The Natural Truth

My new blog home

2008-08-06T15:01:00.000-04:00

You can now find my blog (archives included) at http://www.michaelgraham.com

Your Natural Truth For Today

2008-07-31T23:57:00.000-04:00

“[Obama's meeting] turned out to be his adoration session with lawmakers in the Cannon Caucus Room, where even committee chairmen arrived early, as if for the State of the Union. Capitol Police cleared the halls -- just as they do for the actual president. The Secret Service hustled him in through a side door -- just as they do for the actual president.

Inside, according to a witness, he told the House members, 'This is the moment . . . that the world is waiting for,' adding: 'I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions.'” [emphasis added] ---Dana Milbank, the Washington Post.

It's Time To Play "SPOT THE RACISM!"

2008-07-31T08:56:00.000-04:00

According to prominent leftwing blogger Josh Marshall, the new John McCain ad mocking Sen. Obama's celebrity status (as opposed to any actual qualifications to be president) is racist.

If you haven't seen the ad, please watch it here, and then see if you can SPOT THE RACISM!

(The Obama response ad, which doesn't mention race at all, can be viewed here.)

When you think you've spotted the racism, check your answer here! Good luck.

Oh, and one hint: the answer involves massive levels of stupidity and paranoia. Not much help when it comes to liberals in 2008, I know.

Obama's BFF

2008-07-31T08:39:00.000-04:00

Said I handled his biz and I'm one of his favorite rappers

Well give Luda a special pardon if I'm ever in the slammer

Better yet put him in office, make me your vice president

Hillary hated on you, so that b---- is irrelevant

So says Ludacris, who Barack Obama considers a "great talent" and a "great businessman," in his latest (for lack of a better word) song, called "Politics (Obama is Here)."

Last year, Sen. Obama took time from his presidential campaign to meet privately with the "talented" Mr. Cris (or should I call him "Luda," too?) to discuss "empowering America's youth" and to call for the firing of Don Imus over his comments re: "hos." Ludacris was, of course, shocked to hear such demeaning language towards women.

Will Ludacris make Obama's short list for veep? Well, he certainly appears to be ready to take on the GOP in a debate:

You can't stop what's bout to happen, we bout to make history

the first black president is destined and it's meant to be

the threats ain't fazing us, the nooses or the jokes

so get off your ass, black people, it's time to get out and vote!

paint the White House black and I'm sure that's got 'em terrified

McCain don't belong in ANY chair unless he's paralyzed

Yeah I said it cause Bush is mentally handicapped.

Stay classy, Obama supporters...

Obama and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Idea

2008-07-30T09:29:00.000-04:00

Sen. Barack Obama, like his good friend Deval Patrick, supports reparations for slavery. If mainstream news outlets like the Boston Globe-Democrat had any integrity, this would be news. BIG news.

"I consistently believe that when it comes to whether it's Native Americans or African-American issues or reparations, the most important thing for the U.S. government to do is not just offer words, but offer deeds," Obama told a race-based group of journalists.

Alas, none of the "journalists" noticed he was making news. The reason it's news, in my opinion, isn't the obvious "Jesse Jackson Shakedown" aspect of reparations that annoys America's already overburdened taxpayers. Reparations are far worse than that.

Giving money to one group of people based on race--money collected from everyone who is not in that group--would be far more divisive than the worst plot ever hatched in the fevered fantasies of the Aryan Nations. It strikes at the heart of the premise of America: e pluribus unum (which, interestingly, Obama dumped from his self-made presidential seal).

America's not perfect, and her people aren't perfect. Many people think the Great Society welfare programs were a disaster. Others think the same of the Reagan tax cuts and invading Iraq. But the premise of America is, because we all have our say, we're all in this together.

The fundamental premise of reparations is "What do you mean 'we?'"

If Sen. Obama truly wants to tear this nation apart, promote racial division and create the kind of America the Rev. Wright claims we already live in, there is no better strategy than race-based reparations.

Raynham Grocery Store Perv A "No Show" In Court

2008-07-30T08:34:00.000-04:00

Remember when Market Basket janitor and alleged perv Valerio Rodriguez got punched in the nose by the father of the kid he was feeling up in the men's room? At the time, the police treated him and the dad equally--both were charged with felonies, neither was arrested.

Most rational people (a category that excludes members of the Massachusetts judiciary) were outraged. How can you set this guy loose? Why are you charging the father? Can't the courts even tell the good guys from the bad guys?

And there was one other question I asked on my show that the cops--and the Boston Globe-Democrat--ignored entirely: Is Rodriguez a crimmigrant? Or, as the Globe-Democrat would call him, an "undocumented janitor?"

We still don't know. But you will no doubt be shocked--SHOCKED!--to read this, courtesy of the Brockton Enterprise newspaper:

"An elderly man accused of groping a boy in a Raynham supermarket bathroom reportedly failed to show for his arraignment Tuesday.
Market Basket janitor Valerio Rodriguez, 71, of Providence faces a felony indecent assault charge after he allegedly reached under a bathroom stall partition and touched a 4-year-old boy’s calf June 1.
A judge at Taunton District Court issued a default warrant for his arrest and added a 'do not release' order to it, said Gregg Miliote, a spokesman for the Bristol County
District Attorney’s Office.

Gee, do you think that maybe Rodriguez didn't show because maybe, just maybe, he's afraid of being deported? And how dumb does it make Massachusetts look that the guy's been arrested for sexual assault, hasn't shown for his court appearance, and we STILL don't know his immigration status!

Oh, and here's the last little bit of good news:

"As of early Tuesday afternoon, Rodriguez had not been located, Miliote said."

John Kerry, Man Of The People

2008-07-30T08:08:00.002-04:00

"John Kerry makes me SO thirsty!"

Slightly inebriated people, perhaps, but it's still nice to see our painfully-French junior senator hangin' with the peeps.

Given that he spends most of his time on the Cape bumping people like these off the wait lists at upscale restaurants, this is a step in the right direction for Sen. Liveshot.

Could McCain Really Win This Thing?

2008-07-29T08:57:00.000-04:00

Americans by a 2-1 margin believe Obama has the prez race in the bag. But with Obama essentially tied in polls, and underperforming previous Democratic nominees, why is everyone assuming this race is over?

Bill Kristol has an interesting theory on how Sen. McCain might just pull this one out.

Let's Just Hope They Don't Blame Themselves

2008-07-28T10:07:00.001-04:00

UPDATE: Welcome, fellow Michelle Malkin fans. Here's my Boston Herald column on the "Extreme Rake-Over: Taxpayer's Edition" story.

I update the blog every day, and you can listen to the "Natural Truth" radio show every day from 9am-noon at http://www.wtkk.com/!

Meet Patricia and Milton Harper, the latest "victims" of the evil Bush economy, greedy banks and (as yet to be confirmed) a controlled demolition set off by the Israeli secret service.

Their beautiful, 5,500 sq. ft. home in Georgia scheduled to be put on the auction block in early August. They owe $450,000 in mortgages that they are not paying. Poor dears. Then again, they're lucky to be alive.

Regular readers of the Boston Globe-Democrat know that some responsible borrowers are being driven to suicide due to their guilt over not paying their bills. The Globe-Democrat ran a huge story last week when "Taunton mother Carlene Balderrama killed herself an hour and a half before her home had been scheduled to go up for foreclosure auction," as the Globe reported.

In their story, "The Anguish of Foreclosure," the Globe-Democrat reported that Ms. Balderrama was so ashamed of her plight that she hadn't told her husband the bank was foreclosing. The price of call for personal responsibility, according to the Globe-Democrat, is death:

"Bruce Marks, chief executive of the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America, said it is not uncommon for homeowners to contemplate suicide when they cannot keep up their mortgage payments. 'What gets us so angry is that people blame themselves,' Marks said. 'They can't see past their sense of responsibility to see the responsibility and the predatory nature of these lenders. The fact of the matter is, unless something dramatic happens, there's going to be more and more people like her taking their lives.'" [emphasis added]

In other words, the subprime crisis is a crisis of hard-working, responsible Americans being driven to suicide by their over-inflated sense of responsibility. If only they'd let someone in government--oh, I dunno, maybe a very junior senator for Illinois, for example--give them billions of other people's money before these excessively-responsible folks to something rash.

The Boston-Globe Democrat followed up that story with an editorial making it clear who is at fault:

"After the 2001 terrorist attacks, the only thing President Bush asked of most Americans was to keep on shopping.

In this context, it's harder to attribute the financial troubles of a family in Taunton or a free-spending mother in Pennsylvania solely to bad decisions or bad luck. Consumers are learning the hard way. What's still needed is a change in the culture of the financial-services industry, and recognition from Congress that there's more to financial regulation than letting the borrower beware."

Got it? Good borrowers, but bad banks, bad Congress and--of course--bad ol' Bush.

One thing that the Globe-Democrat editorial doesn't mention even once (and that the original story dedicated a single sentence to) is that "Court filings show that John Balderrama had a history of financial problems. Three times since 2004, he sought protection from his creditors by filing for bankruptcy, according to court records. When the court dismissed his third bankruptcy filing in 2006, Balderrama was still $45,000 in debt." (thank you, Boston Herald).

Ms. Balderrama's decision to commit suicide is tragic. But to present her as part of a middle-class family who, having never faced financial troubles before the current "crisis," chose to kill herself in shame or desperation is simply not true. Every decent person feels great sympathy for the loved ones she left behind. But does anyone really believe the problem here--or in America in general--is that people feel TOO responsible for their own actions?

Which brings us back to Patricia and Milton Harper (pictured above). They're losing their home--and after working so hard to earn it, too. Well, not quite:

Things couldn't look better three years ago for Milton and Patricia Harper of Lake City, who giddily accepted the keys to a small castle, plus enough money to pay taxes on it for 25 years. Now, the Clayton County house that "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" built is a two-story, turreted example of how things can go wrong. It's in foreclosure.

The Harpers used the house at 5489 Ahyoka Drive as collateral for a $450,000 loan, Clayton County mortgage records show. Records at the law firm handling foreclosures for the lender, JPMorgan Chase Bank, say it is in foreclosure. The four-bedroom house with decorative rock walls and a three-car garage is scheduled for auction on the Clayton County Courthouse steps Aug. 5.

It gets worse (or better, if you share Bruce Mark's world view):

"Beazer Homes' employees and company partners raised a quarter-million dollars in contributions million dollars in contributions for the family. The sum included scholarships for the three Harper children and a home maintenance fund.

The Harpers, whom ABC chose from among 15,000 'Extreme Makeover' applicants, spent the week in Disneyland while 1,800 people swarmed about the site. The family returned to a new home, plus contributions worth about $200,000."

Then they borrowed $450,000 in even more money against the house and are telling their creditors to pound sand. You know--just like so many responsible Americans do.

Here's my question: Who victimized these fine folks? Who's responsible for this outrage?

And if you find out who did--could you try to get them to do the same to me, too?

You Say "Heroes of WWII." Liberals Say "Mass Murderers"

2008-07-28T08:06:00.000-04:00

So says uber-liberal and Obama sycophant James Carroll in the Boston Globe-Democrat today.

Even among the die-hard Lefties of the Globe-Democrat, Carroll stands out for his strident anti-Americanism and lingering fondness for the good old days of Stalinism. Intellectually, Carroll is the Michael Savage of the Massachusetts Left: If someone property adjusted his meds, he'd no longer have anything interesting to say.

Which is why I usually treat his Globe-Democrat columns the same way I treat the guy outside the T stop ranting about the coming revenge of the giant lizard people. I avert my eyes and keep walking.

Today, however, my eye fell on a comment about the Americans who fought WWII that was so shocking I couldn't pass by. "Mass murder." And Carroll wasn't talking about the Nazis or imperial Japan.

The premise of Carroll's anti-American screed today is that American military power is a force for evil. Using Sen. Obama's appearance in Berlin as a launching point, Carroll dismisses the "fall of the Berlin Wall" propaganda this way:

Unlike other American politicians who routinely claim that the United States "won" the Cold War, Obama credited the crowd to whom he was speaking near the former site of the Berlin Wall. "When you, the German people, tore down that wall . . . walls came tumbling down around the world." At last, an American leader was crediting the world-historic outbreak of non-violence in 1989 as the political force it was.

This is out-and-out idiocy. The German pacifist movement that marched in the streets protesting Reagan's military challenge to the Soviet Union did nothing to bring down the wall. If Carroll and these "nuke kooks" had gotten their way, 100 million people would be living under Communist tyranny today. The gulags would still be open, advocates of freedom would still be dying at the hands of the Soviet police, and Communism would still be threatening free people around the world.

OK, that's a Globe-Democrat writer being stupid. Big deal. Where Carroll crosses the line into outrageous insult is his declaration that the real story of Berlin isn't the airlift or the defeat of Communism, but rather the alleged war crime America committed by bombing Berlin during WWII. This mass bombing (which helped defeat the Nazis and end the war) made Hiroshima possible. Here's how Carroll puts it:

The strongest rationale for use of the atomic bomb against Hiroshima was that America had already crossed the threshold into mass murder from the air. We crossed it in
Berlin.

America's military in WWII--heroes who defeated fascism? No way! They're "mass murderers" who should have put down their guns and picked up their "Hell, No--We Won't Go!" posters instead. If you want heroes, Carroll believes, you should look to war protesters, not the blood-thirsty savages of the US military.

Carroll is a pacifist, so he has to be this stupid and uninformed in order to maintain his ideology. But the Boston Globe-Democrat is under no obligation to print the slur "mass murder" against men like my grandfather, who fought in Europe and the Pacific against the great evils that cowards like Carroll are too gutless to confront even today.

Your Absolute MUST-READ Of The Day

2008-07-25T07:29:00.000-04:00

“A nd it came to pass, in the eighth year of the reign of the evil Bush the Younger (The Ignorant), when the whole land from the Arabian desert to the shores of the Great Lakes had been laid barren, that a Child appeared in the wilderness.

The Child was blessed in looks and intellect. Scion of a simple family, offspring of a miraculous union, grandson of a typical white person and an African peasant. And yea, as he grew, the Child walked in the path of righteousness, with only the occasional detour into the odd weed and a little blow.”

Read the rest here.

Obama Uber Alles!

2008-07-24T09:26:00.000-04:00

Obama's fellow supporters of socialized medicine, nationalized industries, government gun confiscation, "hate speech" laws, government regulations on food/diet, and smoking bans--all policies of the Third Reich--should feel right at home in Berlin.

Remember, my MoveOn.org friends: "Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Obama!"

Feelin' The Love?

2008-07-23T11:02:00.001-04:00

Or maybe just a leg tingle?

Cast your vote for the best love song to celebrate the media's man-crush on Barack Obama at John McCain's website here.

My choice: Close To You by The Carpenters. "Just like me, they long to be...close to you."

UPDATE: I asked you, the listeners, to suggest what the media and Obama should declare as "Our Song." Here are your top five, based on my emails (michaelgraham@969wtkk.com)

**HOPELESSLY DEVOTED TO YOU: Olivia Newton-John is Katie Couric. John Travolta is The Chosen One. Just add Grease.

**L-O-V-E: "L is for the liberal wonks you are, O is for Obama, our rock star..."

**CLOSE TO YOU: "On the day you went to Iraq, the anchors got together, for a chance to interview their dream come true!"

**HOW GREAT THOU ART: A church classic. "Then sings my soul, my savior, God, to thee...."

Hate To Say I Told You So...

2008-07-23T09:50:00.000-04:00

..unless we're talking about an insufferable, self-important walking haircut like John Edwards.

In October, I got a lot of flak for talking about the National Enquirer story revealing John Edwards relationship with another woman (other than his wife and himself, I mean) and their love child. I pointed out that this is exactly the kind of selfish, self-serving behavior to expect from an ambulance-chasing politician who insisted on dragging his cancer-stricken wife on the campaign trail.

Well, now the whole story is out, and it isn't pretty:

Edwards went out of the hotel briefly with Rielle, they were observed by the NATIONAL ENQUIRER and then went back to her room, where he stayed until attempting to sneak out of the hotel unseen at 2:40 a.m. (PST). But when he emerged alone from an elevator into the hotel basement he was greeted by several reporters from the NATIONAL ENQUIRER.
Senior NATIONAL ENQUIRER Reporter Alexander Hitchen asked Edwards why he was visiting Rielle and whether he was ready to confirm that he was the father of her baby.
Shocked to see a reporter, and without saying anything, Edwards ran up the stairs leading from the hotel basement to the lobby. But, spotting a photographer, he doubled back into the basement. As he emerged from the stairwell, reporter Butterfield questioned him about his hookup with Rielle.
Edwards did not answer and then ran into a nearby restroom...

I almost feel sorry for this fool. ALMOST.

Oh, and where is the mainstream media coverage of this story?

Don't hold your breath. John Edwards may not be able to carry his home state for the national ticket...but he's still a liberal Democrat.

"Because Of The Terrible George Bush Economy, We're Nothin' But Skin And Bones!"

2008-07-21T09:10:00.000-04:00

A recent NPR broadcast slamming the current state of the US economy (which, by the way, isn't much different from their coverage during the great economy from 2003-2007) focused on struggling families in Ohio's Rust Belt.

Families like Angelica Hernandez (above left) and her mother, Gloria Nunez. According to NPR, they are on the brink of starvation:

The rising cost of food means their money gets them about a third fewer bags of groceries — $100 used to buy about 12 bags of groceries, but now it's more like seven or eight. So they cut back on expensive items like meat, and they don't buy extras like ice cream anymore.

Yeah, President Bush--they can't even afford ice cream! I hope you and your rich pals at Big Oil and the Carlysle Group are happy! It's their fault these poor ladies are going hungry.

Or maybe not:

Nunez, 40, has never worked and has no high school degree. She says a car accident 17 years ago left her depressed and disabled, incapable of getting a job...
Hernandez received her high school diploma and has had several jobs in recent years. But now, because fewer restaurants and stores are hiring, she says she finds it hard to find a job...

Nunez's van broke down last fall. Now, her 19-year-old daughter has no reliable transportation out of their subsidized housing complex in Fostoria, 40 miles south of Toledo, to look for a job. Nunez and most of her siblings and their spouses are unemployed and rely on government assistance and food stamps.

Every decent person wishes these two ladies the best, but one can't help thinking that maybe--just maybe--they've made one or two lifestyle decisions that have contributed to their predicament. It could be that case that they would be in these circumstances if mom hadn't dropped out of school, or if her daughter had gotten some additional education or job training. Maybe--just maybe--it's unreasonable to blame the economy when low-skill workers can't find higher-skill (and higher-paying) jobs. Maybe?

So how will our starving Ohioans keep from wasting away to nothing?

People tell Nunez her daughter could get more money in public assistance if she had a child. "A lot of people have told me, 'Why don't your daughter have a kid?'"
They both reject that as a plan.

Somewhere in Ohio, a lonely man cries into his beer.

And I'm Hopeful That Someone In Boston Government Will Grow A Set

2008-07-21T08:19:00.000-04:00

"Totally and permanently disabled Boston Firefighter Albert Arroyo, at a bodybuilding competition earlier this year.

So, what would happen to you if you defrauded your boss out of your salary by faking an injury, skipping work and collecting your paycheck? You'd get fired, right?

OK, so what would happen if you also took some of this scam money tax free--a violation of state and federal tax law? You might need a lawyer, I assume.

Now, what if you do all this-- including getting yourself caught by posting video of your "totally and permanently disabled" self travelling and appearing in body building competitions--as a taxpayer-employed firefighter?

Your boss will politely ask you to come back to work.

[Boston Fire Commissioner Roderick] Fraser declined to say what disciplinary action he plans to take if Arroyo does not show up for work Monday. Under current guidelines, if he does not come to work for 14 days, the department can begin termination proceedings on the basis he has abandoned his post.

Department spokesman Steve MacDonald said yesterday that he hopes that does not happen. "We're hopeful that he will show up for work," he said.

Hopeful? HOPEFUL? If he weren't a union-protected hack in one of the most corrupt unions in Boston, he'd be hoping his cellmate didn't think he's "got a purty mouth." I would be fired. You would be fired. But because this loser works for us, the taxpayers--he CAN'T be fired. Amazing.

Meanwhile, his doctor--who has helped put 25 other "injured" firefighters on the fast track to free money for life--says it's not his fault if his diagnosis was wrong.

[Arroyo] paid 13 visits to Dr. John F. Mahoney, including five examinations in the 13 months before Mahoney concluded in April that Arroyo was "totally and permanently" disabled from a back injury.

Although Mahoney said Arroyo doffed his shirt during appointments, the neurologist at Caritas Carney Hospital insisted he never noticed Arroyo's near Hulk-like physique - until he saw Arroyo's photo in the Globe a week ago.

"If someone is doing bodybuilding and doesn't tell me, how the hell would I know?"

Remind me not to let this doctor do my next exam for testicular cancer. In fact, based on how he's treating the taxpayers, he should probably shift his practice to proctology.

"We're From The Government, And We're Here To Screw You Over"

2008-07-21T08:06:00.000-04:00

How, how, HOW can the lefty establishment of Massachusetts continue to urge us to give more money and power to the 4th-rate government incompetents who run this state? And why do Bay State voters continue to put up with it?

Jeff Jacoby in the Boston Globe-Democrat--the bright spot of the BG-D columnist crew--offers this unanswerable indictment of the corrupt political culture of our state. He makes the point that every rational observer knows how badly Massachusetts is run, but few people appear to be bothered by it, even when the corruption is as blatant as this:

Then there are all the other public employees milking the Massachusetts pension system. Dozens collect payouts of more than $100,000 a year - former state Senate president William Bulger, for example, rakes in more than $197,000, a fitting cap to a long career spent gorging at the public trough. Scores of "double-dippers" retire early on full pensions, then get themselves hired back on the public payroll at full salaries.
When ex-Big Dig director Michael Lewis retired last year, his pension was tripled and became immediately payable under a nutty state law that rewards government employees whose positions are eliminated. For the rest of his life, Lewis will receive more than $72,500 annually, despite the fact that he is only 46, and is making $130,000 a year as Rhode Island's secretary of transportation.

Everybody knows but, apparently, nobody cares. And that's the apathy that Gov. Patrick, Sal DiMasi and the gang are counting on. You keep saying "whatever," and they'll keep throwing your money at their pals.

I Finally Have A Reason To Vote FOR McCain!

2008-07-18T08:37:00.000-04:00

As most listeners know, I will never willingly cast a vote for John McCain, a man who has led assaults on free speech, border security and drilling in ANWR. This year, I'm a "W. C. Fields" American, that sage observer of the human condition who said "I never vote for anyone. I always vote against."

But today I a have a reason to vote for Juan McAmnesty. Two, actually.

The first is that he will kick terrorist butt (even though he's wrong on waterboarding and refuses to acknowledge the difference between illegal combatants and our honorable soldiers).

The second? He has a sense of humor.

Read this unintentionally hilarious piece from Politico.com. I love the sense of awed outrage over the fact that McCain tells jokes that make fun of people. The writer is just sentences away from suggesting McCain should be institutionalized for his own verbal safety. "He keeps telling these jokes," the writer implicitly complains. "Doesn't he know that's not allowed?"

Now read this column from Maureen Dowd. MoDo will never win the "sharpest knife in the drawer" award, but I think she may be onto something here about how voters are responding to the self-absorbed, thin-skinned pomposity of the One True Obama.

In American politics, the most likeable candidate almost always wins. One would assume the "likeability" race would be an Obama landslide, particularly against Sen. Cranky Old Guy. Now I'm starting to wonder.

Do we really want a president who can't take a joke...or tell one, either?

Emails Of The Day

2008-07-17T12:20:00.000-04:00

ON THE BIG DIG:

Michael,

@ 7 miles long and 21 Billion dollars that comes out to:

Each mile cost $3 thousand million,

Each Foot cost $1.7 Million

Each Inch cost $150,000

It’s mind boggling

--Oscar in concord

I was actually at the very 1st meeting about the big dig presented to the downtown business association was very impressive. At that meeting the state/feds said they werent sure of the hard number but expected the cost to be " a little more than a billion"

I missed the 2nd meeting and by the 3rd meeting the " projected cost " was over the 3 billion mark and the gold shovel hadn't been purchased !!

--Dennis

ON DOGS AT WORK:

Michael, I'm surrounded by dog loving whackos! I have a relative from down south who shows up with her two lap dogs in dog carriers. We told her because we have two cats that we can't have the dogs running around the house. Insulted, she now stays in a motel. My mother, God rest her soul, was another demented ldog lover. Whenever, I visited her I was attacked by her miniature long haired dachsund, an animal that bore a strange resemblance to a large tootsie roll. In any event, one of the attacks resulted in my slacks being torn to shreds. I looked like a refugee from the The Pirates Penzance. My mothers response? "Oh, he's just showing you how much he loves you!

--HGH

I will agree not to bring in my dog if you promise not to foist $5 fund raising candy bars on me or leave 2 hours early for youth soccer or school plays, forcing the rest of us to cover for you or do your work. The fact that dogs are not children doesn't make self-absorbed behavior by parents any less obnoxious.

--Skip in Duxbury

Too Much, Too Good, Today

2008-07-17T08:24:00.000-04:00

Today is one of those days when I wish I had a six hour show. There's just so much hilarious, humiliating and outrageous stuff to talk about.

I could do an entire hour, for example on Lefty lunatic icon Howard Zinn's op-ed in the Boston Globe-Democrat today. Written for (and possibly by) someone with a college-freshman level command of both history and English, Zinn tries to make the case that all war is bad:

Have our political leaders gone mad? Have they learned nothing from recent history? Have they not learned that no one "wins" in a war....We should be asking the presidential candidates: Is our war in Afghanistan ending terrorism, or provoking it? And is not war itself terrorism?

This is a remarkably stupid comment from someone who actually served in WWII. Gee, I guess the folks who got out of Auschwitz alive thanks to our war against Nazi Germany are just losers, right Howard? Not to mention the--thanks to war--free people of Western Europe, large chunks of Asia and (thanks to the COLD war that Howard Zinn also opposed) the former Soviet Union.

It's pretty embarrassing when one of the intellectual leaders of the American liberal movement is dumber than your average bumper sticker.

Speaking of dumb, the WSJ today nails the stupidity of the easy-money, give away the farm policies of this Congress and, sadly, the Bush administration. Everything you need to know about the current economic mess is covered here, along with a reminder of the difficult (in the short term) solution: tighten the money supply, let the housing market hit its natural bottom, then stand back and watch our economy take off as it did under Reagan.

And there's plenty to say about the latest reporting on the Big Dig. Sean P. Murphy is the best reporter on this story, period, and he nails the real numbers on just how badly we in Massachusetts are getting screwed by the Big Dig boondoggle. Remember when the Big Dig was going to cost $3.1 billion? Try $22 billion...and that assumes it doesn't kill anyone else or turn into another flood plain. A forlorn hope if ever there was one.

As bad as that is, what Murphy leaves unsaid (and as a reporter probably should) is that we got the Big Dig we deserve. Massachusetts political hacks and their union stooges saw a chance to dive into a bucket full of money. They knew the numbers were lies. They knew the contract was a taxpayer ripoff. But because some cousin got a job leaning on a shovel, many Bostonians laughed up their sleeves and let it go. As long as we were shaking down Uncle Sugar for the money, who cares?

Oooops. Turns out we're paying 78% of the tab out of our own Bay State pockets. The state is so broke, we're borrowing money to cover paychecks for current workers. When you have to put payroll on the Visa card, you know you're in trouble.

Who will pay the price? Will anyone even be punished? Nobody but us taxpayers.

Oh, and one last thing:

Care to guess which Massachusetts congressmen are sending a letter today demanding federal tax dollars to help locals pay the high price of heating oil? The same ones who will be voting today against allowing more drilling for more oil in America.

Phil Gramm Was Right, Part XXXVIII

2008-07-17T06:25:00.001-04:00

Local protesters take to the streets on behalf of a Roxbury woman who bought a condo she couldn't afford and hasn't paid her mortgage in more than a year.

She's a victim, they claim, of those "greedy banks." How greedy?

Well, according to The Boston Globe-Democrat, Countrywide loaned Taylor $260,000 to buy a condo, and now they actually want her to...pay it back!

Heartless bastards.

Excellent video of the protesters--including a guy who chains his wheelchair to her porch--can be found here.

Deval "Slasher" Patrick?

2008-07-15T08:02:00.000-04:00

Gov. Deval Patrick says he wants "extraordinary budget-slashing power" to deal with the state budget. And as I point out in my column today, if Patrick did use his power to do any real budget slashing, it would certainly be extraordinary.

Every day we taxpayers get yet another reminder of how badly we're being ripped off by the state of Hacks-a-chusetts. Today's also comes from the Herald, where Charles Chieppo of the Pioneer Institute takes on the pension/benefits screwjob we're getting from state agencies:

MBTA employees can retire after 23 years - regardless of age - and immediately receive health benefits and collect a pension. State retirees can’t get health insurance or collect a pension until age 55 - still not a bad deal.

T pensions are arguably the nation’s most generous public sector pension benefits and undoubtedly the best in the transit industry. They’re a major reason MBTA fringe benefit costs are projected to consume 94 percent of estimated fare revenue by 2026... MBTA bus drivers are already the highest paid in the nation and other members of the Carmen’s Union are among the highest paid in the industry.

Highest pay, amazing benefits, and then retire at 43 and have the commuters and taxpayers pay you a pension and medical benefits for the rest of your life. Sounds like a great place for a "no more politics as usual" governor who says "miracles can happen here" to get started reforming the system.

So how about it, Governor "Extraordinary Budget-Slashing Powers?" Oh, I forgot: You can't even take on the police details.

The New Yorker Outs Obama!

2008-07-14T07:17:00.002-04:00

Finally, the liberal media reveal the truth about Barack Obama! And they do it right on the front cover of one of their own magazine, the New Yorker! Now every American knows that:

*He's a closet Muslim allied with Osama bin Laden.

*His wife is a dangerous, flag-burning militant.

*Elect Obama and the White House will be Ground Zero for radical Muslims and their left-wing terrorist allies!

Kudos to the New Yorker for having the courage to tell it like it is. The magazine has come under attack from the Left, who say they are outraged and offended by the magazine's cover. And no wonder: They know it's all true! That's why liberals are denouncing it!

Huh? What's that you say? "Satire?" "Lampooning a caricature of Sen. Obama?"

Don't be silly. Are you telling me that Barack Obama supporters are so stupid and/or thin-skinned that they would denounce a magazine cover that's actually a pro-Obama parody? Do you really think Obama voters are that dumb?

Emails Of The Day!

2008-07-11T15:24:00.001-04:00

DC writes:

You are so right about whining and hysteria. My satirical neighbor suggests that instead of getting all hysterical, we should have a measured response to a shark sighting. He proposes that we should send a short person in to swim every morning for a few days within a few miles of any shark sighting. If the short person is OK, everyone can go in. If the short person is attacked, well it was just a short person. I think my neighbor is a Randy Newman fan.

I countered to my neighbor that we should send a radical leftist in instead. If the radical leftist survives, fine. If not, well the radical leftist was probably miserable in this world, this country, and this era in any event and so some misery is ended by the experiment.

We have compromised: we agree that Robert Reich should be sent in swimming after a shark sighting.

Cynthia says:

Michael,

I cannot tell you how much I am not surprised by what has happened with the housing market. My husband and I bought a home in 2002 and bought what we could afford not what a mortgage lender said we could afford.

I explained (actually argued for a very long time with my husband house hunting). He (American) and I (Canadian) argued about this American Dream he went on about. Well in the end we got a beautiful home that we can afford, and we live the way we can afford to live.

My husband learned a lot about the Real American dream and it is not keeping up with the Jones’.
We do not have granite counters but we have an energy efficient home that we take a lot a pride in. Mortgaged our home with a fix rate for 30 years. I do not have fancy jewelry and our son wears second hand clothes. We hardly eat out, once a month (eating out for us is fattening).

We live a good life and believe we are the American dream.

You Don't Have To Be A Clueless Hypocrite To Be A Judge In Massachusetts...

2008-07-11T08:26:00.000-04:00

...but it doesn't hurt.

In 2003, the Massachusetts Supreme Judiciary Court And Most High Over Lords re-defined marriage to include same-sex couples, ruling that despite 200 years of having marriage mean "a man and a woman," John Adams actually meant "any two people who want to hook up." He just didn't know it, and neither did any of our elected representatives.

So four members of the Massachusetts judiciary ruled that the people had to change the definition of marriage, whether they wanted to or not. (Every poll continues to show that the people of Massachusetts still don't, by the way.)

Imagine my "spit-out-your-coffee" astonishment, then, when I read today about the SJC's ruling on a malpractice case brought by a woman whose partner died of cancer and wanted marital benefits extending back to before the 2004 creation of same-sex marriage. Chief Lunat...er "Chief Justice" Margaret Marshall actual wrote:

Granting such relief would create in effect a common-law or de facto quasi marital status that would promote litigation, permit judges to select from among marital benefits to which quasi marital couples might or might not be entitled, create uncertainty in the private as well as the public sphere about who is (or was) quasi married and for what purpose, and undercut the Legislature's role in defining the qualifications and characteristics of civil marriage.

You read that right. She says the court shouldn't "undercut the Legislature's role in defining...civil marriage."

Oh, you mean like, say, when the legislature passes laws defining marriage as one man and one woman, and when it repeatedly refuses to change those laws, and when the people keep elected representatives who oppose re-defining marriage--you mean THAT role, Judge Marshall?

Gee, why didn't you think of that in 2003?

"And Don't Mention 'Red Dwarves' To Native American Midgets, Either!"

2008-07-11T06:55:00.001-04:00

Not long ago, the loonies at Media Matters attacked me for commenting on television that, in the p.c. paranoia swirling around the Obama presidency, "you'll be too scared to order blackened redfish, because an African-American or Native American will beat the crap out of you."

What an outrageous comment, right? Cue the Dallas County Commission.

When a county commissioner in Texas complained about how a county office was a "black hole" for tickets, two of his fellow commissioners--both black--complained about his offensive remarks and demanded an apology. (The must-see video of this story is here.)

Seriously. I'm not making that up.

OK, actually, I did make it up. When I did stand up, I had a bit about stupid people being offended by phrases like "black hole," "nip in the air," "spic and span" and "red alert," which could be offensive to both American Indians or Chinese communists.

The most frightening part of this story is that, even after confronted with the fact that "black hole" has nothing to do with race and everything to do with cosmology, the county commissioners STILL demanded an apology. Why? "It doesn't matter if what he said was racist. What matters is that I'm offended."

No, what really matters is that you're an idiot--the kind of idiot who is only taken seriously because you're a member of a special-interest minority group.

No Habla "I Hate America"

2008-07-10T08:20:00.000-04:00

As I admit in my Boston Herald column today, I'm not the least bit ashamed of my lame French or non-existent German. No habla Espanol either, Sen. Obama, and it doesn't bother me a bit.

In fact, if a Frenchman ever asked me why Americans aren't embarrassed about not speaking French, I would ask him if he as grateful that he doesn't speak German.

Meanwhile, Jesse Jackson should consider giving all his future interviews in Esperanto--a language nobody understands.

The Embarrassed Obamas Strike Again!

2008-07-09T10:27:00.000-04:00

First it was Michelle, telling us she was never been proud of American democracy before her husband was nominted.

Now it's Barack Obama, revealing his "embarrassment" over the fact that more Americans don't speak French. (hinting, perhaps, at an Obama/Kerry ticket?) Watch the video of Obama's remarks for yourself.

Not surprising--it's becoming a pattern with Sen. Obama--he's wrong on the facts. He tells Americans to "stop worrying about immigrants learning English. They'll learn English. Instead, you need to teach your children to speak Spanish!"

But the modern generation of Hispanic immigrants are not assimilating the same way previous generations of immigrants have done. Most immigrant families are speaking English in and out of the home by the time the first generation of native-born Americans are adults. But a significant percentage of immigrants from Mexico are still speaking Spanish at home in their third generation. In fact, almost half of Hispanic immigrants now live in communities in America where Spanish is the primary language.

And Sen. Obama's response? The rest of us should learn Spanish, too.

Hello, Haters!

2008-07-09T09:35:00.000-04:00

What--you didn't know that listening to my radio show makes you a "hater?" You didn't know that talk radio is "hate speech" that is destroying democracy? You thought it was free citizens having a conversation about important issues of the day?

You haven't read Rory O'Connor's book, have you? Read it, and weep...for the current state of America's anti-free-speech, anti-free-market "liberals."

Pretty Horrible

2008-07-07T09:20:00.001-04:00

When I heard that the folks at the Beverly Farms "Horribles" parade were making fun of the Gloucester High School pregnancy pact story, I cheered. After all, I am an advocate of the power of shame--something the administration in Gloucester rejects.

Then I saw the video of the parade. Yikes.

Sorry, Beverly Farms, but I can't get your back. Floats featuring condom tossing and, ahem, "greasy poles" goes a bit too far for me. If I'd been there with my 8 and 5 year olds, I would have been looking for someone to have a word with.

Great idea, lousy execution.

(h/t Boston Herald for the photo)

Good News For Normal People!

2008-07-06T10:30:00.000-04:00

All of the following stories are good news...unless you're a lefty ideologue. You will notice that the Boston MSM have largely ignored all of these reports.

You're shocked, I know.

** Final Purge of Al Qaeda In Iraq Underway. Major-General Mark Hertling, American commander in the north, said: “I think we’re at the irreversible point.”

** Second-Hand Smoke Will NOT Give You Lung Cancer! This is good news for normal people, even those who hate the smell of cigarettes, because less cancer is a good thing. So why does it make so many lefties mad when the research shows that "In 2003 a definitive paper on SHS and lung cancer mortality was published in the British Medical Journal. It is the largest and most detailed study ever reported. The authors studied more than 35,000 California never-smokers over a 39-year period and found no statistically significant association between exposure to SHS and lung cancer mortality."

** Big Wigs Who Hired Illegals (Finally!) Being Punished. "Two supervisors at an Iowa meatpacking plant that was raided by federal immigration agents in May were arrested and charged with encouraging people to live in the United States illegally.

Juan Carlos Guerrero-Espinoza, 35, and Martin De La Rosa-Loera, 43, were also charged Thursday with and aiding and abetting the possession and use of fraudulent identification. Guerrero-Espinoza was charged with aiding and abetting aggravated identity theft."

But wait a minute--If it's a federal crime to "encourage people to live in the US illegally" (and it is, by the way), then why is Massachusetts giving taxfunded medical care, welfare benefits and housing to crimmigrants? Is that, like, illegal and stuff?

That's why we've got to celebrate the good news when we get it.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!

2008-07-04T23:59:00.000-04:00

"Governor Patrick, What's Your Excuse?"

2008-07-03T06:16:00.000-04:00

From my column in the Boston Herald today:

Poor people. High school dropouts. Minorities. If a mortgage company marketed subprime loans the way Deval Patrick targets for taxes, Attorney General Martha Coakley would bust them for predatory lending practices...

I am a self-confessed, small government, “pay your own way” heartless conservative bastard. Shaking down suckers without regard for race, creed or income is part of my fundamental political philosophy.

Gov. Patrick, what’s your excuse?

"I Realized I Don't Feel Like An American"

2008-07-02T16:03:00.000-04:00

nlv

That's why, when Rene Marie was asked to sing the Star Spangled Banner, she instead sang the "Black National Anthem," a.k.a. "Lift Every Voice."

Ms. Marie was asked to sing the National Anthem for the Denver, CO "State of the City" address by their Democratic mayor John Hickenlooper. Denver is hosting the Democratic National Convention in August and, as City Councilor Charlie Brown put it "This is not the way to start the convention."

You can listen to Ms. Marie's performance for yourself, and you can read the lyrics of the "Black National Anthem" here.

Your Must-Read Oil Story Of The Day

2008-07-02T08:32:00.000-04:00

As part of my ongoing efforts to understand why I'm paying four-freakin'-dollars(!) for a gallon of gasoline, I've been reading less and less of the Boston Globe-Democrat, and more analysis by actual economists.

One of them, Harvard's Martin Feldstein, has today's must-read insights into why "evil speculators" are not part of a secret cabal to force oil prices up on behalf of Halliburton...or whatever the conspiracy theory of the day happens to be.

Instead, Feldstein makes some common-sense economic observations about the real world:

Unlike perishable agricultural products, oil can be stored in the ground. So when will an owner of oil reduce production or increase inventories instead of selling his oil and converting the proceeds into investible cash? A simplified answer is that he will keep the oil in the ground if its price is expected to rise faster than the interest rate that could be earned on the money obtained from selling the oil. The actual price of oil may rise faster or slower than is expected, but the decision to sell (or hold) the oil depends on the expected price rise.

There are of course considerations of risk, and of the impact of price changes on long-term consumer behavior, that complicate the oil owner's decision – and therefore the behavior of prices. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (the OPEC cartel), with its strong pricing power, still plays a role. But the fundamental insight is that owners of oil will adjust their production and inventories until the price of oil is expected to rise at the rate of interest, appropriately adjusted for risk. If the price of oil is expected to rise faster, they'll keep the oil in the ground. In contrast, if the price of oil is not expected to rise as fast as the rate of interest, the owners will extract more and invest the proceeds.

The relationship between future and current oil prices implies that an expected change in the future price of oil will have an immediate impact on the current price of oil. [emphasis added]

In other words, if oil producers expect their oil to be worth less in the future--because of, oh, like more drilling and stuff?--they will get it onto the market today and prices will drop.

Unfortunately, American liberals like Sen. Obama, Gov. Patrick and Sen. Harry Reid don't WANT lower prices. They want lower demand, and that comes with higher prices.

So if you support $5 a gallon (or higher!) heating oil for granny this winter and next, you can have it. Just vote Democrat.

The Lunatics Are Running The Law School

2008-07-01T14:47:00.000-04:00

Thanks to my buddy Seth Gitell, I can now confidently report that the dean of the Massachusetts School of Law is a kook.

OK, OK, that's not particularly newsworthy. After all, Massachusetts law schools are overrun with professors who (for lack of a better word) "think" that there is no constitutional right to own guns or execute criminals (both of which are explicitly mentioned in the Constitution); but there is a constitutional right to partial-birth abortion.

Like I said, "kooks."

But even in the pantheon of Massachusetts kookery, the dean of the Massachusetts School of Law, Lawrence Velvel, stands out among the Tin Foil Hat Brigades.

As Seth reports, Velvel wants George W. Bush hanged by the neck until dead. Why? As punishment for his war crimes. And Mr. Velvel claims to be serious about it. He's counting on The Hague or some other tribunal to bring W. up on charges and, Velvel hopes, give him the ol' Nazi treatment--right around the neck.

Now, there's nothing knew about conspir-insanity on the left. Visit Gov. Deval Patrick's personal webpage right now, and you can get a heapin' helping of 9/11 kookery on Deval's dime. It's gotten so obvious, even some writers at the Boston Globe-Democrat are starting to notice.

But the head of our state's law school, hoping to see George W. Bush hang? I think the guy has some issues.

Gee, I wonder if Mr. Velvel would support the death penalty for repeat child rapists? Or mass murderers? How about Osama bin Laden?

Or does he, as a good Lefty, only support capital punishment for the worst of the worse: Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld.

Obama: "I Won't Attack McCain's Military Service...Anymore."

2008-07-01T09:36:00.001-04:00

Is that what Sen. Obama really said in his speech yesterday? If so, his campaign couldn't keep that promise for even 24 hours.

As I said in my Boston Herald column today:

Sen. Barack Obama gave a speech about patriotism yesterday entitled “The America We Love.” After listening to the rhetoric coming from his campaign, I assume the big question at Obama HQ was “Who you calling ‘we?’ ”

As ABC reports, an Obama advisor is now claiming that McCain's military service and time as a POW make him LESS qualified to be president:

Obama adviser Rand Beers said yesterday that "because [McCain] was in isolation essentially for many of those years and did not experience the turmoil here or the challenges that were involved for those of us who served in Vietnam during the Vietnam war," that "to some extent his national security experience in that regard is sadly limited and I think it is reflected in some of the ways that he thinks about how U.S. forces might be committed to conflicts around the world."

OK, if John McCain's national security experience is "sadly limited," could someone please tell me what the heck Barack Obama's is?

"Shoot The Speculators!"

2008-07-01T08:35:00.000-04:00

Robert Samuelson at the Washington Post gives a total beatdown to the dopes like Obama and McCain blaming the price of oil on evil speculators. If you want to understand the "speculators" issue, this is a great read.

Here's the money 'graph:

From 2002 to 2007, oil rose 177 percent, corn 70 percent, copper 360 percent and aluminum 95 percent. But that's just the point. Did "speculators" really cause all those increases? If so, why did some prices go up more than others? And what about steel? It rose 117 percent -- and has increased further in 2008 -- even though it isn't traded on commodities futures markets.

A better explanation is basic supply and demand. Despite the U.S. slowdown, the world economy has boomed. Since 2002, annual growth has averaged 4.6 percent, the highest sustained rate since the 1960s, says economist Michael Mussa of the Peterson Institute. By their nature, raw materials (food, energy, minerals) sustain the broader economy. They're not just frills. When unexpectedly high demand strains existing production, prices rise sharply as buyers scramble for scarce supplies. That's what happened.

Of course, if Samuelson is right--and he obviously is--then the only solution to "not enough oil" is "make more oil," and that's the one option that the idiots running Washington won't allow.

Mi Amigo, Senor Deval!

2008-06-27T08:29:00.000-04:00

He's at it again. As part of his "education reform" package, Gov. Patrick wants to reward crimmigrants stealing jobs and government services in Massachusetts with subsidized college tuition.

This is on top of the new program from the Patrick administration to track down crimmigrants and give them taxpayer-funded health insurance. Which means that, once again, we go from "Together, we can" to "I'm going to do what I want, and you're gonna have to pay for it!"

Gov. Patrick, you've already given away $1 billion of our tax dollars, much of it to big drug companies like Wyeth and Genzyme. You're about to raise our taxes by $500 million. Your administration has raised tolls, is probably going to raise them again, and gas is headed towards $5 a gallon.

Could you please, PLEASE cut us a little slack and not force legal Massachusetts residents to pick up the college tab for the crimmigrants? You're right: compared to the billions in tax dollars you're throwing around like a sailor on shore leave, the few million we're talking about here ain't much.

But it matters, Governor. If nothing else, it's a reminder of where we, the law-abiding, taxpaying citizens of Massachusetts, are on your priority list.

Dead last.

A Lot Of Graham (too much, really) Via Video Today

2008-06-26T13:15:00.001-04:00

I'm filling in for Glenn Beck tonight, and we'll be discussing Rep. (as in "reprehensible) Jim Fagan; the SCOTUS 2nd Amendment ruling; and the uber-political hotness of Scarlett Johansson.

As the great journalist Edward R. Murrow used to say--"Yeah, baby!"

And all evening long the Move America Forward webcast will be underway. Please don't wait for my appearance to log on--check it out right now and see Rush, Sean, Dr. Laura, Monica Crowley and a cast of thousands as they support this effort to set a new record on behalf of our troops.

Support Our Troops And Help Make History TODAY!

2008-06-26T09:08:00.000-04:00

The photo above is from Baghdad, where I spent a week in 2005 broadcasting live and letting the soldiers and Marines on the ground tell their story. My trip to Iraq was made possible by a group called Move America Forward, which has spent years working hard to support our troops.

Now Melanie Morgan and the gang at MAF are hosting a history-making effort on behalf of American troops abroad fighting the Global War On Terror. I jumped at the chance to be a part of it, and I hope you will join me tonight:

Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Lt. Col. Oliver North, Dr. Laura Schlessinger, comedian Jackie Mason, Mark Levin, Miss Florida 2007 and Five for Fighting’s John Ondrasik and former First Lady Nancy Reagan are among the many stars and heroes joining a Sacramento-based nonprofit in a historic push to send the single largest shipment of care packages in history to American troops overseas.

I will be part of the show, hosted by Melanie and our good friend Michelle Malkin. You can watch this special webcast on Thursday from 4pm-Midnight at the Move America Forward website. But they're hoping you'll do more:

Thousands of Americans have already sponsored packages through MAF’s website and a giant database of names and addresses of U.S. troops in Iraq & Afghanistan is being built—so that the packages can reach our military men and women in time for the 4th of July holiday. MAF would like all families with loved ones in Iraq and Afghanistan to send addresses and names to ensure all troops benefit from the overwhelming support of a grateful nation.

The goal is to make this the biggest webcast ever, and the biggest delivery of care packages to troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, too. You can send your own care package to the troops by clicking here:

I'm proud to be a part of this effort, and I would be honored if you joined me tonight around 11:45pm.

A Grieving Father Lays Down Some Natural Truth On A MassHole Politician

2008-06-26T08:36:00.001-04:00

(Why is this man smiling? Because he's carrying water for the MA Trial Lawyers Association--right over the backs of children who've been raped and molested.)

“How long have you been in office, and why haven’t you closed those loopholes? Stop being a defense attorney when you’re up at the capitol and start being the legislator you told the people you would be.”

That's Mark Lunsford, talking about MA state rep (as in "reprehensible") James Fagan (D-Mass. Trial Lawyers Assn). You know, the guy who threatened victims of child rape who come before him in court this way:

“That 6-year-old is going to sit in front of me, or somebody far worse than me, and I’m going to rip them apart. I'm going to make sure that the rest of their life is ruined; that when they’re 8 years old they throw up; when they’re 12 years old, they won’t sleep; when they’re 19 years old they’ll have nightmares and they’ll never have a relationship with anybody.”

First, a minor fact error, Rep. Fagan. There ISN'T anybody worse than you. Anyone who disagrees with my assessment should listen to his on-air conversation with Jim and Margery here on 969 FM TALK.

I rest my case.

The Poll You WON'T Hear About Today

2008-06-26T06:37:00.001-04:00

While MSWHB (We Hate Bush) dedicated an entire day to the notoriously inaccurate Newsweek poll showing Obama with a huge lead, I have yet to see a mention on their network--or any other--of the latest Gallup poll:

McCain and Obama are tied.

Gee, Mr. Olbermann, could we get you to talk about the latest polls on perceptions that the media are biased?

UPDATE: I just watched MSWHB do a scroll of "latest poll numbers." All of them give Obama a double digit lead. The one poll they left out this morning? The LATEST one, from Gallup.

Facts vs. Speculation

2008-06-24T23:40:00.000-04:00

The Wall Street Journal does an excellent job of explaining why blaming speculators for today's high gas prices doesn't make much sense. Read the entire editorial for yourself, but here is one highlight that caught my eye:

The futures market may be a convenient scapegoat, but it's simply a price discovery mechanism. Major energy consumers – refiners, airlines – buy and sell these contracts to lock in goods at a future price, as a hedge against volatility. Essentially, they're guesses about coming oil supply and demand, as well as the rate of inflation. The political theory is that such futures trading is creating a bubble in the spot market (i.e., oil purchased for immediate delivery) beyond oil fundamentals. Thus, $4 gas.

But there's no inherent reason to "bet" that commodities will go up rather than down. Bet wrong – place all your chips on red, say – and you lose. If a company purchases the future right to buy oil at $140 a barrel and it instead sells for $130, the option is worthless. Besides, somebody has to take the other side of any futures contract: Some are trying to predict where the price will go in the future, while the other side is attempting to sell its future price risk. But no one knows how things will end up.

As anyone who's seen the movie Trading Places with Eddie Murphy and Dan Akroyd can tell you, the commodities market is nothing new. And--if you recall--the evil ??? Brothers lost their bet on frozen orange juice.

Like OJ, oil six months from now will have an inherent worth. Promising today to pay $150 for a barrel will not stop that barrel from being worth $50, nor does it ensure the oil will be worth $200. Blaming investors for the price of oil is like blaming GM stockholders for the decline in car sales.

It's not the money that's the problem. It's the market. Supply and demand.

Are We Sure Sen. Obama Knows...

2008-06-23T17:12:00.001-04:00

...that he's NOT the president yet?

In fact, he's the first "presumed" nominee in 30 years who will arrive at the convention without enough pledged delegates to actually win the nomination. Sen. Obama is forced to rely on the kindness (and promises) of superdelegates. Even Jimmy Carter in 1980 didn't have to do that.

But hey--why let a technicality get in the way? We don't have time to wait around for elections. Our souls need healing now!

UPDATE: Mickey Kaus absolutely nails this (as he does so many subjects):

Is Obama's new faux-presidential, alternative-reality seal his "Mission Accomplished"? If you wanted to emphasize to voters that the Democrats' nominee is a bit stuck up, it would be hard to do better. I suppose he could start requiring reporters to stand when he enters the room...

UPDATE II: 96.9 FM TALK listeners have weighed in with their theories about the meaning of "Vero Possumus." Here are some of their best guesses:

“No Experience Necessary.”

“Let Them Eat Possum!”

“For The First Time, Proud”

“Stupid Is As Stupid Does”

“Middle Class, Bend Over.”

“Smoke ‘em If You Got ‘em.”

“If I Win, You’re Roadkill.”

“If the Right is Wrong, Then Wright Ain't Wrong”

Barack Obama Plays His Ace

2008-06-23T09:00:00.000-04:00

Don't support higher income taxes?

Don't want to increase Social Security taxes?

Don't want to pay for your neighbor's medical insurance out of your pocket?

Don't support a moratorium on new oil drilling with gas at $4.50?

Don't want a president who has never been an executive, never hired or fired anyone and had just 1 year of federal service before launching his presidential campaign?

Why, you must be a....racist!

God Is A Celtics Fan, Too!

2008-06-22T18:48:00.001-04:00

This photo was taken Friday night, as the Creator him/her/itself smiled upon Boston--a.k.a. "Titletown, USA."

(h/t Universal Hub and Maria Varmazis)

Maybe Sen. Obama Should Stick With The Magic Unicorn Hair

2008-06-22T08:41:00.000-04:00

Sen. Obama opposes all new sources of oil, he opposes nuclear and--if it annoys a Kennedy--he opposes wind farms, too. Instead, Sen. Obama says that "new technologies" will have us all livin' green in no time.

What kinds of new technologies? Well, like running our cars on hydrogen which--Sen. Obama claims--we would already be doing if not for the evil oil companies, George W. Bush, Halliburton, blah, blah, blah. Why, if we'd spent $250 billion of tax dollars like Sen. Obama wanted 10 years ago (when he was a community organizer in Chicago) we'd all be driving hydrocars today, running on water and, er, uh, well, whatever that other stuff is.

Only one problem, Senator: Science.

As aerospace engineer Robert Zubrin points out, the physics for hydrogen power just don't work. The first, high school physics fact the Greenies don't understand, is that hydrogen is a great energy maker because it's an element that is highly reactive to other elements (or, as in the Sun, with itself, making helium via fusion). But because it's so reactive, virtually all the hydrogen on earth is already combined with oxygen and/or some other element. To get hydrogen to make power, you have to use more power to break it away from other elements to get it.

The result is the second obvious fact about hydrogen about which the Greenies are clueless--it's very expensive:

The wholesale cost of commercial grade liquid hydrogen (made the cheap way, from hydrocarbons [a.k.a. "fossil fuels]) shipped to large customers in the United States is about $6 per kilogram. High purity hydrogen made from electrolysis for scientific applications costs considerably more. Dispensed in compressed gas cylinders to retail customers, the current price of commercial grade hydrogen is about $100 per kilogram. For comparison, a kilogram of hydrogen contains about the same amount of energy as a gallon of gasoline.
This means that even if hydrogen cars were available and hydrogen stations existed to fuel them, no one with the power to choose otherwise would ever buy such vehicles. This fact alone makes the hydrogen economy a non-starter in a free society.

Is Sen. Obama ready to tell the typical American we need to pay $1oo a gallon for our magic hydrogen cars? Until he is, his opposition to new oil and nuclear is, like most of his other policies, ridiculous.

Come To The Beach!

2008-06-20T08:05:00.000-04:00

I'm at the BBQ Beach Party this morning at City Hall Plaza, broadcasting live, and that's where you should be, too!

Come for the conversation, stay for the barbecue sauce.

Lots to talk about, including more developments from the Gloucester High School "pregnancy pact." If there were ever a story that proves the value of teaching and promoting abstinence, this is it. And yet idiots like Ellen Goodman in the Boston Globe-Democrat are still getting it backwards. "Stop telling kids sex is wrong!" scream the lefties who refuse to allow any sexual decision to be judged.

Including the decision of a 15-year-old to get herself knocked up, right?

By the way, for those of you who keep repeating the mantra that abstinence-based education "just doesn't work," here's some actual research you should know about.

Liberals And Gas Prices: Doing Their Best To Make It Worse

2008-06-19T10:10:00.000-04:00

My take on the clueless, elitist, anti-working-family oil policy of the Left is in the Boston Herald today.

If You're Watching CNN Headline News Tonight...

2008-06-19T10:04:00.000-04:00

...you may see a familiar face--or at least hear a familiar voice--filling in for Glenn Beck.

And special thanks to Jay Severin for filling in during my 11am hour so I could catch the NYC shuttle.

Gloucester Girls Get The Message...And A Baby Daddy!

2008-06-19T07:00:00.000-04:00

Remember that arrogant jerk Dr. Brian Orr from the school clinic at Gloucester High--the one who quit because the hospital overseeing his work wouldn't let him give out birth control to 14-and 15-year olds without their parents knowledge or consent? He believed that society should give birth control to these teens and then trust their judgment. After all, who are the parents to judge?

Well, the girls at his high school were certainly paying attention...

According to Time Magazine, about half the 17 girls who became pregnant during this year's "pregnancy crisis!" at Gloucester did so...ON PURPOSE. They made a pregnany pact with each other and used the school clinic as their own private ob/gyn.

The girls who made the pregnancy pact—some of whom, according to [the school principal] reacted to the news that they were expecting with high fives and plans for baby showers—declined to be interviewed. So did their parents. But Amanda Ireland, who graduated from Gloucester High on June 8, thinks she knows why these girls wanted to get pregnant. Ireland, 18, gave birth her freshman year and says some of her now pregnant schoolmates regularly approached her in the hall, remarking how lucky she was to have a baby...

The high school has done perhaps too good a job of embracing young mothers. Sex-ed classes end freshman year at Gloucester, where teen parents are encouraged to take their children to a free on-site day-care center. Strollers mingle seamlessly in school hallways among cheerleaders and junior ROTC. "We're proud to help the mothers stay in school," says Sue Todd, CEO of Pathways for Children, which runs the day-care center.

Dr. Orr continues to insist that the solution is to make it easier for 15-year-olds to have sex, to treat their sexual activity as normal and acceptable and to give them hormone pills behind their parents back.

Instead, what he and the Gloucester schools have done is to encourage the idiotic notions in their girls' heads that they are mature and responsible enough to be making these decisions. They are "choosing" (pause for a moment of sacred chanting from feminists) to go get pregnant and become moms at the age of 16. That is their "right" (pause again for cheers from opponents of abstinence-based education). Parents? They don't need no stinkin' parents.

They've got Dr. Brian Orr and his school clinic. And as a result, these girls will soon have a taxpayer-subsidized bundle of joy.

Another Cambridge Liberal Makes Mom Proud

2008-06-18T08:43:00.000-04:00

Thanks to Adam Reilly at the Boston Phoenix for pointing out this odd photo in Monday's Boston Globe-Democrat. She's from Cambridge, she's a student living in Brighton, and if you look carefully at her shirt, you'll see a message on her pocket for local law enforcement.

If you can't quite make it out, it says "Cops are NOT pigs. Pigs are more civil."

Now, you may be asking yourself why even the lost Lefties at the Boston Globe-Demcrat would put this nitwit and her retro-60's "pigs" talk (apparently her "Screw The Fuzz!" shirt was at the cleaners) in their news pages in the first place. Good question.

The BG-D does these dopey, vapid profiles every Monday in a desperate bid to get circulation numbers up. Hey--10 family members a week run out to buy a handful of copies. It all ads up.

But this is the first I've seen where the subject took the opportunity to insult a large number of their fellow Bostonians.

I wonder if this photo would have made the paper if, for example, the shirt had read "What Part Of 'Illegal' Don't You Understand?" or had a Confederate Battle Flag with "You Wear Your X, I'll Wear Mine." To ask the question is to answer it.

So the Boston Globe- Democrat--which has no obligation to run this picture, of a person with no news value--chooses to print the "Cops are worse than pigs" message for their readers.

And then they wonder why they have fewer and fewer of them every day.

What Ever Happened To What's-His-Name?

2008-06-18T07:27:00.000-04:00

Angry, post-menopausal women who want to say "Thank You" to Hillary Clinton for proving that America is a nation of sexist pigs can do so at a new website posted by the Clinton campaign.

It features a photo album tribute to the Arkansas attorney and one-term senator with the highest "unfavorable" ratings of any presidential candidate since Watergate, but who only lost the Democratic nomination because she's a girl.

And if you do check out this photo album, you'll see that the Hillary campaign was absolutely for the ladies, of the ladies and by the ladies. Hardly any men appear in the photos at all. Lots of Hillary pics (of course) and quite a few with Chelsea.

But there's one person who you might be expecting to see in a Clinton campaign retrospective who doesn't appear even a single time. A guy who was out on the campaign trail quite a bit, and who many of us sexist pigs believe made Hillary's campaign possible. In fact, some of us Neanderthals would argue that if it were not for Hillary's relationship to this man, she wouldn't have been a serious contender for the White House.

Who is he? If you don't know, you won't find out from Hillary's website.

The (Not So) Distinguished Gentleman From Illinois

2008-06-17T20:54:00.000-04:00

Here is an excellent, one-page rundown of Sen. Barack Obama's "accomplishments." It's not mean-spirited or overly snarky. It's just what Sen. Obama did. Or, more accurately, hasn't done.

It is mandatory reading for anyone who wants to cast a serious vote on the presidency in November. That leaves out about 90% of Barack Obama's supporters.

The writer echoes a point that, every time I make it, people say "Gee, I didn't know that, " namely this is Sen. Obama's first contested election. That he hasn't lost, anyway.

He used hard-ball tactics to force his first opponents off the ballot when he ran for state senate. He ran in a primary against incumbent Chicago congressman Bobby Rush and got crushed 2-1. Then he ran essentially unopposed for US Senate when his primary opponent and serious GOP opponent both had to drop out due to sex/divorce scandals.

Not only has Sen. Obama never had an executive position, tried an important legal case, or run a business or led on any significant legislation--he's never been tested before in a serious political campaign. There has never been a candidate who has done so little in his life, and gotten this close to the presidency.

He may still be the better man. But nobody can read this account of Sen. Obama's record and say "This guy is qualified to be president." It's just not true. Period.

2008-06-15T08:59:00.000-04:00

This is my father, Simon Graham, during his most recent visit to Boston. For some reason, the management of Jacob Wirth's would NOT allow him in the Ladies room.

Seriously, thanks for the many kind emails re: his appearance on the show Friday. Like every good dad, my dad was unappreciated by his kids until we had kids of our own. Suddenly he seems like a genius.

One listener commenting on my dad and I said "The apple doesn't fall from the tree," which is interesting because my father often says of me "I think someone kicked that apple down the hill."

I hope all my fellow New England dads are having as happy a Father's Day as I. Below are some emails from listeners sharing their father's favorite "words of wisdom" from their youth.

Enjoy!

Hi Michael,

My dad, retired Lt. Col from the US Army, used to say "Careful or I'll demobilize you" --Anne

My father had 2 sayings I remember When I was disappointed about something out of my control ( as often the case with kids) he would say: “My boy” (he started everything with that) “You win some, you lose some, and some get rained out. But you dress for them all.” (as my kids’ soccer coach, I catch myself using this one a lot). When I wanted something frivolous (I was one of 6 so there wasn’t much money to spare) he’d say : “People in Hell want ice-water.” -- Phil.

My dad used to say "Children are to be seen, and not heard." It really p***ed me off, too, until I had kids. Now I use it ALL the time! -- Jaqueline.

My Dad's most memorable quote: I got bagged doing what I wasn't suppose to and my dad sat me in a chair and said," I'm gonna punish you. Not for what you did, because I did worse when I was a kid. I'm punishing you for being STUPID enough to get caught." The rest is history and I'm waiting to use it on my kids!!! --Mike from Randolph.

Michael,

My two oldest sons were directed to me by their mother to answer their questions about "safe sex". I looked them over with a straight face, saying, "There's no such thing as safe sex, because if you have sex before you're married, I'LL KILL YOU."--Paul

Dad's quote: "What do you want a medal, Or a Chest to pin it on" -- Jesse.

And finally, from the evening meal at the Simon (and now Michael) Graham Family Compound: "As long as you put your two feet under MY table, you'll do what I say!"

If You're Not Happy, You're Not Paying Attention

2008-06-13T08:23:00.001-04:00

Why do we live in Gloom-and-Doom Nation? Is it, as many of my callers insist, because everybody's broke and the Iraq war is a disaster? They must be right, because pollsters show most Americans agree--life sucks. Right?

Of course they're right...as long as you ignore the facts.

There are so many positive stories from our ongoing success in Iraq that some of you are tired of hearing about it from me. In fact, our victory is so overwhelming that Democrats and other grumpy Americans are abandoning the "We lost" argument and switching to the "It's not worth it, anyway" complaint. But the fact remains that if President Bush had promised in 2003 that we would topple Saddam Hussein, bring an end to attacks on America and its facilities abroad, cripple Al Qaeda and place a functioning, democratically-elected government in Iraq--all while suffering fewer than 3500 combat deaths--he would have been mocked as a cockeyed optimist and dismissed as a hopeless Pollyanna

That's exactly what happened, and as a result he's called a hopeless failure.

Meanwhile, here at home, $4 gallon gasoline sucks and the economy is stumbling. But as Gregg Easterbrook points out in the Wall Street Journal, those are the two dark clouds in a sky filled with silver linings:

Unemployment is 5.5%, low by historical standards; income is rising slightly ahead of inflation; housing prices are down, but the typical house is still worth a third more than in 2000; 94% of Americans do not have threatened mortgages, and of those who do, most will keep their homes. Inflation was up in 2007, but this stands out because the 16 previous years were close to
inflation-free; living standards are the highest they have ever been, including living standards for the middle class and for the poor.

All forms of pollution other than greenhouse gases are in decline; cancer, heart disease and stroke incidence are declining; crime is in a long-term cycle of significant decline; education levels are at all-time highs...

Campaigning in Pennsylvania in April, Hillary Clinton said "We need to go back to the prosperity of the 1990s," a comment that drew loud, enthusiastic applause. Converted to today's dollars, per-capita income in the Keystone State is 23% higher than in 1990. People may think Pennsylvania was more prosperous in the past, but the state is better off today. The same can be said for most (needless to say, not all) parts of the country and most
demographics. Most are, right now, the best-off they have ever been.

Those are the facts, and yet we're still a nation of moaners. Why? Is it because we've become so spoiled in the past 20 years that we simply can't handle any adversity at all? Or is it because the Obama-friendly, Bush-hating media are determined to tell you that this is the "worst economy ever!," despite the facts?

Because You Asked For It

2008-06-13T07:45:00.000-04:00

Here's the audio of Barack Obama, SuperGenius, trying to explain, uh, well, actually I can't tell what the heck he's talking about.

"You Know, This Fidel Guy Is Onto Something..."

2008-06-12T08:30:00.000-04:00

So says Speaker of the House Sal DiMasi. My take on Speaker DiMasi's pre-emptive strike on Massachusetts democracy is in today's Boston Herald.

The NY Times Writes Something Nice About...AMERICA?

2008-06-12T08:14:00.000-04:00

You may want to sit down for this one.

Fellow fans of the inimitable Mark Steyn will be thrilled to read the front page piece in today's NYTimes about the assault on free speech in Canada. For those of us familiar with the facts about the kangaroo court prosecuting Steyn for writing a magazine article critical of the current state of Islam, the NYTimes adds little to the story. However, they place Steyn's prosecution in the larger context of America's commitment to free speech. A commitment, the NYTimes points out, that most other liberal Euroweenie countries (and many American Lefties) do not share.

The NYTimes notes that "Many foreign courts have respectfully considered the American approach — and then rejected it."

They quote Jason Gratl, a lawyer for the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association and the Canadian Association of Journalists. His group opposes the prosecution of Steyn by the so-called "Human Rights Commission," but he's not willing to say that such prosecutions are inherently wrong.

“Canadians do not have a cast-iron stomach for offensive speech. We don’t subscribe to a marketplace of ideas. Americans as a whole are more tough-minded and more prepared for verbal combat.”

What a refreshingly honest admission from a foreigner about America's exceptionalism. How astonishing to read it in the NYTimes.

If only a certain (very) junior senator from Illinois felt the same way.

Sal Gives Voters The Finger

2008-06-11T09:39:00.000-04:00

Actually, it's the OTHER finger.

The Massachusetts Speaker of the House told my hometown newspaper, the MetroWest Daily News, that he doesn't care how the people vote on a proposal to repeal the income tax. He's never going to enact it in the legislature--period.

Sal Dimasi told the MWDN editorial board: "I'm against doing it and I find my self hard-pressed to say that I would try to completely implement an elimination of the income tax. I can't see myself doing that..." (You can watch DiMasi's interview here.)

This is hardly news for anyone who's been paying attention to Massachusetts politics. The courts and the corrupt hacks of Beacon Hill are notorious for completely ignoring the will of the people, on everything from same-sex marriage to even reducing the state income tax.

We vote, they ignore us, we re-elect them. So why should our politicians take us seriously if we're going to reward them for giving us the shaft?

What can you do about it? You can start by getting the income tax repeal on the ballot this November. In fact, the deadline for signatures is June 18, so use this website to print out a petition, get your neighbors to sign it, and then take it down to your town clerk.

Why is it important to get the income tax repeal on the ballot if we know upfront that the political hacks are going to screw us? Because then you've got an election cycle this fall in which you can ask every candidate for re-election "Will you respect the will of the people and obey the law if the repeal passes?"

That means that your local legislator will either have to a) look you in the eye and lie; or b) admit that he has absolutely no respect for the principles of consent of the governed, the rule of law, or democracy itself.

Now is our chance, Massachusetts! Sal DiMasi wants to stick it to you. It's time to stick it right back.

The Ol' College Try

2008-06-11T08:53:00.000-04:00

Back in my PR days, I spent some time working with the financial aid department of the University of South Carolina and the students who applied for it. The experience confirmed what I have observed time and time again from my encounters with college grads:

One of the worst, dumbest and hardest to recover from decisions many young people (with the help of their parents) will make is the decision to go to college.

The fact is, as this excellent article by a 100-level college instructor confirms, colleges are crawling with kids who lack the basic skills college requires. Some of them are enrolled because their parents want a "college grad" kid. Others are only there because their employers have foolish requirements for college credits and degrees utterly unrelated to the job.

The net result is a bunch of young people with tens of thousands of dollars of college loan debts, a relatively useless degree (assuming they actually graduate), and a dumbing down of what a college degree is worth.

The sad truth is that a Bachelor's degree today is the equivalent of what my father's high school diploma was worth. It just means you've had your ticket punched and are ready to start your grown-up life.

That's not much for $100,000.

Drill Here! Drill Now! Pay Less!

2008-06-10T09:03:00.000-04:00

I couldn't agree more.

Sign the petition by clicking here.

WE'RE SAVED!

2008-06-09T11:43:00.000-04:00

Whew!

Isn't it great to know that all the major problems we thought we faced in the future--the economy, war, terrorism, "global warming," etc.--are all behind us?

According to Sen. Obama, the war in Iraq has already begun to end, our nation is--thanks to his nomination--secure from terrorism, the Earth is healing itself and even the rising tides are turning back.

All this, just from Barack Obama's victory in the Democratic primaries. Imagine how great things are going to get once he's actually president. It'll be Christmas every day!

Don't believe it? Just ask a Barack Obama supporter. They do.

Here, for example, is Mark Morford in the San Francisco Chronicle--the paper of record of the Loony Left:

No, it's not merely his youthful vigor, or handsomeness, or even inspiring rhetoric. It is not fresh ideas or cool charisma or the fact that a black president will be historic and revolutionary in about a thousand different ways. It is something more. Even Bill Clinton, with all his effortless, winking charm, didn't have what Obama has, which is a sort of powerful luminosity, a unique high-vibration integrity...

Many spiritually advanced people I know (not coweringly religious, mind you, but deeply spiritual) identify Obama as a Lightworker, that rare kind of attuned being who has the ability to lead us not merely to new foreign policies or health care plans or whatnot, but who can actually help usher in a new way of being on the planet, of relating and connecting and engaging with this bizarre earthly experiment. These kinds of people actually help us evolve. They are philosophers and peacemakers of a very high order, and they speak not just to reason or emotion, but to the soul.

R-i-i-i-i-i-ght.

UPDATE: WTKK listeners are adding to the list of things they're looking forward to once Sen. Obama wins the White House:

Stephen: All that stuff is great but I really can't wait for the free ice cream.

Kathy: Don’t forget leaping tall buildings in a single bound!!!

Barbara: I am canceling my laser hair removal treatments and throwing away my razors. Along with the oceans receding, the hair on my legs will fall off.

David: WOW! If he can do all that and get my 4 year old to go straight to bed he’s got my vote.

What Is That--Some Kind Of JOKE?!

2008-06-09T07:58:00.000-04:00

Uh, yes. At least, it was supposed to be.

The folks at Legal Seafood have--or should I say "had"--an ad campaign on the Green Line promoting their fresh fish by having cartoon fish in posters making fresh remarks. You know, stuff like "This trolley gets around more than your sister," and "This conductor has a face like a halibut."

HI-larious! OK, maybe not. But still, it's just a joke, right?

Not to the Boston Carmen's Union (which is not, I learned to my surprise, a labor organization involved in the performance of French opera). "If they don't come down, we will not drive those trains." Oh, please.

The folks at Universal Hub absolutely nail this story in one paragraph:

Let's see: Green Line trolleys are falling off the tracks and getting into fatal smashups. Downtown Crossing is catching on fire and Red Line trains have to slow down so they don't fall off the Longfellow. And what is the Boston Carmen's Union so upset about it was threatening a work action?

Fish jokes.

What makes the story even better is reading blog postings of limp-wristed Bostonians defending the carmen and denouncing the ads as offensive. "Why can't we put up posters that compliment the carmen?" one local whines.

As hokey as these Legal Seafood ads are, it turns out Roger Berkowitz is still too hip for the room.

ATTENTION, FELLOW FOODIES!

2008-06-06T19:38:00.000-04:00

As all regular listeners know, I'm a huge food nut and always have been. One of my greatest discoveries in New England is my former radio show producer, Mark Bedrosian. Mark's father was in the food business and Mark learned, as only the son of an Italian mother and Armenian father in Rhode Island can, the way to make classic, handmade Italian sausage.

I have eaten great Italian sausage in many places, including Florence and Rome, and Mark's is as good as it gets. When we worked together, he would make a few pounds and bring it in for me to use in my cooking.

Well, finally Mark's expertise is available for you. Saturday, June 7th, is the grand opening of Papa’s Sausage at 2009 Smith St. in North Providence. I'll be there around 10am to grab a few pounds of Mark's best and bring it back to MetroWest. I also want to check out Mark's store, which he assures me will have authentic Italian foodstuffs that are hard to find in your local grocery.

Is this a shameless plug for a friend? Absolutely! But having enjoyed his handmade sausage so many times, I'm happy to spread the good news to New England foodies everywhere.

Papa’s Sausage

2009 Smith St. North Providence. R.I.

Another "Mission Hill" Outrage Hits Connecticut

2008-06-06T10:00:00.000-04:00

When a NU student from Connecticut was shot to death on Mission Hill here in Boston and none of her neighbors called the cops, we talked about what it said about us.

Now there's another disturbing example of disregard for fellow citizens from Connecticut, where folks in Hartford stood around and stared at a hit-and-run victim lying in the street.

Watch this troubling video for yourself.

Before You Cripple Our Economy and Starve Third World Families Fighting "Global Warming..."

2008-06-06T09:21:00.001-04:00

...couldn't you at least wait for it to get warm?

We've had three days of 50 degree weather here in Boston--in JUNE.

Now the new numbers are out for May, 2008 and--shock!--it's freakin' freezing!

Here's the key observation:

Compared to the May 2007 value of 0.199°C we find a 12 month ∆T is -.379°C. But even more impressive is the change since the last big peak in global temperature in January 2007 at 0.594°C, giving a 16 month ∆T of -0.774°C which is equal in magnitude to the generally agreed upon “global warming signal” of the last 100 years.

If Ma Nature can wipe out a century of warming in 16 months, how in the world does anyone defend spending trillions on what the Earth's temperatures MIGHT be 100 years from now?

George Will Tells You Everything You Need To Know About Mrs. Bill Clinton

2008-06-06T08:50:00.000-04:00

"Clinton, having risen politically in her husband's orbit, is a moon shining with reflected light. Were Obama to hitch himself to her, he would reduce himself to a reflection of a reflection."

Read the rest of Will's terrific (as usual) column here.

Gee, What Word Is Missing From This Story?

2008-06-06T08:13:00.000-04:00

The Lowell Sun is the hometown paper of the community where Sen. "Touch My Willie" Marzilli was allegedly attacking women on park benches. You'd think they would be the paper of record on this disturbing story and this serial creep.

So read the news story and tell me what key bit of information about an elected official--information that one would expect to find in such a story--is utterly missing.

I'll give you one hint: It's information that would be in the very first paragraph if Sen. Marzilli were a Republican.

Another Massachusetts "Ultraliberal" Strikes Again!

2008-06-05T08:13:00.000-04:00

What the Boston Globe-Democrat says:

A self-described ultraliberal, Marzilli has been a darling of unions, environmental groups, and social service organizations whose causes he championed.

"This does not conform to the behavior of the Jim Marzilli who we know and love," said George Bachrach, a former Democratic state senator from Watertown and a longtime friend who hired Marzilli to run his campaign for governor in 1994. "I feel many of us who had positive relationships with Jim professionally feel deeply for him now personally."

What I say in today's Boston Herald:

Take the example of state Sen. James Marzilli (party affiliation withheld at the request of The Boston Globe). The Arlington liberal was caught - again - allegedly trying to do to a lady on a Lowell park bench what he regularly does to the taxpayers on Beacon Hill.

I love the fact that, yet again, a Clintonesque "advocate for women's issues" is caught with his hands in the, er...uh, well, being inappropriate. We were laughing yesterday when the Globe-Democrat buried Sen. Marzilli's party affiliation in the 11th paragraph of the news story. Today, it's the same defense: "This can't be true--he's a liberal!"

Bill Clinton repeatedly used the power of his elected offices to pressure women into sex. As liberal Christopher Hitchens and reporter Michael Isikoff found, the allegations that Bill Clinton raped Juanita Broaddrick are credible. If he were a private citizen, they would have surely resulted in a trial.

And yet Bill Clinton remains a "women's champion"--and I don't mean that in any score-keeping, Wilt-Chamberlin sense.

Of the many ways the Left has embarrassed itself during the years of Clinton love, the most humiliating was watching women activists defending a dirtbag like William Jefferson O.J. Clinton.

Sen. Marzilli can only hope the tradition continues.

March Of The Mediocrities

2008-06-04T16:46:00.000-04:00

I agree with just about everything John Hood of the John Locke Foundation has to say about the 2008 presidential election. You can read his entire article, but here's a sampling:

...it feels as though we’ve already had several national elections since last summer. And yet we’ve only just begun the general-election campaign Tuesday night with Barack Obama weakly clinching the Democratic nomination while losing one of the final two primaries and John McCain blandly promising a respectful contest with his fresh-faced Senate colleague.

We’re stuck with these two mediocrities for the rest of the year. What’s more, we’re also going to be subjected to hundreds of mainstream-media mediocrities endlessly recycling the same trite observations, then revising the observations, then rediscovering the original observations, ad nauseatium.

You Go, Girl!

2008-06-04T08:49:00.000-04:00

Sign this petition and demand that Sen. Barack Obama give Hillary Rodham Clinton her rightful place on the Democratic ticket in 2008.

Do your part to elect Sen. John McC..er "stand up for women's rights" today!

And I'm "Willing To Take" Gisele Bundchen To Nude Beach In the Bahamas...

2008-06-04T08:11:00.000-04:00

From the LA Times to CNN, the headline is Mrs. Bill Clinton's "willingness to take" the vice presidential spot if, for some unimaginable reason, Sen. Barack Obama should decide to force this opportunity on Hillary who, really, has never even imagined he might offer it to lil' ol' her. Her answer?

"Who, me? Vice President? Well, if you insist...."

Right.

Here on Planet Earth, we're watching Heavyweight Hillary's all-out effort to put Sen. Obama in a headlock. On the day Sen. Obama could have been celebrating his victory, Mrs. Clinton was announcing her "willingness" to take the VP slot in every conversation. Meanwhile, the Clinton's ultimate "useful galoot" Lanny Davis (and I mean that in a nice way) has launched an online petition demanding Sen. Obama make Hillary his running mate.

Here's my prediction: Sen. Obama will not choose Mrs. Bill Clinton to be his vice president because he can't. It would cripple his candidacy and all but assure Sen. McCain's victory (as much as any political action could in the era of $5/gallon gasoline, the Iraq War and falling home values).

Why?

What is the number one obstacle Sen. Obama faces as a candidate for POTUS? If you said "race," you're either some clueless, knee-jerk America hater or a member of the Boston Globe-Democrat editorial board. (But I repeat myself...)

No, the question Sen. Obama must answer is "Are you strong enough to be president?" Or to put it in a manner more likely to offend the thin-skinned, "Are you man enough?"

Right now, the answer is "no." Sen. Obama has been getting pushed all over the political landscape by Hillary Clinton. His "let's hug Iran" foreign policy and his near-tears reaction to criticism on the campaign trail feed the perception that he's just not tough enough for the world's hardest job.

Because everyone knows Sen. Obama (not to mention Mrs. Obama) doesn't want Hillary on the ticket, the only way she'll get there is if he's forced to choose her. In other words, if he gets pushed around by a girl one more time. And reasonable, fair-minded voters will ask themselves the obvious: If Sen. Obama isn't tough enough to take on Hillary, how can he possibly be tough enough to take on the world."

Right now, Sen. Obama is a 1992 candidate. He's the kind of nice, liberal "I'll vote for him so I can feel better about myself" candidate America could take a chance on once the Soviet Union collapsed and the economy was in fundamentally good shape.

This is 2008. We're at war, Islamist whackjobs are trying to attack us around the globe every day, China, Russia and Iran are itchin' for a fight, we can't afford to buy gas and the economy is the worst its been since the Reagan recovery 25 years ago.

This is our world, and the Democrats choice to lead it is a guy who's not even man enough to say "no" to Hillary Clinton?

Putting Hillary on the ticket is what a weak candidate would do. Sen. Obama can't afford to be that candidate.

Sorry, ladies, but Mrs. Bill will not be invited to this dance.

Hate America, Love Obama?

2008-06-03T06:55:00.000-04:00

What do Jeremiah Wright, Fr. Michael Pfleger, Michelle Obama and a majority of Europeans have in common?

They don't like America, but they really like Barack Obama. In fact, according to polls, preaching and personal observation, there is an undeniable, inverse relationship between one's affection for the US and support for the Obama campaign. That's certainly the case with callers to 96.9 WTKK, as I wrote in the Boston Herald today:

Yesterday on my radio show, a caller named Rich defended Obama’s membership at Trinity this way:

“That church is right. White people in America are privileged, just like Japanese people are privileged in Japan. This is you guys’ country. It ain’t our country.

“Don’t blame me, it’s not my America,” says Rich.

And when he does, I hear echoes of other Obama supporters - Bill Ayers, Louis Farrakhan, Michelle Obama. They don’t see America as “our” nation - great, but flawed - but rather someone else’s country. It is simply a lost land waiting for these cultural outsiders to redeem it - and to heal our souls.

Only then will they embrace America as their nation, a nation they can finally be proud of for the first time.

You can listen to that depressing, heartbreaking call by clicking here.

Here's the big question for the Obamaniacs: If you don't like America, if you think so little of this nation that you can't call it your own, why do you WANT the White House? Shouldn't you just go to a better country somewhere, one with a political culture more in tune with your beliefs.

You know, like Cuba?

From The Irony-Challenged Anger-Mongers of Media Matters

2008-06-02T21:45:00.000-04:00

My friends at DevalPatrickWatch sent me a link to this posting from the loony-Left, Clinton-funded website Media Matters For America:

Guest host on Beck suggests if Obama elected, political correctness will kill comedy: "[E]veryone will be so scared of saying anything"

MMA then proceeds to quote me accurately from my appearance on the Glenn Beck TV show::

GRAHAM: Are your comedian friends telling you what my talk show's telling me, which is, if we have a President Obama, comedy will be dead? Not because of any, you know, political action or government action, because everyone will be so scared of saying anything.
You'll be scared to order blackened red fish, because you're afraid that an African-American or Native American will beat the crap out of you for it.

My comments offended the folks at Media Matters because...well, their posting never states why they object. They present this comment as objectionable on its face. Graham's comments are so, so shocking, they need no explanation!

Uh, OK.

My best guess is that they believe I said something racist or related to race. If so, they're argument is "Michael Graham says that electing Barack Obama will dampen free speech because of fears over accusations of racism--that racist!"

Thanks for making my point, guys.

UPDATE: Stephanie Miller, who allegedly has a radio show somewhere, joins the "stop saying we'll call you a racist, you racist!" bandwagon. At least she has the courtesy (or clarity) to accuse me of racism directly, though she doesn't explain it. Apparently the phrase "blackened redfish" is now a racial pejorative. I'll leave that to the free-speech-lovin' folks on the Loony Left.

Your Monday Morning Wake-Up Call!

2008-06-02T08:22:00.000-04:00

Here are some news items to start your week off right:

The good news is now so obvious that they've even discovered it at the Washington Post--We're winning in Iraq!

More Bad News For John Kerry Democrats: "We're 75 Years Behind The American Economy," Euroweenies Admit.

Speaking Of The US Economy...

Companies sold a record amount of bonds in May, showing that the credit freeze that locked up Wall Street for months this year has begun to thaw. Highly rated companies such as GlaxoSmithKline, Philip Morris and Merrill Lynch raised $132.8 billion selling bonds in May, says Thomson Reuters. That's the most ever raised from bond sales in a month.

And then there's Manny Being Manny. C'mon--even NY Yankees fans have got to like this guy!

One Of These Things Is Not Like The Other...

2008-05-30T10:50:00.000-04:00

Sen. Barack Obama has been a proud member of Trinity United Church of Christ for 20 years, and he happily signed the Black Values System in order to join.

For twenty years, sermons were given--apparently frequently--like the one given by Fr. Michael Pfleger this weekend.

When the videotape hit, Fr. Pfleger said this:

"I regret the words I chose on Sunday," he said in a statement. "These words are inconsistent with Sen. Obama's life and message, and I am deeply sorry if they offended Sen. Clinton or anyone else who saw them."

Uh, if Fr. Pfelger's comments, which echoed what is regularly preached at TUCC, "are inconsistent with Sen. Obama's life and message," why did Sen. Obama spend TWENTY YEARS there? If I were a member of a group who kept offending my "life and message," I'd quit. Who wouldn't?

Other than Barack Obama, that is...

They Shoot 4th Graders, Don't They?

2008-05-30T07:53:00.000-04:00

Many 96.9 WTKK listeners have been emailing me on behalf of a 10-year-old suspended from a Winchendon, MA elementary school for five days after taking an empty shell casing to school. The casing--from a blank fired at a community Memorial Day ceremony--was given to the boy by a uniformed veteran. The kid didn't know it was against the rules. The mom didn't know. There was no potential harm (what--schoolkids suffering from a BRASS allergy?).

Why kick the kid out for five days?

“Massachusetts General Law gives principals absolute authority in their schools. She (Mrs. Peterson) has no obligation to notify anyone else because it is expected that she has enough authority under the Massachusetts Educational Reform Act to make these decisions,” said School Committee member Christine B. Philput.

OK, so the principal has the right to kick a kid out of school for any reason, no matter how dopey, and never has to even notify anyone else? She doesn't have to answer questions from, say, elected representatives of the citizens who PAY for the schools...and her salary?

Try treating your customers that way in the private sector, Mrs. Peterson.

Here's the contact info for Toy Town Elementary if you'd like to get involved to. Speak out! Speak up!

Remember: Guns don't kill people. Empty shell casings from blanks fired at Memorial Day services do.

The Natural Truth Invades Sharon, MA!

2008-05-28T08:57:00.000-04:00

If you don't have access to Sharon TV, you can watch my appearance on Ari Taube's excelelnt "Power Politics" show online using this link.

If You're Near A TV Thursday Night at 7pm...

2008-05-27T13:38:00.000-04:00

I'll be guest-hosting the Glenn Beck show on CNN Headline News. If you think I'm clueless on radio....just wait until you see me on TV!

More Taxpayer Love From Dollar Bill Deval

2008-05-27T06:11:00.000-04:00

Here’s your economic quiz question of the day: What’s gone up more in the past year, the cost of gas, or the cost of the governor’s office?

If you guessed Gov. Patrick - you’re right! Or at least you’ve been paying attention.

Read the rest of my column on Gov. Patrick's $9 million money grab in the Boston Herald today.

And Where, Sen. Obama, Did They Bury The Survivors?

2008-05-26T21:33:00.000-04:00

Addressing a Memorial Day crowd Monday, Sen. Barack Obama made an interesting observation:

On this Memorial Day, as our nation honors its unbroken line of fallen heroes -- and I see many of them in the audience here today -- our sense of patriotism is particularly strong.

That's right: Sen. Obama sees "fallen heroes" attending his speech. At least, I think it was Sen. Obama. It could have been Bruce Willis.

Now, the senator obviously misspoke--something I do on the air everyday--so it's no big deal...in and of itself. But something is happening to Barack Obama and it's starting to be a trend. He's getting a reputation as the "one-man gaffe machine."

I first heard this from Michelle Malkin a couple of weeks ago. Then Jake Tapper jumped on it for ABC this weekend. Now the audience full of dead people, and the trend is starting to take on a life of its own.

Yes, George W. Bush is at least as bad, if not worse. But this could end up being a significant problem for Sen. Obama if it amplifies the "ready on Day One" issue. The fact is, Sen. Obama clearly isn't ready to be president. Most voters know that, but they either really like him and don't care; or they really hate the GOP and care even less.

Constantly misstating your positions and not knowing what town you're in don't inspire confidence. Right now they're just kind of funny. But if they continue, fewer voters will still be laughing.

Remembering The Victories, Too

2008-05-26T10:50:00.000-04:00

In the current media climate, every day is Memorial Day--a day to count up the tragic costs of war. And war, by definition, always involves a terrible, terrible cost.

But is our war in Iraq truly a war of all costs and no benefits? Check out this timeline from the guys at PowerLine. And then ask yourself if it isn't finally time to give our soldiers and Marines the credit they deserve.

The Good News/Bad News From The US Border

2008-05-26T08:04:00.000-04:00

The good news is that 270 illegal immigrants were sentenced this week to five months in prison for using fake IDs to work in the US.

Despite claims by pro-open-borders boneheads that crimmigrants haven't done anything actually criminal because immigration law violations are civil violations only, this case makes the point I keep repeating: You cannot stay and work in the US without committing numerous criminal acts.

There are 270 crimmigrants who've just figured that out. Let's hope Barack Obama and John McCain eventually do as well.

Speaking of bad news...

Down in central Mexico, a local group is making money by charging people $10 to experience what it's like to sneak into the US illegally:

Gunshots ring out and sirens shriek, mixing with the ragged breath of muddy, panting humans. Suddenly, the full moon sweeping the ground like a searchlight
reveals a disturbing scene: a group of illegal immigrants being handcuffed and led away by U.S. Border Patrol agents. But the U.S. border is 700 miles from this rugged municipal park in Hidalgo state, a three-hour drive north of Mexico City.

The spectacle unfolding here isn't an actual border crossing attempt but a live simulation-adventure that attempts to give participants a taste of what it's like for the thousands of Mexican and other Latin American undocumented migrants trying to enter the promised land of "el norte."

Dubbed the "Caminata Nocturna" (Night Hike), the three-hour simulation is a combination obstacle course, sociology lesson and PG-rated family outing.

You gotta love the Mexican "family values" on display in this story. My favorite quote from this story comes from a Mexican school teacher:

"It [sneaking into the US illegally] is part of our culture, and it's important to know it."

Breaking into the US, stealing a job from a legal immigrant and committing identity fraud on some US taxpayer's Social Security number--that's not a crime. It's a culture.

I feel much better about it now.

Another "Profile In Courage" From Beacon Hill

2008-05-26T06:53:00.001-04:00

Then....

MARCH 27, 2008: The state's top leaders vowed yesterday to use their combined political might to take on powerful police unions by limiting construction details, a longstanding cash cow for police officers that critics for years have called a waste of taxpayer dollars....A Herald review found that state transportation agencies in 2006 spent more than $44 million on police details at construction sites statewide. -- The Boston Herald.

And now...

MAY 25, 2008: Confronted with a withering lobbying blitz by police officers, meanwhile, key lawmakers inserted legislative language in a transportation bill that would protect municipal union contracts and, with those contracts, the construction details that boost police salaries by thousands of dollars...

The performance by the state's politicians - quickly retreating from a plan that is popular with fiscal watchdogs and reformers - once again demonstrates the political might of police unions and the inability of elected leaders to make significant changes in a practice embedded in police contracts across the state.

It is a not a retreat the officials are eager to discuss. Senate President Therese Murray and House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi did not respond to requests for comment on Friday. --Boston Globe-Democrat.

Military Veterans For Obama! Well, One Anyway...

2008-05-22T08:23:00.000-04:00

His name is Captain James Yee, and he is an Obama delegate to the Democratic National Convention. Here he is, in his own words, telling you why he supports Sen. Obama.

And here's the CNN story on James Yee's arrest after a US Customs official found he was carrying lists with names of detainees and interrogators when he left Guantanamo Bay and arrived in Florida. A Muslim chaplain serving at Gitmo, he eventually pleaded guilty to adultery and downloading porn onto a military computer (one of those observant Muslims, apparently) and left the Army.

But even better is this video of Obama delegate and disgraced military chaplain Yee attacking the US military on TV...in Syria. He repeats the now-debunked accusation that Korans were thrown into toilets at Gitmo and makes other accusations of bad behavior that he admits he never actually saw.

He just assumes the military is bad and America is guilty. Sounds like an Obama supporter to me.

One More Note On The US Military

2008-05-22T07:49:00.000-04:00

They are still kickin' Al Qaeda ass in Iraq.

The Al Qaeda terror group in Iraq appears to be at its weakest state since it gained an initial foothold in the aftermath of the U.S.-led invasion five years ago, the acting commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East said Wednesday in an Associated Press interview.

Army Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey, who assumed interim command of U.S. Central Command on March 28, acknowledged that Al Qaeda remains a relentless foe
and has not disappeared as a serious threat to stability. But he said an accelerated U.S. and Iraq campaign to pressure Al Qaeda has paid big dividends.

"Our forces and the Iraqi forces have certainly disrupted Al Qaeda, probably to a level that we haven't seen at any time in my experience," said Dempsey, who served in Iraq in the initial stages as a division commander and later as head of the military organization in charge of training Iraqi security forces.

"We Support The Troops...Unless They Run For President"

2008-05-22T07:38:00.000-04:00

Does his military background make John McCain too "dangerous" to be president?

That's what US Senator and former Democratic presidential contender Tom Harkin says.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain's family background as the son and grandson of admirals has given him a worldview shaped by the military, "and he has a hard time thinking beyond that," Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Ia., said Friday."I think he's trapped in that," Harkin said in a conference call with Iowa reporters. "Everything is looked at from his life experiences, from always having been in the military, and I think that can be pretty dangerous."

Harkin said that "it's one thing to have been drafted and served, but another thing when you come from generations of military people and that's just how you're steeped, how you've learned, how you've grown up."

The Des Moines Register goes on to note, without additional comment: "Neither of the Democratic presidential candidates served in the military."

Berkeley liberals attack a Marine recruiting office and even try to cast spells on it. Cambridge shuts down a Boy Scout drive collecting gifts to send to soldiers in Iraq. Harvard chased the ROTC off campus during the Vietnam War and still won't allow them back.

But whatever you do...don't question the Left's patriotism!

My question is, was this a trial balloon by the Obama campaign? Was Harkin just firing off ill-considered comments, or are Democrats testing the idea that McCain's military background could be used as a liability?

If so, it wouldn't be the first time. Watch this TV ad run by the Adlai Stevenson during his 1952 campaign against Eisenhower. The Stevenson campaign raised questions about Ike's candidacy because of his military background, too.

And we all know how THAT worked out.

Newton Taxpayers To Davey Cohen: "We're Not THAT Crazy..."

2008-05-21T08:48:00.000-04:00

Hey, Newton--You are the change you've been waiting for!

For every Massachusetts resident who thinks that the state is lost, that the Left is too strong, that common sense can never prevail, I offer the voters of uber-elite, obnoxious, "we deserve a $200 million high school" Newton, MA.

The largest override request of the year, $12+ million, was shot down by the taxpayers by a whopping 55-45%. That's impressive anywhere, but in Newton it's positively historic.

So don't give up, my fellow Bay Staters. Stay and fight! Don't give up the ship!

The Natural Truth From Iraq

2008-05-21T08:27:00.001-04:00

While Sen. Obama prepares to declare defeat in Iraq and abandon a developing democracy to Al Qaeda, Iran and the Sadrists, something has been happening that this Harvard lawyer cannot comprehend: Victory.

It's not just former Army Lt. Col. Ralph Peters who sees it, though he does an excellent job of reporting the current state of Iraq.

And it's not just our friend Michael Yon, the best on-the-ground reporter in Iraq today.

It's also the enemies of America who are conceding an American victory is within grasp.

First there's this email from an Al Qaeda ally doing an analysis of their efforts in Iraq. He notes with alarm that Al Qaeda managed about 300 attacks last May, but just 16 so far this month--part of a drastic drop-off that has followed the success of the surge. (The Al Qaeda analyst does NOT point out that Sens. Clinton, Kennedy and Obama all opposed the surge.)

Then there's this story from--believe it or not!--the Boston Globe-Democrat:

BAGHDAD - Some 10,000 Iraqi troops fanned out in Baghdad's Sadr City yesterday, taking positions on main roads, rooftops, and near hospitals in an attempt to establish government control in the Shi'ite militia enclave for the first time since Saddam Hussein's ouster.

Success relies on whether a truce holds with fighters loyal to radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr....

The move, code-named "Operation Peace," is the latest by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to impose government authority in areas controlled by armed groups. Besides the Basra offensive, an ongoing sweep launched a week ago in the northern city of Mosul aims to uproot Al Qaeda in Iraq and other Sunni insurgents.

But the fragile truce's survival could depend on how forcefully the troops try to reduce the Mahdi Army's long-unquestioned domination of Sadr City, home to 2 million Shi'ites.

Already, Sadr supporters were complaining of the heavy deployment.

"We were surprised by the size of the force," said Sheik Salman al-Freiji, director of the Sadr Movement office in the district. "But their entry in such size has sparked fears that there could be violations of mosques and homes. There must be respect."

The elected government of Iraq and its Shi'ite president once again confronting Shi'ite militias, and with a "surprising" show of force. When the Boston Globe-Democrat can't avoid the story, maybe it's not too late for Sen. Obama to catch up, too.

Gov. Patrick Discovers The Law of Unintended Consequences

2008-05-20T14:29:00.001-04:00

So which Democrat will Deval Patrick appoint to replace Ted Kennedy, should the senator be unable to serve?

Thanks to the Democrats of the Massachusetts legislature, the answer is: nobody.

Horrified by the possibility of Gov. Romney replacing John Kerry with a Republican in 2004, the Massachusetts legislature passed a bill stripping the governor of the power to make an interim appointment. The same legislature that hasn't been able to get rid of the "temporary" income tax hike in 20 years passed this new law in about 2 days. Gov. Romney vetoed it, the legislature overrode it...and Kerry lost.

As a result of that forward-thinking action by the legislature, Gov. Patrick is now denied the right to make any appointment, should Sen. Kennedy be forced to leave office. Instead, the state will hold a special election no sooner than 145 days and no later than 160 days of any vacancy.

So instead of a Patrick ally running as an incumbent, there will be a wide-open Democratic primary to replace Sen. Ted. According to a spokesperson in the Massachusetts Secretary of State's office, any primary would be held after the 145 day deadline, with a general election six weeks after that.

There's a long list of potential Democratic candidates: Rep. Ed Markey, AG Martha Coakley, former Congressman Joseph P. Kennedy II, perhaps former gubernatorial candidates Tom Reilly or Chris Gabrielli, and even Vicki (Mrs. Ted) Kennedy. Given the rarity of an open US Senate seat in Massachusetts, a big-time primary battle is almost certain.

[My colleague, Jim Braude, says that if a Kennedy runs, everyone else will step aside. Didn't they say the same thing about Hillary Clinton a year ago?]

This is significant because Gov. Patrick is struggling here in Massachusetts and he could use both an ally in Washington and a victory here at home. An interim appointment who went on to win the next election would give him both. Instead, the Mitt-o-phobia of Massachusetts Democrats leaves him with nothing.

Speaking of Mitt, Republicans can forget any hopes of another Romney bid for Kennedy's seat.
Not even Mitt's millions could win such a special election because:

a) this is a one-party state;
b) 2008 is a lousy year for Republicans;
c) there's no way the Lefties of Massachusetts are going to let Ted Kennedy's replacement be a Republican.

So best wishes to Sen. Kennedy and a speedy recovery.

Mass Insanity

2008-05-20T07:09:00.000-04:00

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different
results. "

This quotation is attributed to Einstein, but whether he said it or not, it absolutely applies to Massachusetts politics in general, and the Boston Globe-Democrat in particular.

The BG-D has been a big-time proponent of Gov. Patrick's $1 billion boondoggle to corporations involved in the thriving life sciences industries. This sector of the high-tech economy is booming, both in Massachusetts and across America, and without taking a single tax dollar from guys working construction in Dorchester.

But Gov. Patrick and his Globie lapdogs never saw an opportunity they couldn't screw up. Patrick proposed giving $1 billion in tax dollars to an industry that doesn't need it, the BG-D cheered him on and the bill was sent up to Beacon Hill for those responsible, trustworthy pols to work their magic. The result?

"Backers Cry Foul on Science Legislation," is the front-page headline in the Globe-Democrat today. "Say measure weaker, laden with earmarks."

Wait--are you telling me a legislative body that is 95% Democrat and 100% Massachusetts took a billion-dollar spending bill and loaded it up with goodies and giveaways? Wow, who could have seen THAT coming? (Other than every Massachusetts taxpayer, that is). So the "high-tech, life-sciences, cutting-edge" bill will be paying for, among other things, a sewage plant in Framingham and a highway interchange in Andover.

Roads and sewers? Golly, what will those science wizards on Beacon Hill think of next?

But wait--there's more! Proving that Massachusetts politicians are impervious to both experience and reason, today's Globe-Democrat--the same one reporting the "big business boondoogle turns into BIGGER boondoggle" life science industry story--has a favorable article on Gov. Patrick's plan to give $100 million to "clean-energy research and business development, an expensive wager on the future of companies that produce and institutions that research solar panels and biofuels." We need those tax dollars, of course, because with heating oil and gasoline around $4 a gallon, there's absolutely no interest in alternative energy from the private sector at the moment.

I say "Spend the $100 million tax dollars!" What could possibly go wrong...that already hasn't?

"Will The Last Taxpayer To Leave Massachusetts Please Turn Out The Lights?"

2008-05-20T06:35:00.000-04:00

My take on the ongoing Mass exodus is in the Boston Herald today.

Does it make sense to flee just because the Legislature shafted voters on the income tax rollback? Or because Beacon Hill denied voters the right to have their say on same-sex marriage? Or because our pols welcome and reward illegal immigrants? Or because double-dipping public employees are rolling in tax-funded dough?

Taken individually, the answer is no. But collectively, they reflect the stream of petty abuses heaped upon the average Bay Stater by an elitist and adversarial political culture.

Gov. Deval Patrick can preach “Together We Can.” But unless something changes, the motto of his administration may well be “Massachusetts: I’m Outta Here.”

Watching Out For The "O" Word

2008-05-16T15:31:00.000-04:00

OK, am I missing something here? I've read this entire statement by President Bush about a dozen times, and I still can't find the magic word:

There are good and decent people who cannot fathom the darkness in these men and try to explain away their words. It's natural, but it is deadly wrong. As witnesses to evil in the past, we carry a solemn responsibility to take these words seriously. Jews and Americans have seen the consequences of disregarding the words of leaders who espouse hatred. And that is a mistake the world must not repeat in the 21st century.
Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: "Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided." We have an obligation to call this what it is--the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.
Some people suggest if the United States would just break ties with Israel, all our problems in the Middle East would go away. This is a tired argument that buys into the propaganda of the enemies of peace, and America utterly rejects it.

OK, where is Senator Obama in this statement? The only senator it references, Borah of Idaho (a prominent pre-WWII appeaser) is a Republican. Meanwhile, the attitudes President Bush is bemoaning are held by thousands of American liberals. So why did Sen. Obama leap forward to seize the insult?

I think it's a calculated political move. Sen. Obama's position on Iran is dumb, and he knows it. It's just boob bait for the bubbas of MoveOn.org. But picking a fight with President Bush is a great political strategy. An Obama vs. McCain race is close. But an Obama vs. Bush race is a Democratic landslide.

In other words, this is all politics.

But there is one profound question raised by this story: What part of the statement above does Sen. Obama disagree with?

The Links You've Been Looking For

2008-05-14T08:31:00.001-04:00

My apologies for taking so long to get these links up to stories we've been talking about on the show.

Here's that columnist in Australia knows more about America's greatness than Michelle Obama.

And there must be something in the water in Australia because this surge of common sense about/appreciation of America is growing.

Those of you who want to know more about what's really going on with the polar bears and "global warming" than the Boston Globe-Democrat does--congratulations, you already do! Because, as they demonstrated on the front page this week, they know nothing.

Here's Professor Roy Spencer--an actual climate scientist--on the polar bear issue. There are more polar bears alive and thriving today than any other time since we've been tracking them.

And if you're afraid that all the polar ice is melting, you might be surprised to learn that, in some key areas, we have the most sea ice in 15 years. There are also the new findings from NASA and independently reported in the journal Nature as well (but not reported by the Boston Globe-Democrat) that the somewhat higher than normal melting at the poles--you did know that water melts every summer and freezes every winter, right?--is entirely unrelated to "global warming."

In October 2007, NASA announced the results of an in-depth study of Arctic sea-ice melting and found that what has caused the unusually large melting seen in the last eight years was not greenhouse gas-induced global warming. In the press release describing the study, team leader Son Nghiem explained that the warming of recent years was, in fact, caused by a change in wind patterns.
"Unusual atmospheric conditions set up wind patterns that compressed the sea ice, loaded it into the Transpolar Drift Stream and then sped its flow out of the Arctic," he said. When that sea ice reached lower latitudes, it rapidly melted in the warmer waters.

One final link, on the economy. The next time you hear someone whining that we're entering the next Great Depression, give them these facts to ponder. Not that it will do any good.

Hillary Clinton: Can't Win For Losing

2008-05-13T22:42:00.000-04:00

The CBS headline makes its message very clear: "Little Gain In Big Win For Clinton."

The presumptive Democratic nominee, Sen. Obama, just lost to a woman who cannot get the nomination by almost 40%(!); in a state, West Virginia, that every Democrat who made it to the White House has won since 1916; and the relentless, insistent "reporting" from the Mainstream Media is...."Nothing to see here, folks. Move along."

Question: Are Democrats stinkin' insane?

MSNBC, Time and the Washington Post can continue to openly insult every white person to the right of Michael Moore if they want, but it won't change the Natural Truth for Barack Obama: You can't beat the math.

Forget actually winning white Democrats in a primary. Sen. Obama hasn't gotten above 40% of his fellow Democrats who are white to vote for him since February 19th. In West Virginia Hillary--the most unlikeable politician this side of Newt Gingrich--trounced Sen. Obama among white voters both with college degress and without.

Among any group of rational people, the question of the day would be "What's wrong with our candidate?"

But these are not rational people. They are MoveOn.org liberals and members of the media (redundancy alert!). And so they are asking "What's wrong with you ignorant voters?"

Those "ignorant" voters are trying to teach you something, my Democratic friends. Are you determined not to hear them?

If so, you could very well be learning this lesson the hard way. In November.

The Witches And The B...er, Other Liberals

2008-05-10T11:05:00.000-04:00

I was asked by a fellow passenger flying out to San Francisco this weekend why the Democrats hadn't nominated some moderate, middle-of-the-road candidate for president. "[Clinton and Obama] are the only two Democrats who could lose!"

The reaason, I told him, is that the Democratic Party nominating process is dominated by its left wing in the way that the press has repeatedly (and erroneously) told us the GOP is dominated by "right-wing evangelicals." In the GOP, candidates like Pat Robertson and Allan Keyes run. But in the Democratic Party, they win.

I got a glimpse of these true believers here in the Bay area watching coverage of--I kid you not--a self-declared group of "witches, crones and sirens" protesting the Marine recruiting office in Berkeley. They gathered with their brooms and cauldrons to cast spells, invoke the spirit of Gaia, and generally confirm America's belief that 1/3 of the American Left is, in fact, certifiably insane.

You can find more coverage and video here.

The good news is that folks like Melanie Morgan and her friends at Move America Forward are willing to take the time to confront these morons and make sure people notice just how anti-American and anti-rational their views are.

In fact, I am in San Fran to give a speech at a Move America Forward fundraiser, and I am certainly proud to be a part of their efforts to support out troops and mock the Left.

Journalists: Liberals With Notepads Who Can't Do Math

2008-05-09T08:07:00.000-04:00

Attention media morons! Could you please get just a couple--a COUPLE-- of facts right about the Democratic presidential primary.

Fact #1: Sen. Obama will NOT have enough pledged delegates after Oregon to give him 2025, the number needed to become the nominee. It isn't possible, because if Sen. Obama won all of the remaining pledged delegates in all the states, he wouldn't have 1900.

What you are doing, you super-genius elites who hate talk radio, is conflating pledged delegates and superdelegates. Superdelegates are better known by their original title (are you paying attention Mr. Olbermann?) "unpledged" delegates.

Pledged delegates are bound to their candidates by the votes cast back home (theoretically, anyway, though Sen. Clinton has even challenged that idea). Superdelegates cannot--I repeat, CANNOT--cast a vote for anybody until the convention, and until their votes are cast, Obama has zero unpledged delegates in his column. As superdelegates are proving every day, they can change their minds.

This is why Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen is proposing a rule change to create a "superdelegate primary" in June. He wants to force the unpledged to cast their votes well before the convention, because he--unlike the entire CNN political team--understands what I just said. Until they vote, the unpledged delegates remain...unpledged. Why is this so hard for the Boston Globe-Democrat to understand?

Fact #2: While it can be argued that Obama's victory is a political, if not technical, done deal, many observers agree that, should Mrs. Clinton take the lead in popular votes, it could have an impact on how unpledged delegates end up voting. And, as Jay Cost points out, it is still possible for Sen. Clinton to do just that--take the popular vote lead without Michigan or Florida.

It's a long shot, involving wins by 20%+ and 30+ margins in West Virginia and Kentucky, but as Jay points out, those are two of the states where Sen. Clinton has the best shot of doing just that. Will she? Probably not.

But what happens if Sen. Obama does lose 70%-30% in West Virginia and then 65%-35% in Kentucky, and then loses by 300,000 votes in Puerto Rico? Are Democrats going to ignore those numbers completely? Maybe. But the press, their legs tingling at the very mention of Obama's name, are declaring all these outcomes irrelevant.

This isn't journalism. It's fortune-telling.

I have said since March 1 that Sen. Obama is going to be the nominee. That's my prediction and it always has been. But I don't report it as fact, I've just been giving my best guess based on the facts at hand. Sen. Clinton could have changed those facts with an upset win in North Carolina. That's why I refused to stick the Kerry Healy Election Fork in her.

She didn't, but I respected the fact that she could have. And I am respecting the fact now that Mrs. Clinton could still change the dynamic of this race.

As a result, I--a radio talk show host and opinion-spewer--am being more objective that the arrogant, self-important "journalists" of the MSM.

Dewey Defeats Truman?

2008-05-08T09:26:00.000-04:00

Despite the fact that he's clearly the weaker candidate, I sure hope so.