Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez isn't particularly fond with the idea of freedom of expression. Well, big surprise there. Most despots aren't. The more someone wants to control the people, the more they want the free flow of information slowed down or stopped. When tyrants seize control the first place their henchmen go is to the newspapers and broadcast stations.

It's no secret that the left in this country wants to shut down the free flow of information ... and that goes triple for the free flow of information from the hated conservative talk radio hosts. The left's hatred of talk radio is intense .. so intense it almost has a physical presence. The left's hatred of talk radio is rooted in (a) their utter and miserable failure to succeed in the genre; (b) the fact that talk radio is the most popular format in radio; and (c) their dismay over the fact that virtually all of the truly successful talk radio hosts are and have been conservatives.

Now if you read the newspapers over the weekend you will have noted that Hugo the Horrible is in the process of shutting down radio stations in Venezuela. He's going to close 34 to begin the process. Certainly there will be more. These radio stations have been a principal voice of opposition to his socialist policies. Chavez, of course, doesn't want to simply state that he's turning off these stations because they oppose his policies. That would be just a bit too obvious. So he's come up with an excuse; a word that will fly with his supporters. He calls it "democratization." He says that these stations now "belong to the people and not the bourgeoisie." Chavez' attorney general, Luisa Ortega, probably said it better: "Freedom of expression," she said, "must be limited."

Liberals in the United States must be green with envy. They've worked for so many years to promote this asinine concept of "the public's airwaves" as an excuse for control over the free flow of information over radio and TV. Now Hugo their Hero is shutting down the opposition media in Venezuela. Why can he do that there, they wonder, when we can't here?

Well .. take heart my statist friends. Don't think for a moment that your champions in Washington aren't working as hard as they can to rein in these evil conservative talk shows in the U.S. The so-called Fairness Doctrine is, for now, a dead issue. It's just a bit too transparent, and there's the courts to worry about. So the left has come up with a nifty new idea: Community advisory boards. The left can't be quite as bold as Chavez was, but there are still ways to shut down conservative talk. The idea here is to institute some new FCC regulations requiring radio stations to appoint community advisory boards in the markets they serve. You can rest assured that the left will create regulations that will guarantee that these advisory boards will be left-leaning. I can envision requirements to make sure that each board is represented by labor leaders, members of government employee unions, civil rights activists and assorted advocates for various grievance-based community factions. The Democrats will also pass some new regulations shortening the term of a radio station license to three years, and requiring an affirmative response from that particular station's community advisory board before the license is renewed. A bad report card from the advisory board would, at worst, result in the denial of a license renewal; and, at best, the imposition of a fine against the radio station ... the proceeds of which would go to National Public Radio. This, of course, will cause the radio stations to pander to the advisory boards instead of worrying about programming that will attract the greatest number of listeners with money to spend.

As you watch the spectacle in Venezuela, know this: If the left in this country thought for one minute that they could get away with a similar program here, they wouldn't hesitate to move. Liberals are failures at the talk radio venue because they are unable to present and promote their ideas in the face of an onslaught of fact and rational thought. The only weapon they have left is the government's unique access to force. Look for them to use it when they get a chance.

You haven't heard a lot about the union's precious "card check" bill lately. I don't think it's dead ... just dormant. Count on the unions to do everything in their considerable power to get this passed ... they're virtually licking their chops at the idea of their union organizing thugs being able to intimidate workers into signing a card saying they want to join a union. (Hey, buddy, remember: We know where you live, and we know where your children go to school.)

Here's another reason why you do not want to see the power of unions to increase in this country. You've heard of the financial problems facing California. But have you heard what the California government-employee unions are doing to help? Well ... they've voted to authorize a strike. They don't like the idea that government union workers are being furloughed to save taxpayers money.

BTW .. did you know that over the past year wages have been working twice as fast in the government sector than they have in the private? Government employee unions.

The California government employee unions think it's just fine if California looks for ways to save money --- but from now on that money has to come from somewhere other than union paychecks.

Yeah ... we really want more unions, don't we?

A caller last Friday asked me where I would move to find better economic opportunities. Well .. there's two answers to that.

We all know that Barack Obama and the looters are making all sorts of plans to raise taxes on the producers. If you wish to stay in this country there may not be all that much you can do to escape higher federal income taxes. You can, however, beat some of the rap by moving to a state that has no state income tax. Perhaps that ought to be your first move. If you're out of work right now your chances of finding new and meaningful employment might be better if you were to move to a state where economic improvement will come sooner and stronger. States without a state income tax will be leading the economic recovery, so perhaps one of those states should be in your plans.

So .. what states are those? Here's your list: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, Washington and Wyoming. Note also that Tennessee and New Hampshire only tax interest and dividends, not wages and salaries. If the looters realize their tax dreams the marginal rate for high-achievers in Georgia will be over 50%. That ought to create a bit of southbound traffic on I-75.

But wait (as they say), there's more! States with lower taxes will have the edge when it comes to economic recovery, but there's another element to consider .. unions. States with right-to-work laws, where you can't be forced to join a union in order to work, will certainly have an edge over forced-union states when the recovery gains steam. Of the states with no state income tax, Alaska, Washington and New Hampshire are forced-unionism states. They'll be lagging behind when it comes to economic recovery. So ... if moving is an option for you, consider Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, Tennessee and Wyoming.

Now .. if the looters make things so bad that you might have to consider leaving the country, you might want to look at the 2009 Index of Economic Freedom from The Heritage Foundation. Here's your link. There are five countries/city-states that have a higher index of economic freedom than the United States. With the Democrats passing laws restricting executive pay and the government takeover of certain businesses, I'm sure that the U.S. is moving on down the list. At any rate; here, in the order of their rating for economic liberty, are the Top Five: Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, Ireland and New Zealand. Delta is ready when you are --- but you may get bumped.

Well look at what we have here .. a government program that couldn't be properly executed. I'm sure you've been following the giant "oops" that is this "cash for clunkers" deal. The first sign that things were going bad happened when the EPA decided to change which cars were eligible for the program AFTER it had already started. Then the $1 billion allotted to the program quickly disappeared. Then we have government computers that couldn't handle the work. Finally cash-for-clunkers became the clunker.

So what's the logical next step? Let's ask for more money! So the House voted on Friday to give the program another $2 billion. Now it is on to the Senate where it may not be as easy to pass. If it doesn't pass in the Senate, Transportation Secretary Ray Lahood says that the government would probably then kill the program. Meanwhile, car dealerships are left to figure out what to do.

Are you paying attention to this? The whole cash-for-clunkers bit shut down last week because of government bureaucracy and a little problem about running out of money. For generations car salesmen in every corner of this country have been handling the paperwork required to trade in an old car for a new one with ease. After all, how many of you have ever visited a car dealer wanting to trade in a clunker on a new car, only to be told to go away because they just can't process your paperwork.

But ... put government into the equation and what happens? All hell breaks loose, that's what happens. The Imperial Federal Government of the United States interposed federal red tape into the middle of the buyer-used car salesman transaction and everything ground to a screaming halt. How much paper and red tape? Try 130 pages of regulations for a start. How many car salesmen do you think have to deal with a 130-page rule book when they take a car in on trade for a new one.

Now John McCain is likely to filibuster any proposal in the Senate for new money. The Republicans are playing this one up as just another example of government's inability to run anything efficiently. Considering the current healthcare debate, this does not bode well for the Obama administration that wants the government to be in charge of your healthcare. Jim DeMint is one of those Senators who are drawing the comparison. He says, "The federal government went bankrupt in one week in the used-car business, and now they want to run our health care system ... This is crazy to try to rush this thing through again while they're trying to rush through health care, and they want to get on to cap-and-trade electricity tax. We've got to slow this thing down."

OK ... so the government screwed things up royally when politicians inserted government into car sales. Just what in the hell do you think is going to happen when we insert even more government into your relationship with your doctor? If government bureaucracy screws up a car sale, think of what it is going to do for a treatment plan for your cancer.

If you don't understand the trouble that's coming ... please burn your voter registration card.

Neal Boortz gives you a strong dose of the FairTax

• Listen to a Special Boortz Hour "Back to School: The FairTax 101" Wednesday, August 5th 11:00am ET
• Submit a question to be covered
• News/Talk 750 WSB listeners, Herman Cain will continue the fairtax conversation that evening 7-10pm ET

You do know that Barack Obama and the Democrats have changed the game on us, don't you? We are no longer debating about healthcare reform. We are now talking about health INSURANCE reform. Why is that? Well it is simple .. it is a lot easier to demonize the big, bad insurance industry. People generally like their doctors. It's the insurance companies they hate. They want every penny they spend on health care covered by insurance, and the insurance companies don't go along. Evidently the Obama crowd consulted their focus groups and behavioral experts .. and they've been reminded that playing off of people's fears and wealth envy is a great way to gain support for your political causes.

So Nancy Pelosi has taken her marching orders to heart. She has officially declared that, "The glory days are coming to an end for the health insurance industry in our country." Isn't that nice of Nancy Pelosi to decide? She also says, "We all want bipartisanship...but you're either with the insurance companies or you're for something new." This is the same type of "either you are with us, or against us" comments that the Democrats used to complain about with George W. Bush. When a looter uses that phraseology, it's OK. The point to be made here is that the insurance companies are evil and making profit off of your misfortune. They must be stopped.

Remember, these are the same insurance companies that Princess Nancy already declared to be "immoral." Last week she accused them of unethical behavior and working to try and kill a government-run healthcare plan. She said, "It's almost immoral what they are doing ... Of course they've been immoral all along in how they have treated the people that they insure ... They are the villains. They have been part of the problem in a major way. They are doing everything in their power to stop a public option from happening." Villains? Immoral? Gee, Nancy, don't you think you are coming on a bit strong?

But she wasn't the only one. Senator Harry Reid did his part to ramp up the wealth envy side of the argument against the evil insurance companies. He says, "I don't think we should be crying great big tears about the insurance industry ... There is no business in America that makes more money than the insurance industry--over the last 10 years their profits have been increased by 450 percent ... So I'm not really in very much of a mood to worry about the insurance industry."

This is as old as civilization: You have a despot who wants to expand his power, and he finds someone or something to demonize. Here it's the insurance companies. Make them the focus of all that is evil in the world. You get the people so worked up about the evil insurance companies, you don't even see the greater evil of government health care sneaking up on you.

Is there any real difference between Hitler's treatment of Jews and Pelosi's treatment of insurance companies? For Hitler, the Jews were the focus of all evil in Germany. Now it's the insurance companies in the United States. What's next? Concentration camps for insurance executives? Maybe Princess Nancy building ovens somewhere.

(Ohhhhh ... I'm going to pay for that one.)

Here's some more Hopey-Changy news for the esteemed American middle class. You know all that stuff that PrezBO was promising? Yeah .. that's it: that there would be no middle class tax cut.

Tax cheat Timothy Geithner and White House advisor Larry Summers made the rounds on the TV shows over the weekend. Something peculiar stuck out about their comments: they would not commit to uphold Barack Obama's pledge only increasing taxes on the evil, filthy, disgusting rich.

Tim Geithner says that it is imperative that the government slash its deficits. Would the administration be willing to increase taxes in order to do that? Geithner says, "We're going to have to do what's necessary ... We can't make these judgments yet about exactly what it's going to take and how we're going to get there."

Well ... whatever. It's not as if Geithner pays taxes anyway.

Then Larry Summers says that he cannot rule out tax increases on the middle class in order to pay for Obama's healthcare reform plans. Summers says that it is too early to tell what is going to be necessary in order to revamp the healthcare system. He says, "It's never a good idea to absolutely rule things out no matter what, but what the president has been completely clear on is this: That he is not going to pursue any of his priorities, not health care, not energy -- nothing -- in ways that are primarily burdening middle-class families."

I'll tell you exactly how they are going to do it. They are going to continue increasing taxes on the evil, filthy rich. That is the politically sound thing to do, and we know that this has nothing to do with healthcare or deficits. It has everything to do with maintaining power.

Another must-read column from Charles Krauthammer on the evolution of Obama's healthcare reform.\

More healthcare news .. from the wonderful National Health Service of Great Britain. Now patients can't get painkilling meds. But that's OK .. things will certainly be better here, won't they?

How will you, the taxpayers, end up paying for the unanticipated cost of Cars for Clunkers boondoggle?

Nancy Pelosi says that the "glory days" are ending for the health insurance industry.

Tax cheat Tim Geithner says that unemployment may not peak until the second half of 2010.

What kind of healthcare benefits does Congress enjoy?

A bipartisan group of lawmakers plan to introduce legislation to revive the DC school voucher program.

Republican Senator Orrin Hatch says that the Democrat healthcare plan is "out of this world" .. and not in a good way.

The fact that the federal government thinks that it can tax its way out of an obese nation is humorous.

Thousands of decaying bridges must wait for repairs because states are spending stimulus money on easier projects like repaving roads.

Wow. Even the New York Times admits that Barack Obama's pledge to only increase taxes on the rich won't hold.

The future of government healthcare in this country ... aren't these story sinking in yet?

Hugo Chavez is continuing his takeover of the media shutting down 34 radio stations over the weekend.

Al Franken vs. T. Boone Pickens.

What does it really mean when Barack Obama uses the phrase: "Let me be clear"?

The government has created a priority list for swine flu vaccinations. The elderly are upset because they failed to make the list. They ain't seen nuttin yet.

A girl sues the college she graduated from because she can't find a job and she says the college didn't do enough to help her find a job.

Students working at summer jobs that are funded by federal stimulus money are wondering when the government is going to pay them.

You listeners in Dayton just experienced the second coolest July on record.

I guess this is what they meant