Voting "No" on John McCain: "The Time Has Come, The Walrus Said, To Talk of Many Things..."

"I am the Walrus, Goo, Goo, G'joob."

A visit to Alice's Wonderland and John Lennon's acid-trip inspired song, "I am the Walrus," seem appropriate when discussing Republican candidate John McCain.

In my not so humble opinion, John McCain is as crazy as Bogey's Captain Queeg mumbling about "the strawberries" in The Caine Mutiny. He proved it beyond any doubt in Wednesday night's Republican debate held at the Ronald Reagan Museum in Simi Valley.

McCain's repetitive use of the words "time tables" was eerily reminiscent of Captain Queeg's obsession with "the strawberries." Even more disturbing was McCain's continual reference to Mitt Romney's statement about not wanting "the enemy...wait[ing] in the weeds until you're going to be gone." McCain's references were excessive, bordering on obsessive. McCain had the intense glare and the grim frozen smile down cold, the only thing missing was the rattling steel marbles as he rambled on and on about "waiting in the weeds."

ABC's Robin Roberts asked Mit Romney, during an interview last April:

"Do you believe that there should be a timetable in withdrawing the troops?"

He responded:

"Well, there's no question that the president and Prime Minister al-Maliki have to have a series of timetables and milestones that they speak about. But those shouldn't be for public pronouncement. You don't want the enemy to understand how long they have to wait in the weeds until you're going to be gone. You want to have a series of things you want to see accomplished in terms of the strength of the Iraqi military and the Iraqi police, and the leadership of the Iraqi government."

Romney was further asked:

"So, private. You wouldn't do it publicly? Because the president has said flat out that he will veto anything the Congress passes about a timetable for troop withdrawals. As president, would you do the same?"

To which he responded:

"Well, of course. Can you imagine a setting where during the Second World War we said to the Germans, gee, if we haven't reached the Rhine by this date, why, we'll go home, or if we haven't gotten this accomplished we'll pull up and leave? You don't publish that to your enemy, or they just simply lie in wait until that time. So, of course you have to work together to create timetables and milestones, but you don't do that with the opposition."

I doubt that Romney could have been any more unequivocal in his opposition to "timetables" as McCain is attempting to define them and as they were generally being used at the time. No objective observer could possibly interpret Romney's statement as being in favor of withdrawal, or of supporting the institution of an arbitrary timetable for withdrawal.

In fact, my response to McCain would simply have been to ask him if he believes that war, any war, should be conducted without any planning whatsoever. I would ask him if he believed that America should conduct the war without consulting with the democratically elected representative of the people for whom we are supposed to be fighting. I would have asked him if he believed that setting goals for the training of Iraqi military and police forces is inappropriate; if he believed that we should not be applying any diplomatic pressure on the Maliki Administration at all. McCain's answers would have been quite revealing.

Frankly, the thought of McCain as President has always been a bit unnerving, but now it simply scares the bejeebers out of me. The thought of giving that kind of power to a man that mentally unstable is absolutely unacceptable.

My other problem with John McCain is that he is not a Conservative. He is pro-life and he is pro-war, but in every other category he is as Liberal as any Democrat.

On taxation he now claims that the reason he voted against the "Bush tax-cuts" was because they were not off-set by spending cuts, but even a cursory examination of the Congressional record proves that his opposition was based on his belief they were tax-cuts for the wealthy. His exact statement was:

Mr. President, I rise to oppose the Conference Report on the Reconciliation bill. I do so after having expressed hope that the progress we made in the Senate bill to scale back the benefits going to the top rate taxpayers to make room for more tax relief to lower income Americans would prevail in the final tax bill.

During the debate on the Senate version of the tax reconciliation bill, I had urged my colleagues that substantial tax relief to middle income Americans should be our top priority. While I regret that my amendment to cut the top rate by one percent to 38.6 percent so millions more middle class Americans would fall into the 15 percent tax bracket failed on a tie vote, Senator GRASSLEY did move in that direction in the Senate bill by insisting that the top rate should be cut to only 36 percent As a result, I reluctantly voted for the bill but pledged to vote against the Conference Report should further reductions in the top tax rate be made at the expense of the majority of Americans who are in much greater need of tax relief.

Unfortunately, the Conference Report did just that by jettisoning the commendable work both Senators GRASSLEY and BAUCUS did in crafting a Senate reconciliation bill that provided more tax relief to middle income Americans. This Conference Report lowers the top rate cut to 35 percent, at the cost of delaying, for several years, much needed tax relief for married couples unfairly penalized by our tax code.

I regret having to vote against this Conference Report. We had an opportunity to provide much more tax relief to millions of hard-working Americans. I supported a $1.35 trillion tax cut despite my concern that a tax cut of that size would restrict our ability to fund necessary increases in defense spending. But I cannot in good conscience support a tax cut in which so many of the benefits go to the most fortunate among us, at the expense of middle class Americans who most need tax relief.

Once more he has been caught in a lie.

Those are not the words of a Conservative who understands the dynamics of a free market, capitalist economy. They are the talking points of the Democrat demagogues in whose party John McCain more naturally fits. One must wonder if a man like Senator John McCain, who has never once held a job in the private economy, who has spent his entire career in the employ of the government can relate to the needs of the small businessman or woman.

From being the son of an admiral, to attending Annapolis, to his service in the Navy, to divorcing his crippled first wife and marrying a wealthy heiress, to serving in Congress first as a Representative and then as a Senator, McCain has lived his entire life outside of the private economy.

McCain's affinity for limiting our Constitutionally protected free speech is evident by his co-authorship of the McCain/Feingold Bill which has turned out to be disastrous on every level, allowing unfettered "independent" advocacy groups to spend unlimited amounts of money attacking any politician with whose agenda they disagree, while limiting the ability of that candidate's campaign to respond. McCain/Feingold was not nor is it now a "Conservative" concept, nor is it in compliance with the Constitution.

On illegal immigration, John McCain's co-authorship of the McCain/Kennedy Comprehensive Immigration Reform Package and his continued insistence on allowing illegal immigrants to remain in the United States sovereign territory indefinitely by means of obtaining a "Z" visa runs contrary to all Conservative values and is in fact the policy goal of our Liberal Democrat Party opponents.

McCain's willingness to distort the record and statements of his opponents and to "embellish" his own pitifully Liberal record are further proof of his dishonesty and lack of character. Once again it appears that the "Straight Talk Express" has taken a very definite Leftward turn.

I have voted in nine Presidential elections and I have always voted for the Republican candidate. I voted that way, not simply because he was the Republican, but primarily because his ideals and policies agreed with my own Conservative beliefs. At the worst, I did so because I believed him to be the lesser of two evils, but at heart I am not so much "a Republican," as I am "a Conservative."

At times I have been more enthusiastic and at times less so, but I never doubted the wisdom of voting "Republican" when faced with the unthinkable Democrat alternative.

That was then and this is now. Now I cannot, nor could I ever in good conscience, support John McCain for the position of President of the United States of America.

Even when faced with the absolute certainty of having a hardcore Marxist/Stalinist opponent in the Democrat Party as both Senator Hillary Rodham, Mrs. William Jefferson, Clinton and Barrack Hussein Obama clearly are, I find that even a Marxist would be preferrable to someone who is certifiably insane.

Following Arizona Senator John McCain's performance, his willingness to persist in telling a bald-faced lie even when directly confronted with proof of his dishonesty, makes it clear that John McCain is the first Republican Presidential candidate to whom I cannot and will not lend my support.

There is no clothespin, no gas-mask sufficiently powerful to bar the insufferable, malodorous emanations of mendacity coming from this miniature martinet that would enable me to vote for him. I would rather watch this nation follow the demonstrably disastrous turn toward socialism that Old Europe has taken, but from which there is always hope of recovery, than put this entire nation and its unimaginable military might into the hands of a man who is undeniably insane.

I fervently hope that Mitt Romney can win the upcoming primaries, or at least enough to prevent McCain from locking up the nomination. If he or even Mike Huckabee proves to be unable to do so, I am faced with the distasteful but inescapable choice of withholding my vote for any candidate for the Presidency.

I will cast my vote in all of the local and state-wide elections, but I will not pull the lever for John McCain. There are many disqualifiers for the Presidency, but, more than any other, it is paramount that any candidate be sane, John McCain is not sane.

May God Help Us All.

Long Live Our American Republic!!!

Note: For those of you who feel the need to have further proof of McCain's Captain Queeg insanity, I refer you to his interview with Michael Reagan back in March of 2000:

Transcript of Michael Reagan-John McCain Interview

By Michael Reagan
CNS Information Services
01 March, 2000

Talk show host Michael Reagan invited John McCain to call into Reagan's radio show on Tuesday, February 29. McCain obliged, and what follows is a transcript of their brief and tense conversation, aired nationally on more than 220 radio stations. This transcript was provided by the Bush for President Campaign.

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I called that one wrong

There might not be a reversal of fortune here but McCain has certainly had a change of luck. Now the figurative front runner in the Republican contest, Senator McCain has a boat load of momentum going into Super Tuesday. Governor Romney, though not out of the water yet, will have to do a lot of convincing to secure the nomination. I have not kept it secret my disdain for McCain with his liberal leanings and anti-conservative stances on so many issues. His only positive, as far as I am concerned, is his stance for the war against the Islamic jihadists. His support for porous borders and a path to citizenship for illegal aliens coupled with having a Mexican with dual citizenship and a former Mexican government official, Juan Hernandez, as his hispanic outreach director gives me great pause.

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Caroline, Patrick, and Ted Kennedy Endorse Obama..."The New JFK"

Barrack Hussein Obama

Caroline Kennedy described him as the man:

"who understands that his responsibility is to articulate a vision and encourage others to achieve it; who holds himself, and those around him, to the highest ethical standards; who appeals to the hopes of those who still believe in the American Dream, and those around the world who still believe in the American ideal; and who can lift our spirits, and make us believe again that our country needs every one of us to get involved.

"I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them. But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president — not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans."

Teddy "The Lady Killer" Kennedy said:

"From the beginning, he opposed the war in Iraq. And let no one deny that truth," he said, an obvious reference to former President Clinton's statement that Obama's early anti-war stance was a "fairy tale."

"With Barack Obama, we will turn the page on the old politics of misrepresentation and distortion.

"With Barack Obama we will close the book on the old politics of race against race, gender against gender, ethnic group against ethnic group, and straight against gay."

The problem is, Barrack Hussein Obama is not JFK, unless of course the JFK to whom you are referring is John "The Gigolo" Forbes Kerry.

Jack Kennedy stood firm against our most implacable foe, the Soviet Union. He opposed and confronted the Soviets when they attempted to place nuclear tipped missiles in Cuba. He signed into law a sweeping tax-cut, a tax-cut that Barrack Obama and Teddy would now be labeling "a tax-cut for the wealthy."

Jack Kennedy did not oppose our troops in Vietnam, he pursued the war vigorously. Jack Kennedy did not demand that we withdraw our troops from Vietnam, he continued to send additional troops in support of the South Vietnam government.

Jack Kennedy did not tell the people of America to trust the government to care for their every need, he told us to:

"Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."

Senator Barrack Hussein Obama, Hillary Rodham, Mrs. William Jefferson Clinton, and former Senator John Edwards and the entire Democrat Party, who constantly looking back towards the time when they were in ascendency, are telling us to pursue exactly the opposite course.

To paraphrase the late Lloyd Benson,

I grew up under Jack Kennedy, I listened to him speak to us and call upon us to seek new heights and explore the "New Frontier." Barrack Obama is no Jack Kennedy.

Long Live Our American Republic!!!

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TPPF COMMENTARY: Texas’ School Accountability System Fails Students

As Texas homeowners write their checks for property taxes this month, most assume that the local public schools they fund are doing a good job educating students. After all, parents looking to the state accountability system for answers on the quality of their local school find that only 3.4 percent of public schools were rated “Unacceptable” last year.

What parents and taxpayers don’t realize is that the academic standards used to rate schools are ridiculously low.

In 2007, a school could be rated “Academically Acceptable” with only 40 percent of students passing science and 45 percent of students passing math. Surely, parents and taxpayers would not consider more than half of Texas school children failing core subjects like math and science as “acceptable.”

Yet, more than half of Texas public schools and three fourths of Texas school districts were rated “Academically Acceptable,” according to the Texas Education Agency.

Residents across the state may be shocked to discover that many of their local schools are not doing a good job teaching the basics, especially in math and science. For example, in Arlington, a mere 53 percent of Morton Elementary School students passed science; 45 percent of Roquemore Elementary students passed science while 56 percent passed math; and only 49 percent of Sam Houston High School students passed science while 57 percent passed math.

In the Austin area, only 47 percent of students passed science at Manor ISD’s Decker Elementary, while 57 percent of students passed math. In nearby Del Valle, only 61 percent of high school students passed science and 52 percent of students passed math.

Residents in Houston’s Alief school district might be surprised to learn that bare majorities of Elsik High School students passed science and math, while only 57 percent of Hastings High School students passed science and a scant 54 percent passed math.

Astonishingly, the state deemed all of these schools “Academically Acceptable.”

Texas cannot afford to have large numbers of students ignorant in core subject areas, and taxpayers should not tolerate it. State lawmakers must make significant changes to the state accountability system, including raising the rigor and academic expectations for both schools and students.

The conventional grading scale for students sets a score of 70 percent as the bottom end of the acceptable range. Schools should be held to a similar standard, with at least 70 percent of students passing reading, writing, history, math and science to be rated as “Acceptable.”

Another way to raise the rigor of the system is to reduce the large numbers of students exempted from testing. Last year, almost 70,000 students were exempted from the TAKS or other state tests. The accountability system needs to hold teachers and schools responsible for every child’s performance by closing these loopholes.

The system also needs to be simplified. Schools and districts must track and report performance on as many as 36 measures. Today’s accountability system focuses too much on inputs and not enough on outcomes and results. To move in this direction, state lawmakers should decrease the overall number of indicators used to evaluate schools and districts and make sure the system gives schools and districts credit for student improvement and growth over the year.

Other helpful changes to the state accountability system include aligning the state and federal systems by using common definitions where possible and making the system more transparent to parents and the community.

The purpose of a state accountability system is to evaluate school performance and provide that information to parents and the public so they can determine the quality of a particular school or district. The current accountability system fails in this regard and needs to be redesigned.

With tens of billions of dollars spent on public schools, Texas taxpayers deserve a better and more accurate accountability system; one that is easy to understand, useful, and actually holds schools accountable.

Brooke Dollens Terry is an education policy analyst at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a non-profit, free-market research institute based in Austin.

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McCain's Straight Talk Express Takes a Diversion

McCain has permanently and irreparably damaged his reputation for telling the truth with his sad attempt to portray Mitt Romney as having advocated establishing timetables for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq.

McCain's appearance on Tim Russert's Meet the Press show hits a new low for him. Aware that the war is losing its promenence as an issue as the troop surge proves more and more successful and aware that his credentials on the economy and the private sector pale in comparison to those of Mitt Romney, he chose to attempt to change the focus of the campaign from the economy back to Iraq by lying about Governor Romney's record.

Here are McCain's exact words from Meet the Press:

SEN. McCAIN:"...Governor Romney obviously said there had to be, "timetables," although they had to be secret because we weren't going to tell the enemy when we were leaving. I mean, that's--that's just a fact. And if we'd have done that, as the Democrats and some Republicans wanted to do, we would've lost that surge and al-Qaeda would be celebrating a victory over the United States of America."

MR. RUSSERT: "Governor Romney said he never suggested a specific timetable, you're being dishonest and you should apologize."

SEN. McCAIN: "I see. Well, you know, you flash these up on the screen all the time. Let me just--let me just see, he said--when he was asked should a timetable--should there be a timetable for withdrawing the troops? "Well, there's no question the president and Prime Minister al-Maliki have to have a series of timetables and milestones that they speak about, but they shouldn't be for public pronouncement. You don't want the enemy to understand how long they have to wait in the weeds until you're going to be gone." That's, that's, my friend, is the quote. That was a clear indication of setting timetables that would--you know, but you don't want to tell the enemy when you're going to be gone. It's very clear."

MR. RUSSERT: "Senator Clinton, when she suggested timetables, you said was waving the white flag of surrender. Is Governor Romney waving the white flag?"

SEN. McCAIN: "Well, actually, Tim, what Senator Clinton said was that you would set a timetable within 60 days of withdrawal, complete withdrawal from Iraq. To me that's surrender. And I think in most people's view that would be surrender if we told al-Qaeda that we are leaving Iraq within a certain period of time."

MR. RUSSERT: "Is Governor Romney suggesting surrender? "

SEN. McCAIN: "I said that he has said--is wrong, and I think he has equivocated on it. In one of the debates, he said the serve-- surge is "apparently working." It was working. It wasn't apparently. Look, these were tough time in American history, and I think historians will look back at April of 2000 when Harry Reid, the majority leader of the United States Senate, declared the war lost; when Republicans, even, were saying that we had to have "timetables" because we needed to get out of there. That was a critical time. I'm proud of the role that I played at that time. And I don't believe that Governor Romney's statement indicated anything but that we were going to tell--we were going to have a timetable for withdrawal."

Hmmm...not so straight talk from the "Straight Talk Express." McCain is the least Republican of the Republican candidates. He has joined with the Democrats in several critical votes like the original tax-cuts President Bush proposed back in 2001 and he has co-authored two of the most abhorent pieces of legislation that have been proposed. McCain is the definitive RINO Republican. The only deviation from that archetype is his support of the Iraq war.

McCain has dallied with being dishonest in his denial that the McCain-Kennedy Immigration Reform Bill was first and foremost an amnesty bill. Clearly the "Z-visa" is a gift for illegal aliens in that it provides for permanent residency with no requirement for illegals to return to their nations of origin, but in this lie about Mitt Romney's comments on timetables and milestones.

This is a real problem for the Democrat's favorite Republican, but it is not his only problem. The very fact that McCain is "the Democrat's favorite Republican," makes him suspect in the eyes of most Conservatives. Even worse, McCain's words beg the question, "Senator McCain, do you not believe that leaders must set milestones and timetables for the successful prosecution of the Iraq War?"

"Aren't you the one that criticizes the Bush administration for not properly planning how to conduct the war?" Are you not speaking out of both of your two faces?"

No, John McCain is not a proper candidate for the Republican nomination for President of the United States. He is not emotionally stable or consistently Conservative enough. I might consider him for appointment as Secretary of Defense, but never as President.

Long Live Our American Republic!!!

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Smackdown! South Carolinians Reject Bubba's Politics of Race

Looks like Bubba brought down the wrath of South Carolinian voters on Hillary and elevated Barrack Obama into the "electable" category with his attempts to paint Barrack, (or as Bill Clinton calls him, "That uppity nigra") as the "Black Candidate," or "the New Jesse Jackson" ( a backhanded way of calling him "that uppity nigra").

I guarantee, if any Republican dared to make the statements about Senator Obama that Bubba made during his little wifey's run in South Carolina, the MSM would still be ringing with calls for his head. Can you imagine if George H. W. Bush was making such an argument in support of any candidate? Of course George H.W. would never do such a thing, nor would it ever occur to him to do it, because he has far too much class. No worries there with Bubba, he has no class.

Well Bubba and his stalking horse wife got there comeuppance given them, in spades!

Now don't get confused here, I know that Obama would be an "obamination" as President, because he is at least as far to the Looney Tunes Left as Hillary is; it's just nice to see these slimey politicians from the trailer park get slapped down.

One rarely sees such a thorough trouncing of a candidate as Hillary suffered last night. It was a total rejection from a state in which, at one time, she was expected to walk through without a hitch.

Bubba Blue Dress' nasty, vindictive campaign style has not just cost Hillary the South Carolina primary, but has led to a cascading of mainstream Democrat leaders from the Senate coming out in support of Obama.

Recently added to the list are: Tom Daschle, Patrick "Leaky" Leahy, Caroline Kennedy, and Teddy "the Lady Killer" Kennedy. A few more weeks of Bubba campaigning on her behalf, and Hillary will be lucky to get endorsements from the nags at N.O.W.

I wouldn't be too concerned about Hillary, with a memory like hers-"I don't recall" 250 times, and Bill's-"I have no recollection," 262 times, the odds are that shortly after the Democrat Party Convention, she won't recall ever having run for the Presidency, and happily return to her role as a do nothing junior senator from New York.

This folks is why I love our system of government. Where else can you get this kind of entertainment value for free?

Long Live Our American Republic!!!

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Keeping a Straight Face Award

or. Ali and Alisha Bubba and Their Forty Thieves Return to the White House?

Well folks, this has to be one for the record books. It must have killed Bob Schieffer to keep from laughing this morning when he was interviewing Her Royal Highness (in Exile) Senator Hillary Rodham, Mrs. Willam Jefferson Clinton, D-NY.

I now am forced to believe that Bill and Hillary have cornered the market on the word "mendacity." This morning Hillary, when asked if Bubba would continue to play his aggressive role in the campaign, actually had the temerity to say the following...

"My husband has such a great commitment to me and to my campaign. You know, he loves me just like, you know, husbands and wives get out there and work on each others' behalf. I certainly did that for him for many years," she said. She added that "what he is doing for me is obviously out of a sense of deep commitment to me personally but also based on his experience as president as to who he thinks would best lead our country. And I know that in my own support of him going back some years, I sometimes got a little bit carried away. I confess to that."

I am forced to admit Bob Schieffer is a better man than I. If Hillary had told me that in response to the question, they would have had to carry me off on a stretcher in paroxysms of laughter. Yep, Bill is a dedicated husband...BWAAAHAAAHAAAAHAAA!!!!

I know, it's unseemly to make such a response, but how in the world else is one supposed to respond to such a total fabrication? How does one ignore Bill's long and distinguished career as a serial rapist and philanderer?

She cannot make the claim to be "the most qualified candidate running" and believe what she told Bob Schieffer. She might as well have claimed to be the most honest person running...Hoo, hoo, hoo! How about "I have 35 years of experience?" That's another knee slapper.

It's really frightening to think that there are millions of Democrat idiots out there who will cast their ballots for this Queen of Mendacity. Many of them will do so simply because she is a woman...now that's a logical reason for voting for a candidate.

Even worse is the thought that Hillary might actually win and we would be stuck with another 4 or even (God forbid) 8 years of Bill Clinton as President of the United States, de facto, if not de jure. What a nightmare.

Think about it folks we could have the ultimate Trailer Trash Queen and King back in the White House. Hot and cold running bimbos, Chinese Communists buying or stealing our military secrets, more moronic negotiations with wannabe nuclear powers like Iran, the Lincoln Bedroom Hilton...there is no limit to the damage these two dumb Hicks from Hope, Ali and Alisha Bubba and their Band of Forty Thieves, could do in the White House.

The very thought of that makes me love Mike Huckleberry Huckabee and John McQueeg McCaine McCain, both of whom I would ordinarily oppose if they were running for dog-catcher. At least the "Dope from Hope" Part Deux, and the "Pipsqueak Popinjay," the "Miniature Martinette" would be some change from what we already know to be a disaster.

Anyway:

Here's to you, Bob Schieffer, the Keeping a Straight Face Award for Journalistic Integrity Above and Beyond the Duty.

Long Live Our American Republic!!!

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6th Annual Policy Orientation now online

Two weeks ago, the Texas Public Policy Foundation hosted its Sixth Annual Policy Orientation for the Texas Legislature, the state’s largest and most prestigious policy conference. The feedback on this year’s event was tremendous, both on the variety of topics and quality of speakers.

Our keynote speakers this year were Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, internationally renowned economist Dr. Arthur Laffer, and Texas Governor Rick Perry (with introduction by former U.S. Senator Phil Gramm).

Our impressive roster of panelists this year included Comptroller Susan Combs; prominent legislators from both parties; district attorneys Craig Watkins (Dallas County) and Susan Reed (Bexar County); experts from such organizations as the Pacific Research Institute, the Cato Institute, the National Center for Policy Analysis, the American Enterprise Institute, Americans for Tax Reform, the Reason Foundation, the Federal Reserve Bank, and The Wall Street Journal; and academics from the University of Illinois, University of Houston, The Ohio State University, Boston University, and the University of Minnesota.

If you were not among the 800 people who joined us in Austin for this year’s conference, you can now participate online. All of the audio from the keynotes, as well as the audio and slides from the panel discussions, is now available in the Multimedia section of our website, www.TexasPolicy.com. We hope to have streaming video of the four keynote speeches within the next few days.

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Texas Public Policy Foundation announces “Thinking Economically” project

AUSTIN – Today, the Texas Public Policy Foundation formally released “Violate at Your Own Risk: The Immutability of Economic Laws,” the first paper in the Foundation’s Thinking Economically project.

“Just like the laws of physics, economics laws are simply descriptions of reality. Scarcity can be no more ignored than gravity,” Dr. Arthur Laffer wrote in the project’s introductory paper. “Policymakers who think they can determine the proper price of a good better than the market will create no less a disaster than the captain of an ocean liner who believes his engines will allow him to pay no heed to momentum.”

Thinking Economically is a project of the Texas Public Policy Foundation designed to provide a basic economic education for policymakers, the media, and the general public. In this way, the Foundation hopes to highlight the intersection of economics and public policy, and the importance of “thinking economically” when making policy decisions.

The author of the Thinking Economically series is Dr. Arthur Laffer, an internationally renowned economist and a member of President Ronald Reagan’s Economic Policy Advisory Board for both of his two terms. TIME magazine honored Laffer as one of the “20th Century’s Greatest Minds” for his invention of the Laffer Curve, which provided the impetus for the tax-cutting movement that has swept the world over the last three decades.

“Dr. Laffer has left his imprint on economic and public policy in the United States and around the world,” said Foundation President Brooke Rollins. “We are honored and proud to work with him to present this series of economics lessons.

“As Dr. Laffer is quick to point out, economics is neither Republican nor Democrat, and policymakers from both parties have misunderstood economics with disastrous consequences,” Rollins continued. “We hope that presenting these basic economics lessons will better inform the discussion on public policy and highlight the importance of truly ‘thinking economically.’”

“Fundamental economic laws are really just codified common sense,” Laffer explained. “It’s surprising how much insight we can gain from carefully thinking through the implications of particular views on how the world works.”

“Violate at Your Own Risk” is available for download from the Foundation’s website, www.TexasPolicy.com. Subsequent papers in the series will be released each month.

The Texas Public Policy Foundation is a non-profit, free-market research institute based in Austin.

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The stories almost write themselves

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Once More, Your Tax-Payer Dollars at Work on NPR

What more can one say about this other than those who claim that there is no war against Christianity are either liars or idiots...or, if they're Liberals as is more likely, both. This is not just in poor taste, it is hateful, mean spirited, and evil...just what one would expect from a "good Liberal."

Public Radio Broadcast 'Deep Fried Christ' Skit

By Penny Starr
CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer
January 11, 2008

(CNSNews.com) - Some of the people who tuned into public radio station KCPW in St. Lake City, Utah, recently weren't laughing at the satire poking fun at a Mike Huckabee "family recipe." More than a few of them, in fact, were outraged by the "Huck and the Eucharist" skit, which aired Jan. 7 on the "Fair Game with Faith Salie" program.

Here is a transcript of the offensive segment:

[Woman’s voice]: And now another Huckabee family recipe leaked by his opponents.

[Male Voice]: Tired of bland unsatisfying Eucharists? Try this Huckabee family favorite. Deep-Fried Body of Christ--boring holy wafers no more. Take one Eucharist. Preferably post transubstantiation. Deep-fry in fat, not vegetable oil, ladies, until crispy. Serve piping hot. Mike likes to top his Christ with whipped cream and sprinkles. But his wife Janet and the boys like theirs with heavy gravy and cream puffs. It goes great with red wine.

[Woman’s voice]: Now that is just ridiculous. Everyone knows evangelicals don’t believe in transubstantiation.

Once more we are treated to an example of what happens when a "Compassionate Conservative" like our President tries to appease those on the Left rather than squash them. He should have stood by his original appointment of Kenneth Tomlinson and attacked those who sought to assert the continuing Liberally biased agenda of NPR and Public Television.

The time has come to pull all public financing out of broadcast radio and television. PBS and NPR need to be forced to become self-sustaining. Perhaps if Liberal idiots like Bill Moyers were forced to get their funding from the corporations they spend so much time attacking, they might develop a new found affection for capitalism.

This so-called skit is not humor, it is hate; pure, unadorned, contempt-laden, hate, being pitifully passed off as humor. I wonder if NPR plans to run a skit about boiling an African American in a pot of oil, or maybe perhaps impaling Homo-sexuals on spears, how about a skit about gassing Jews?

You think maybe they'd get away with that as easily as they have gotten away with this blasphemous attack. Seems only Christians are "fair game" on Public Broadcasting.

That's it folks, another excellent example of the manner in which Liberals spend your tax-dollars. Doesn't it just make you want to jump up and pay Hillary's and Obama's higher taxes?


Long Live Our American Republic!!!!

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New Hampshire Primary Results

In the "not what it seems" category, we have the following two stories:

N.Y. Senator Defies Polls, Edges Obama

By Anne E. Kornblut and Shailagh Murray
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, January 9, 2008; Page A01

MANCHESTER, N.H., Jan. 8 -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton narrowly won the New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary on Tuesday night, a surprise victory for the onetime front-runner that revived her sagging fortunes and reshaped yet again the fight for the party's nomination.

"Over the last week I listened to you, and in the process I found my own voice," Clinton (N.Y.) said at her victory rally, embracing a newly emotional campaign style that appeared to fuel her turnaround here. "Let's give America the kind of comeback New Hampshire has just given me."

Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), who had anticipated a second consecutive win after his Iowa caucus triumph last Thursday, conceded shortly before 11 p.m. "We always knew our climb would be steep," he told supporters, a day after he had confidently told backers that he was "riding a wave" to a win here. Former senator John Edwards (N.C.) placed a distant third, followed by New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.

The results of this were as predictable as the polls proved to be wrong, but were the polls wrong? I have a different take on these two primary results What Happens in New Hampshire, Stays in New Hampshire...Maybe

Clinton and McCain Rebound to Take N.H.
Romney 2nd in GOP Contest; Iowa Winner Huckabee Is 3rd

By Michael D. Shear and Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, January 9, 2008; Page A01

MANCHESTER, N.H., Jan. 8 -- Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the early Republican front-runner whose campaign imploded last summer, handily won the New Hampshire primary Tuesday, dealing former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney his second loss in the GOP nomination contest.

McCain's victory amounts to a dramatic resurrection for the 71-year-old veteran of presidential politics and further scrambles a Republican race that now moves to Michigan and South Carolina. After New Hampshire, the fight for a new Republican standard-bearer remains a wide-open contest.

"My friends, I'm past the age when I can claim the name 'kid,' no matter what adjective precedes it," McCain told an ecstatic crowd here. "But tonight, we sure showed 'em what a comeback looks like. When the pundits declared us finished, I told 'em, 'I'm going to New Hampshire, where the voters don't let you make their decision for them.' "

We must not forget that the voting rules for New Hampshire are fairly unique. First, you can register to vote in that state one day and vote in the primary the next, second New Hampshire has a very large pool of "undecided" voters who are not required to declare their allegiance and can choose for whom they will vote in the voting booth. Both of these fairly unique factors came into play last night.

Those two factors combined with the inane "sympathy vote" Hillary inevitable gets when she plays the "poor little me, I'm just a woman up against all these mean old men" game.

Long Live Our American Republic!!!

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This is just too good not to post...John Kerry Rebut's Swiftboaters...NOT!!!

The next time you hear a Liberal use the word "Swiftboat" as a perjorative, lay this little tidbit on them. As of this moment, Crybaby Kerry Clock sits at 721:21:00.

The Current Crisis
Time Stops Now

By R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.
Published 1/3/2008 12:08:16 AM

WASHINGTON -- James Taranto, the Wall Street Journal's resident anthropologist, put it perfectly when he described Senator Jean-Francois Kerry as "a comic perpetual motion machine." And as such the junior senator from Massachusetts provides an invaluable service to us. He provokes us to laugh about wholesome excess -- not the ribald mishaps of a Senator Larry Craig or, if your memory is well-tuned, of Representative Barney Frank. The Hon. Kerry with his ponderous gravitas, his implausible presumptions to achievements in the arts, in athletics, and, who knows, perhaps in ballet, is the reductio ad absurdum of the modern American politician's colossal claims to greatness in all the departments of human endeavor.

-------------snip-------------

Just a few weeks ago Kerry blundered into buffoonery once again. Impatient with unsubstantiated claims that the 2004 Swift Boat advertisements lied about Kerry's hoked-up military record, Boone Pickens, one of the funders of those ads, publicly challenged the critics to demonstrate the ads' inaccuracies. He promised to provide $1 million to anyone who succeeded. Astonishingly, Kerry took the bait. With the consummate presumption that makes him the "comic perpetual motion machine" that he is, Kerry wrote Pickens: "While I am prepared to show they [the Swift Boat Veterans, often his fellow officers] lied on allegation after allegation, you have generously offered to pay one million dollars for just one thing that can be proven false, I am prepared to prove the lie beyond any reasonable doubt." That said -- and only that said -- Kerry asked for his cool million.

------------snip-------------

It is reported that Kerry's fellow Democrats were embarrassed by Kerry's unsubstantiated charges and empty whining. It brought to the public eye all his self-absorbed melodrama from the catastrophic 2004 race. Frankly, I sympathized with the Democratic leaders, but Kerry's guff deserved to be put to the test. Thus on November 21 I unveiled on The American Spectator's website The Crybaby Kerry Clock I promised that it would silently tick tock away beneath a smug depiction of Crybaby Kerry, counting the hours until he came forward with his promised evidence of the Swift Boat Veterans' false advertising, his Vietnam journal, and his military record. No evidence has been forthcoming. We have all had a good laugh. Yet it is time to move on, as the cliche traffickers put it. On January 4 the historic clock will cease to exist, and we shall all have to await Crybaby Kerry's next catastrophe of self-promotion.

Of course John "The Gigolo" Kerry-Heinz failed to provide any proof...he couldn't. Everything the "Swiftboaters" or as properly named, "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth," some 250 of Senator Kerry-Heinz's fellow swift boat crew-members must be assumed to be the truth, and therefore the term "swiftboating" means exposing the lies and exaggerations of a sanctamonious, self-righteous, and self-glorifying, Liberal prig.

Long Live Our American Republic!!!

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Fred's Message to Iowa Voters

Now this is a man who should be President of the United States!!!

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Fred Thompson: My Choice For President!!!

Now folks, this is a man for whom I would gladly vote. I hope he is able to sustain his Presidential campaign. Of the viable candidates, Fred Thompson is clearly the one for the job.

I guess that means that I am endorsing Fred Thompson for the Republican Nomination for President. I like his candor, his attitude, and his policies. I believe in Fred Thompson as I have not believed in a Republican Candidate since Ronald Reagan.

No, I don't believe that he is Ronald Reagan, no would I want him to be. What he is, is his own man. He is a man of conscience and conviction...Conservative conviction...who I believe is best suited to return our party and our nation to the stature it has earned througout history.

We need someone with a clear vision of the future, a steady hand at the helm, and, for my money, someone who has not made it his life's ambition to become President.

I don't like Huckabee, I believe that he is just another Jimmy Carter disaster waiting to happen. I don't trust him and I would never call him a conservative. Yes he is anti-abortion, but in every other way, he is as Liberal as any Democrat running.

I don't believe Duncan Hunter, though he is as solid a Conservative as there is, can ever generate the support he needs. Duncan is a good man and would make a great member of the cabinet...perhaps Homeland Security.

I could and would vote for Rudy, Mitt, or John McCain...if I had too, against the pathetic offerings of the Democrat Party...cookie cutter socialists with not a dimes worth of difference between them, except for the level of corruption that another Clinton Presidency would bring with it...but I would rather recommend, Giuliani for Attorney General, Mitt Romney for Treasury, and McCain for Secretary of Defense...those choices with John Bolton at State would make a formidable and successful cabinet.

So there you have it, I have now declared for Fred Thompson...President 2008.

Long Live Our American Republic!!!

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