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| Dr. David Marlett, Editor | 16 March 2001 | Vol. II #40 | ||
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| Dr. David Marlett, Editor | 16 March 2001 | Vol. II #40 | ||
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"Meanwhile, back inside the Beltway, the latest fiscal gizmo has surfaced - the so-called 'trigger.' Five 'moderate' Republican senators have joined with six 'moderate' Democratic senators in proposing that tax cuts be halted in any year the federal government fails to reach its debt-reduction target. In other words, the more Congress fails to control spending, the more it will be rewarded with tax windfalls.
"Mind you, this 'trigger' idea comes from members of a body that repeatedly blew holes through numerous spending caps in recent years; that lacked the guts to sequester spending when the Gramm-Rudman deficit targets were repeatedly missed; and that failed utterly to deliver the 3-for-1 spending cuts Congress promised Ronald Reagan in 1982 in exchange for a tax increase. If these 'moderate' senators are so enamored with the idea of enforcing a 'trigger', let them do so on the spending side of the budget ledger." [ Washington Times ]
The AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington, D.C. has been undergoing extensive interior and exterior refurbishment over the past 18 months. And given that it is the AFL-CIO building, you'd assume the big laborites used all-union help.
But apparently the AFL-CIO wasn't looking for the union label as diligently as it expects other contractors to look. On several occasions, the union has hired non-union electrical and construction help. "Only if they couldn't find a local union shop to do it," says an in-house source. "But it did save us some money." If anyone knows about the high cost of union help, it's the AFL-CIO.
[ Washington Prowler ]
** Protect Your Personal Medical Records - Support H. J. Res. 38
High-paid lobbyists and special-interest groups are working feverishly to make us live by their rules; their definition of privacy. Only in Washington do words lose their meaning and, often times, start to mean the exact opposite. The so-called "medical privacy rule" recently adopted by the federal government gives us less privacy - not more. This new, 367-page-tiny-print regulation actually gives us less access and control of our own medical records while giving federal, state, and local governmental agencies - including law enforcement and research organizations, along with insurance companies, HMOs, drug companies, marketing companies and others - greater access and more control of our personal medical records. H. J. Res. 38 will repeal this 367-page rule.
"U.S. energy policy now stands at a crossroads, and the time has come for Mr. Bush to make a choice. He can either pursue a Kyoto agenda of carbon taxes and energy suppression, or he can pursue a prosperity agenda of tax relief and energy abundance. Mr. Bush would be well advised to champion free market energy policies and leave the Kyoto agenda to the dustbin of history." --Alan Keyes
TCN Comment: The Kyoto Treaty is bad policy based on bad science motivated by bad politics. There is no justification for ruining the global economy by over regulating industry due to the theories of a few crackpot so-called scientists. Many good scientists call the global warming theory a farce. Until they can be proven wrong the Kyoto Treaty should be the crackpot's folly that it is and laughed to scorn.
"Excuse me, but I don't think [public education] is working the way it should be. The reality is, New York City spends $12 billion on its school system. If you can't do a better job than you are doing right now, it is not because of the money, it is because of the system." --New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani after being jeered during his address to a national conference of teachers and administrators.
"The idea of a public school monopoly is dead." --Secretary of Education Rod Paige
TCN Comment: Public education failed the test of public utility many years ago. The only reason that increases in funding continue to provide life support is that so much of that federal funding is returned to the politicians in campaign contributions. If campaign finance reforms should limit the size of contributions from the teachers' unions, you can guarantee that vouchers will be approved and public school enrollment will drop faster than the value of dot-com stocks.
Don't expect campaign finance to make such a change however. The teachers' unions gave $6,027,393 to various campaigns during the 2000 election cycle. While 96% of that went to the losers, you can be sure that the DemocRATS will defend that source of easy money.
"As usual in government, the devil is in the details." --Gary Bauer, chairman of Campaign for Working Families in reference to Bush's "faith" ba$ed initiatives.
"Any faith-based program that accepts government funds will...be required to pay an even bigger price in the loss of their primary message." --Cal Thomas pointing out that devil.
"The needless and tragic deaths at Columbine, Santana and other schools where shooting sprees have snuffed out young lives are part of the high cost already being paid for the fetish of disarming law-abiding people." --Thomas Sowell
"If a tax cut of this magnitude is enacted, it is essentially going to starve all of the programs that the organizations in this room care about." --Charles Loveless, director of legislation for the government employees' union AFSCME
"If Democrats simply try to mimic [moderate] Republicans, then they shall fail and, more important, we shall fail. The Democratic Party, in many respects, is dead." --Former Clintonista Robert Reich
TCN Comment: Republicans trying to mimic moderate Demos – take note!
Santana High School, the site of last week's fatal "schoolyard shooting," was near completion of a three-year $123,000 grant from the Department of Justice to study the school's "onerous culture of bullying." The San Diego County Sheriff's Department accounting of grant funds lists $18,000 for personnel, $15,000 for travel, $42,000 for supplies, and $47,000 for consultants.
[ The Federalist ]
Quote: "Santana High did everything modern schools do to reduce the chance of violence. They had counselors, conflict resolution, anger management and the rest. We are finding that without basic morality these are useless." --Mona Charen
And last, still trying to divine a win for Albert Gore in Florida, the Palm Beach Post recounted 19,125 "overvotes" -- ballots with holes punched for more than one candidate. Of that number, there were 8,238 votes for Albert Gore -- and somebody else -- while there were only 1,631 voters for George W. Bush -- and somebody else. That led the Palm Beach Post to conclude that the net difference of 6,607 votes were really intended for Al Gore.
Our conclusion -- Stupid Demos outnumber stupid Repubs by 5-1!
[ The Federalist ]
Judicial Watch, the public interest law firm that investigates and prosecutes government abuse and corruption, has filed pleadings in an attempt to block the James Riady plea agreement in the Chinagate scandal. Unfortunately, it would appear that even under new Attorney General, John Ashcroft, the Department of Justice is allowing this sham plea agreement to go through.
James Riady is a Communist Chinese agent whose company, Lippo Group, placed John Huang at the Commerce Department through the Clinton-Gore White House, where Huang gained access to over 150 national security briefings. Riady and his Lippo Group, through former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, further subverted the U.S. election process in the 1996 elections. He not only paid bribes to Webster Hubbell, but is currently bankrolling former convicted Arkansas Governor, Jim Guy Tucker, a Whitewater criminal who is reported to now be living in Indonesia.
"It would be a disgrace if the Bush Justice Department allows this plea agreement to go through. Judicial Watch is doing whatever it can to convince the court that it would be another miscarriage of justice to let this happen," stated Judicial Watch Chairman and General Counsel Larry Klayman.
See the court documents
[ Judicial Watch ]
Many people are familiar with the work of Dr. John Lott. His massive research of our country's crime data encompassed all 3,000 plus counties for an 18 year period.
Lott presented his work in a book entitled More Guns, Less Crime. His work has subsequently corroborated by researchers in nearly four dozen of our country's institutions of higher learning.
Well, Lott's work has been corroborated by Al Gore. Actually, George Bush also helped.
Most people have probably seen the map of the country's voting by counties. The one most of us saw showed the Bush counties in red and the Gore counties in blue.
The Gore vote was primarily along both coasts as well as other urban pockets in the rest of the country. The Bush vote was the great expanse of the rest of the country.
Well, thanks to Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota, we now know something else about those counties.
In the Gore counties, the murder rate is 13.2 per 100,000.
In the Bush counties, the murder rate is 2.1 per 100,000.
What do urban centers have in common around the country? Try to get a concealed carry permit and you will find out. In fact, in Washington, DC, New York City, Chicago and a few others, just owning a handgun will be impossible.
What had Lott found was the reason for the lowering of violent crime in various jurisdictions? Passage of concealed carry laws.
Indeed, the longer such laws have been on the books, the lower the violent crime rates go, including murder.
Where you live matters a lot. Thanks to Bush and Gore making this decision has been made much easier.
[Larry Pratt, GOA ]
A former chief economist for the United States Sentencing Commission and a fellow at the University of Chicago, Lott conducted the first comprehensive study of concealed handgun laws.
Far from relying on mere correlation, he used a sophisticated multiple regression analysis to control for variables such as demographics, arrest and conviction rates, and changes in gun laws. While previous researchers relied on data from cherry-picked areas and time periods, Lott studied 18 years of data from all 3,054 counties in the United States.
Being politically naive, however, he failed to anticipate the firestorm he ignited when he announced that not only do concealed handgun laws deter murder, rape, and aggravated assault, but that allowing licensed concealed handguns in all states could prevent 1,570 murders, 4,177 rapes and more than 60,000 aggravated assaults each year.
The Liberal Establishment attacked Lott's study as biased, flawed and as slander, but were never able to name a specific problem with his methodology or his findings… they just weren't PC, so they were wrong.
While concealed handgun opponents are loath to mention it, John Lott is now a senior research scholar at prestigious Yale Law School... gun industry slander, "flawed" methodology, and all.
[ From an article by F. Paul Valone, GOA ]
The free-speech-demolition experts in the Canadian government just shut down the website of the anti-registration organization in Canada known as the Law-abiding Unregistered Firearms Association. You can go to their site and see for yourself: http://www.LUFA.ca, and read a message that should make an American gun owner stop and think.
The Canadian government's shutting down that website is a testament to Mr. Hutton's effectiveness and their cowardice.
Bruce Hutton has been a man of conviction for quite some time. He founded his organization as a direct response to the Canadian government's blatant pre-confiscation "laws" calling for the registration of firearms nationwide. Mr. Hutton has been among the most outspoken people on this issue in his entire nation -- he put his life, fortune and sacred honor on the line, big time. If all American gun owners had his level of commitment running through their veins, Dianna Feinstein, Chucky Schumer and their ilk would be shoe salesmen.
We support any and all resistance to the registration of firearms, because registration has led to confiscation -- without exception -- throughout history, in several nations including right here in the good ole US of A.
TCN Comment: Socialism is always a step toward tyranny. We in the US should watch Canada and learn from her actions. Canada has long been the model pointed out by those trying to socialize medicine in the US, but we must understand that socialism has never produced anything except enslaved people.
As we have seen hear, when the right of law-abiding people to own a gun is taken away, their right to speak freely is soon to fall also.
By The Way: US based KABA has offered LUFA free web space to give them their voice back. Thanks KABA!
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