Texas Urges EU To Take A Flying Leap

Now that the Europeans have created a perfect society, they apparently think it’s time to start handing out unsolicited advice to Texas.

The EU expressed “great regret” at Texas’ preparations to carry out its 400th death penalty and renewed its call to the US to halt executions. The statement from the Portuguese presidency of the 27-nation bloc said: “The European Union strongly urges Governor Rick Perry to exercise all powers vested in his office to halt all upcoming executions and to consider the introduction of a moratorium in the state of Texas.”

Governor Perry, in true American form, told the EU to mind it’s own business.

“Two hundred and thirty years ago, our forefathers fought a war to throw off the yoke of a European monarch and gain the freedom of self-determination. Texans long ago decided the death penalty is a just and appropriate punishment for the most horrible crimes committed against our citizens. While we respect our friends in Europe … Texans are doing just fine governing Texas.” [source]

I don’t know much about Rick Perry, but I like this guy’s style.

The Wall Street Journal has uncovered some strange donations to the Hillary campaign. Like Yogi Berra said, “This is like deja vu all over again.”

Six members of the Paw family, each listing the house at 41 Shelbourne Ave. as their residence, have donated a combined $45,000 to the Democratic senator from New York since 2005, for her presidential campaign, her Senate re-election last year and her political action committee. In all, the six Paws have donated a total of $200,000 to Democratic candidates since 2005, election records show.

That total ranks the house with residences in Greenwich, Conn., and Manhattan’s Upper East Side among the top addresses to donate to the Democratic presidential front-runner over the past two years, according to an analysis by The Wall Street Journal of donations listed with the Federal Election Commission.

It isn’t obvious how the Paw family is able to afford such political largess. Records show they own a gift shop and live in a 1,280-square-foot house that they recently refinanced for $270,000. William Paw, the 64-year-old head of the household, is a mail carrier with the U.S. Postal Service who earns about $49,000 a year, according to a union representative. Alice Paw, also 64, is a homemaker. The couple’s grown children have jobs ranging from account manager at a software company to “attendance liaison” at a local public high school. One is listed on campaign records as an executive at a mutual fund.

The Paws’ political donations closely track donations made by Norman Hsu, a wealthy New York businessman in the apparel industry who once listed the Paw home as his address, according to public records. Mr. Hsu is one of the top fund-raisers for Mrs. Clinton’s presidential campaign. He has hosted or co-hosted some of her most prominent money-raising events.

Of course, Mr. Hsu is claiming that everything is legit and furthermore, this is racism. Oh yeah, racism.

Lawrence Barcella, a Washington attorney representing Mr. Hsu, said in a separate email: “You are barking up the wrong tree. There is no factual support for this story and if Mr. Hsu’s name was Smith or Jones, I don’t believe it would be a story.”

See Mr. Lawyerman, the last name in question here isn’t Hsu, it’s Clinton. Following the finance problems her husband had in ’96, you have to understand why people see this and think something is up here.

Kent Cooper, a former disclosure official with the Federal Election Commission, said the two-year pattern of donations justifies a probe of possible violations of campaign-finance law, which forbid one person from reimbursing another to make contributions.

“There are red lights all over this one,” Mr. Cooper said.

I wonder if those red lights look like Chinese lanterns.

Investor’s Business Daily details how Hillary is feeding the public socialism, one bite at a time:

Speaking in New Hampshire last week, Sen. Clinton said as president she would improve health care by raising standards for providers, educating patients and requiring insurers to reward innovation. Sounds good, but there’s more.

She is unveiling her plan in installments. In June, she gave a speech on reducing health care costs. Last Thursday’s address dealt with the issue of quality of care. She has saved the best — or worst — for last: Next month she will unveil her plan (drumroll, please) for universal health care.

“My order here is deliberate,” Clinton said. “In order to forge a consensus on universal health care, we need to assure people they will get the quality they expect at a price they can afford.”

In other words, wait until the fish bite and then reel them in.

This is a socialist system. There is no debate about that. And the results of this will be disastrous, as has been illustrated in Great Britian and Canada. How can people look at this plan and say, “Oh yeah, I want the government involved in my health care. That sounds great.”

Hillary and the Democrats continue to pimp the slow march to socialism, and the people mindlessly plod along behind them.

The City of New York is planning to open the Khalil Gibran International Academy on September 4th.  The Thomas More Law Center plans on stopping it.

“This proposed public school is nothing more than an incubator for the radicalization that leads to terrorism, as a NYPD Intelligence Report warned Americans just about two weeks ago,” cautioned Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Law Center. “Rather than use the public school system to assimilate Muslims and other immigrants into American culture, New York City is doing everything it can to keep them isolated – a target rich environment for recruiting potential new homegrown terrorists and a recipe for a future 911 disaster, according to my read of the NYPD Report,” said Thompson.

Continued Thompson, “As uncomfortable as it makes one feel, we must understand that the political goal of radical Islam is to destroy our Judeo-Christian culture. And the KGIA is a Trojan Horse New York City is building for radical Islam with taxpayer money. That the Quran calls for Muslims to subjugate the world, especially Christians and Jews, is a fact that anyone can look up.”

Thompson further added, “New York City School Chancellor, Joel Klein, who is aggressively promoting this Islamic school, is the same person who refused to allow two Christian students, a second and a fourth grader, to display a nativity scene during Christmas—another example of how political correctness is leading to a malicious double standard when it comes to religious expression in public schools.”

This is the same public school who had its first principal resign due to her defending a t-shirt which read “Intifada NYC.”

Two big problems with this school.  One, this type of school does not facilitate assimilation into the American culture, but encourages seperate cultures.  That is a formula for disaster.  You cannot serve two masters.

The new school’s executive summary talks about students in hallways adorned with portraits of Arab philosophers, inventors, poets and musicians. But it doesn’t mention George Washington, Thomas Jefferson or Abraham Lincoln.

Is this a public school in New York, or Islamabad?

Second, why are public tax dollars going to a school whose focus is Islam?  And don’t try to tell me it isn’t. 

On KGIA’s advisory board is Imam Talib Abdul-Rashid of the Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood, which proclaims this slogan: “The Quran is our constitution, Jihad is our way, And death in the way of Allah is our promised end.”

The Advisory Board has imams on it.  This is a publicly funded madrassa.  Let’s stop pretending it isn’t.

First of all, these F-18s are from my old ship, the Abe Lincoln. Second, we never had swim call when I was on the Abe Lincoln. Lucky guys.

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Attorney General Alberto Gonzales resigned today, after taking a beating from the Democrats and the left in general:

“After months of unfair treatment that has created a harmful distraction at the Justice Department, Judge Gonzales decided to resign his position and I accept his decision,” Bush said from Texas, where he is vacationing.

…

Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff was among those mentioned as possible successors, though a senior administration official said the matter had not been raised with Chertoff. Bush leaves Washington next Monday for Australia, and Gonzales’ replacement might not be named by then, the official said.

You would think that the left would be running in the streets like it was the end of World War II. Instead, they want more investigations. And why not, they keep getting people to resign.

Reaction from the Blogosphere:

Little Green Footballs – Gonzales a Goner

Ace of Spades HQ – Going….Going….Gonzales

Michelle Malkin – Alberto Gonzales resigns…effective Sept. 17, 2007 Update: Bush: “It’s sad;” Paul Clement will serve as acting AG

Red State – Gonzales Resigns

Power Line – Gonzales Resigns

Right Wing News – Nah, Nah, Nah, Hey, Hey, Hey, Good-Bye Alberto! Hello Chertoff? Ugh!

Gateway Pundit – Another One Bites the Dust… Alberto Gonzales Resigns

Black artists are angry that a black sculptor wasn’t chosen to sculpt a monument to racial equality and harmony. Irony?

King promoted peace and understanding among all people. His primary fight, however, was to win particular opportunities for blacks in the United States by juxtaposing the plight of an oppressed people against a message of freedom and democracy.

A loose-knit but growing group of critics says a black artist — or at least an American — should have been chosen to create the King memorial between the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials in the nation’s capital. They have been joined by human rights advocates who say King would have abhorred the Chinese government’s record on religious and civil liberty.

“They keep saying King was for everyone. I keep telling people, ‘No, King wasn’t for everyone. King was for fairness and justice,”‘ said Gilbert Young, a black painter from Atlanta who has started a Web site and a petition drive to try to change the project.

“I believe that black artists have the right to interpret ourselves first,” Young said. “If nobody steps up to the plate to do that, then certainly pass it along to someone else.” [source]

Maybe they have a point. And then again, maybe they’re just being racist. A twelve person panel (ten of them were black) chose a Chinese sculptor to carve a three story monument to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This of course is a problem for people who thing that preference should have been given to a black sculptor. Giving someone special preference based on skin color…why that isn’t racist?

Let me rephrase that. Giving a person preferential treatment based solely on skin color IS racist. It’s the very definition of racism. For any black man or woman to think that it’s not racism is just plain stupid. It’s like saying up is down and freedom is oppression. Have we forgotten the message of Dr. King already?

Now, I say to you today my friends, even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: – ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.‘

I’m sure that I don’t understand the plight of black people, and yeah, I’m probably a racist for thinking that skin color shouldn’t be an issue when choosing a sculptor to build a monument for a man who fought for racial equality. But just like Dr. King said, I have a dream that my children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

Bridges are falling down, pipes are bursting, three inches of rain causes havok in New York. What the heck is going on and how do we fix it? Some call for more taxes. Other say government needs to take control. Ron Paul says:

Infrastructure, in a capitalist model, is an asset worthy of maintaining to ensure continuity of revenue. In a government-controlled model infrastructure is nothing but a cumbersome liability. This should be taken into consideration when developing plans to keep our current infrastructure safe. Privatization should be used to encourage maintenance and safety, and where private companies truly invest and bear the upfront costs in return for ability to collect tolls or usage fees in some form. But public/private partnerships that look more like corporate welfare must be avoided.

He’s speaking my language. Hire a firm to do the bridge maintenance. You could have a couple third party inspectors check the bridges to insure they are being repaired and are up to snuff, but the work should be farmed out. Competition breeds excellence.

The main problem would be paying the inspectors enough to keep them from being bribed by a competitor. Can’t be cheap there.

What does the campaign look like if Web 2.0 picks the candidates? Ron Paul v. Barack Obama:

Judging by MySpace friends and YouTube channel views, America is preparing for a showdown of Barack Obama (Democrat) and Ron Paul (Republican). Obama’s 169,000 MySpace friends are the most of any candidate, and his 11 million YouTube channel views place him laughably ahead of the competition. Hillary Clinton’s 849,000 channel views is the next closest on YouTube amongst Democratic contenders (her 133,000 MySpace friends presents a closer gap, though). On the Republican side, Ron Paul has 56,000 MySpace friends — about 40% more than the next closest candidate, and his 3.3 million YouTube views make him the only other presidential candidate to pass the million mark.

But in reality, Barack is way behind Hillary and Ron Paul is off the radar. Read/Write Web says there are three reasons for the disconnect:

The first is age. Though youth turnout surged in the 2004 election, older voters still made up the majority at the polls. Of the 125 million or so votes cast, only 20.9 million were from Americans under 30. Because sites like MySpace and YouTube skew younger (and I mean under 50, not under 35), it could be that a lot of the action candidates see on those sites is from people who aren’t likely to actually cast a vote.

The second reason is the cool factor. The candidate du jour you want to buddy up to online isn’t necessarily the one people think is the best for the job. In 2004 a famous whimsical poll found that 57% of voters would rather have a beer with George Bush than challenger John Kerry. But Bush didn’t win 57% of the vote (he won 51% of the popular vote), and those that voted for him likely didn’t do so because they thought he would look better on their MySpace friends list.

The last, and least likely reason, is that the polls themselves are screwed up. Ron Paul’s campaign has alleged that his poor polling numbers are a result of pollsters under counting youth voters who only use cell phones (and have no landline for the pollsters to call). Even if this were the case, it’s unlikely that the 13% of Americans who don’t use a landline would differ in opinion from their traditional phone using brethren enough to swing the polls very much. And as I said in point one: the youth vote — who account for most of that 13% — is a small slice of the election pie.

Ron Paul’s campaign has won a few straw polls, but he came in fifth in Iowa’s. Texas has one coming up soon. I am interested in how he fairs in that one, considering it is his home state. As for Barack, I think his campaign is a fluke. He has shown his inexperience over and over in the past few months. Hillary has the nomination locked up. She brings Bill to the White House, and that has a lot of voters excited. Sadly.

Rudy outlined his position on taxes recently. Looks like more of the same to me.

The cornerstone of Giuliani’s campaign has been tax cuts, greater freedom over spending and less government. He said Americans would face a $3 trillion tax increase over the next decade unless Bush’s tax cuts are made permanent.

Giuliani also advocated a permanent child tax credit and lower marginal tax rates. He wants to tie marginal tax rates to the current levels and perhaps cut the rates further. He favors linking the alternative minimum tax to the rate of inflation, which Giuliani said would stop tax increases on 30 million people by 2010.

This tax originally was designed to make sure that the wealthiest could not use tax breaks or deductions to eliminate their entire tax liability. It is not adjusted for inflation.

Inflation and recent tax cuts push more and more taxpayers into the grasp of the minimum tax each year, depriving about 4 million tax filers from taking full advantage of various deductions and tax credits.

Giuliani told his audience that he is the best option to help them have more control over their own money. As part of his standard stump speech, Giuliani routinely reminds voters he cut taxes 23 times.

Pardon me, Rudy. I like lower taxes and agree they are a great thing for the economy. I agree that Bush’s tax cuts have done wonders to increase tax revenue. And I know I never ran a city or anything like that, but perhaps you could explain to me how I could have “more control over (my) money” than this:

The FairTax plan is a comprehensive proposal that replaces all federal income and payroll based taxes with an integrated approach including a progressive national retail sales tax, a prebate to ensure no American pays federal taxes on spending up to the poverty level, dollar-for-dollar federal revenue replacement, and, through companion legislation, the repeal of the 16th Amendment. This nonpartisan legislation (HR 25/S 1025) abolishes all federal personal and corporate income taxes, gift, estate, capital gains, alternative minimum, Social Security, Medicare, and self-employment taxes and replaces them with one simple, visible, federal retail sales tax — administered primarily by existing state sales tax authorities. The IRS is disbanded and defunded. The FairTax taxes us only on what we choose to spend on new goods or services, not on what we earn. The FairTax is a fair, efficient, transparent, and intelligent solution to the frustration and inequity of our current tax system. (emphasis mine)

I’m having a hard time seeing your position as the better alternative.

As of right now, Mike Huckabee is the only candidate to endorse the FairTax. Not even Ron Paul is on board with it. Fred Thompson says he likes it, but you are not running yet, are you Fred? In the spirit of the Soup Nazi, “NO PROPS FOR YOU!”

Zimbabwe, ruled by Robert Mugabe, has a lesson for the world: keep the government away from the marketplace.

Once considered a shining example of Africa’s potential, Zimbabwe is now a country in the throes of its worst economic crisis in decades.Critical shortages of food, fuel, foreign currency, and, in some areas, water beset a nation where the official inflation rate tops 7,600 percent. Some analysts believe the real figure is much higher and climbing fast.

“We can’t get anything now – no bread, no petrol … nothing,” says Shephard Lunga, a truck driver from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second largest city. “If you don’t have somebody who’s outside the country supplying you with things, you’re finished.”

The country’s beleaguered economy has taken a turn for the worse since late June, when President Robert Mugabe ordered all prices cut by at least 50 percent in a bid to slow runaway inflation. The move backfired, causing manufacturers to stop producing their goods. Now grocery store shelves are barren, and people are increasingly hungry.

I wrote about Zimbabwe here, and detailed how its government has ruined the country by meddling in areas the government had no business. Clearly, this is the worst of what price controls has to offer.

Now think about the rhetoric of the liberals and the Democratic party. They want the government more involved in the market in America, which is far from free now.

Imagine what can happen here, just based on the results of Zimbabwe’s actions.

Neal Boortz has claimed over and over again that the lottery is nothing more than a tax on the stupid.  Here is a look at why he says this:

Powerball lottery officials say one winning ticket was sold for Saturday night’s $314 million jackpot.

It was purchased in Indiana.

The jackpot is $314 million.  According to USA Mega.com, 25% of that goes directly to the federal government for taxes.  That is $78.5 million dollars, gone before you even had it.  So now you are down to $235,000,000.

With the FairTax, there is no loss of $78.5 million dollars.  You get the whole thing.  The government will get its cut when you buy the crap that is going to finally make your life happy.  Go crazy!

Indiana has a 3.4% state tax on Powerball winnings, so subtract another $8 million.  Now you are down to $227, 000,000.

Now add in all the local taxes.  It is estimated that each Powerball winner pays about 50% of the winnings in taxes.  The estimated payout for $314 million was $140 million.

That is a tax on the stupid.

But I bought six tickets anyway.  Won thirty-eight cents.  BOO-YAH!