should be there now. He should be made to watch Bonds’ every swing. So should anybody who ever allowed this era’s chemically enhanced assault on history to take place.

Every owner who focused on turnstiles and dollars.

Every TV executive who counted rating points.

Every union representative who stiff-armed cries for mandatory drug testing.

Watch.

Suffer.

Drink it up, like a hemlock smoothie.

But this is baseball’s freak show, and Selig should not be allowed to hide from it. He can always crawl back under the rock when it’s over.

According to Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, the San Francisco Chronicle reporters who wrote "Game of Shadows: Barry Bonds, BALCO, and the Steroids Scandal That Rocked Professional Sports," Mike Murphy, equipment manager of the San Francisco Giants, testified that since Bonds became a Giant in 1993, the size of his uniform jersey has gone from 42 to 52. His cap size has expanded from 7 1/8 to 7 1/4, even though while it was expanding he shaved his head. (Bonds reportedly shaved his head because his hair was falling out as a result of steroid use.) And Fainaru-Wada and Williams also say Murphy testified that Bonds's baseball shoe size has changed from 10½ to 13.

Labels: baseball

Labels: weekend

Braves' Cox passes Sparky Anderson in managing wins

PITTSBURGH -- Atlanta's Bobby Cox moved past Sparky Anderson into fourth place in career managerial victories when the Braves beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 9-2 on Saturday night, Cox's 2,195th victory in the majors.

Source

Labels: baseball

Top Democratic leaders and activists see Hispanic migration as a long-term opportunity for the party. The arrival of additional immigrant workers is "bad for blue-collars," Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, told National Journal late last year. But immigrants can help elect Democratic majorities, and "if [a Democratic Congress] were to significantly strengthen unions, then you would offset the negative effect on the income of workers," he said.

Labels: democrats, immigration

Labels: democrats, left-wing media

Nielsens: Real Bad Week for Katie Couric

NEW YORK (AP) - It surely wasn't what CBS dreamed about when Katie Couric was hired: the "CBS Evening News" last week recorded its smallest audience since and probably many years before that.

It also didn't help that the average of 6.05 million viewers came at the beginning of the important May ratings "sweeps."

CBS averaged 11.2 million viewers in prime time (7.3 rating, 12 share), while ABC had 10.7 million (7.0, 12). Fox averaged 10.1 million (6.1, 10), but won among the 18-to-49-year-old viewers it considers most important. NBC had 7.5 million viewers (4.9, 8), the CW had 3.1 million (2.0, 3), My Network TV had 880,000 (0.6, 1) and ION Television had 560,000 (0.4, 1).

Labels: democrats, left-wing media

A single writer has more readers and national influence than an entire organization of several hundred employees and several million dollars of budget. The fact that the Red Star's actual star is a Red Stater further humiliates them.

...because the media is so overwhelmingly liberal it's doubtful that CBS could actually hire the talent needed to field a full network news organization should it make a break to the right. The resignations and the outright refusals to tender job applications would turn the division into a ghost-town. The liberal media types just couldn't live with themselves if they were working for "The Enemy."

So, Lileks was the Red Star's most famous, most quoted, most widely read writer. So what? Malone notes this as if that's a good thing. It's not, at least not from the Red Star's perspective. They just can't live with themselves for granting such a degenerate font of evil to speak from their platform.

The Red Star will go back to being an unread rag, scarcely read even in Minnesota. But in their hearts they'll know they did the right thing, and are happier being more pure and more ignored.

Labels: left-wing media

Labels: democrats, economics, left-wing media

Labels: democrats, left-wing media

Brown Widow Spiders Migrating Westward Into Louisiana

NEW ORLEANS — Louisiana bug experts say the poisonous brown widow spider, a cousin to the well-known black widow, is increasingly being spotted in Louisiana.

The spiders are generally found in tropical areas but were reported along the Mississippi Gulf Coast last year.

Source

Labels: nature

Burke’s doc is a riveting and creatively made film about the most important subject of our time: what to do about radical Islam? It confronts this dilemma in a sly, novelistic manner, inter-weaving the stories of good, moderate Muslims with the Imams and supposedly "true Muslims" who, not surprisingly, accuse the moderate Muslims of not being Muslims at all. Soon enough we learn these Imams are apologists for terrorism and for the worst kind of medieval religious sadism. (One of them enthusiastically endorses the stoning to death of adulterers by holding up a Koran. "I didn’t make this up," he says proudly. "It is written here.") The mostly mild-mannered moderate Muslims are shown to be at risk for the lives, some of them accompanied everywhere by bodyguards.

PBS' views seem particularly troglodytic today in light of recent events at Fort Dix. But that is the least of it. What is far more important to our country is that our Public Broadcasting network, an organization supported by taxpayer money, is practicing the most obvious censorship. PBS is operating here in the manner of similar institutions in the former Soviet Union and in modern day Iran – financing artists and then withholding distribution of their work when it is not deemed ideologically "correct". It’s a form of thought-control and it’s unconscionable.

Labels: islamofascism, left-wing media

Labels: islamofascism

Labels: democrats

Asked the question, "Did Bush Know About the 9/11 Attacks in Advance?" a shocking 35% of Democrats said "yes," another 26% said they weren't sure, and only 39% said "no." In other words, a stunning 61% of Democrats believed that the President of the United States may well have collaborated in the murder of 3,000 of his fellow citizens.

Read more

Labels: democrats

WASHINGTON - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi used her clout to get lawmakers to back a San Francisco redevelopment project near her multimillion-dollar rental properties, disclosure documents reveal.

Pelosi got House members to authorize $25 million to improve the Embarcadero port area, clearing the way for cruise-ship-dock development and other improvements to aid the neighborhood's comeback.

But House financial-disclosure documents reveal that Pelosi's husband, Paul, owns four commercial real-estate properties near the Embarcadero, which is home to many restaurants and hotels.

Source

Labels: democrats

The French have had economic ennui that predates globalization. Their cradle-to-grave social system relied on fresh workers entering the workplace at a faster rate than they exited, much more so than Social Security and Medicare does here. When that native workforce began to dry up, they imported workers from North Africa and Turkey, which created the immigrant problem that helped Sarkozy win the election.

Source

Labels: economics

NEW YORK (AP) - One-third of Americans say they have a negative view of Katie Couric, her personal popularity lagging behind rivals Charles Gibson and Brian Williams just as her evening news program trails in the ratings.

She's handicapped by the number of people—29 percent in this poll—who explained their negative opinion by saying they simply "don't like her," Gallup said. Once one of the most popular personalities in TV news, her negative ratings crept up during her final years at "Today."

Democrats, feminists and others are taking note that Chris Matthews' question about whether it would be good if Bill Clinton was back in the White House basically makes Hillary — the wife and actual candidate — the bit player. It diminishes Hillary as her own person and reminds everyone that she is the smaller personality of the two.

SEN. BARBARA BOXER (D), CALIFORNIA: The president can't act as if he‘s king, Send me the bill, I'm going to veto it. Very macho-like. I don't think it's macho-like, I think it's just wrong.

Labels: democrats, left-wing media

"If betting favorite Curlin is to capture racing's most prized race, he will have to overcome not only history, but some pretty difficult circumstances to do so. Curlin, trained by Steve Asmussen and installed as a slight 7-2 favorite, did not race as a 2-year old and has just three races under his belt. It has been 125 years since a Derby winner won without racing as a 2-year old and 92 years since a horse has worn the roses after racing only three times prior to the first Saturday in May. To add more uncertainty to the equation, Curlin will have to leave from gate No. 2. No horse has won from that position since Affirmed did it in 1978."

Though newspapers are overwhelmingly staffed by lefties unaware of or indifferent to their biases, and though the agenda journalists that make up the senior leadership of most newsrooms are little more than a non-uniformed auxiliary of the DNC, still I love newspapers, though increasingly see only their online editions. The best of the online papers --the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post-- are wonderful to begin the morning with, and WSJ.com is so great that I suspect that Murdoch saw the future of news and decided to buy it and would have done so even if Fox News wasn't launching a business channel that needs great gobs of content.

Read more

Labels: left-wing media

Don't Be Late: The first few minutes are the best shut-up-sit-down-turn-off-your-cell-phone warning that's ever been committed to film.

Voice Cameos: Fred Armisen, Bruce Campbell, Tina Fey, Chris Kattan, "Neil Peart of Rush."

Labels: weekend

Labels: democrats

Labels: clintons

Labels: left-wing media

"I applaud the President's veto of the irresponsible and dangerous Iraq supplemental passed last week by a narrow majority in Congress.

The Iraq war is not 'lost' - but if this supplemental had become law, it would have been.

It is clear that there are not enough votes to override the President's veto of a mandated withdrawal from Iraq, so another attempt to impose one would have no effect other than to further delay the funding our troops need. Our soldiers are making extraordinary sacrifices every day on our behalf. The least we can do now is to get them the support they need without delay."

Read more