LAST PUSH ... FOR TWO DAYS

We've slipped a bit.  The FairTax Book is No. 32 in books on Amazon.com this morning.  It was No. 26 yesterday, and No. 13 earlier this week.  Right now we're No. 12 on the nonfiction list, and if you narrow it down to politics, we're No. 5.  The soft cover edition of the FairTax Book will be in bookstores next Tuesday.  I would once again like to ask you to pre-order from Amazon.com.  This will help us debut once again on The New York Times Bestseller's List. I'm not trying to pad my pockets here.  My royalties are going to charity.  I'm just trying to keep the FairTax idea in front of the media and especially in front of the Beltway crowd.  We can get this done, folks. But we can get it done only if you make your elected officials know that this is something you've studied, something you believe it, and something you want them to support.  The political resistance is there because the FairTax would be a huge transfer of power from them to you ... and they don't like the idea of losing power.   So ... give the FairTax a push these final days before it's release.  You can order 10 for less than one hundred bucks and have some to hand around to friends.
Pre-order from Amazon.com
Pre-order from Barnes & Noble

FAIRTAX RALLY MAY 24th!

Well, we're going to have that FairTax Rally you've been begging for. It will be at the Gwinnett Convention Center on Wednesday, May 24th at 7:30 p.m. Many of our radio stations are making plans to send a few busses full of listeners to the rally ... others are coming on their own. If you can't come to the rally there is a way you can participate. Letters! We want letters! We want letters detailing your support for the FairTax! We'll dump those letters on stage during the rally to show the level of support! Then we'll personally deliver those letters to the politicians who hold the fate of the FairTax in their hands! For now, just send those letters to us here at the Boortz studios. In a day or so we'll have another address for Americans for Fair Taxation to use. But you can start now by writing a letter addressed to:

FairTax
The Neal Boortz Show
1601 W. Peachtree St. NE
Atlanta, Georgia 30309

NOW HERE'S A STUPID IDEA

What are you doing to lessen the impact of higher gas prices? driving less combining trips carpooling using public transportation buying a more fuel efficient vehicle something else a combination of the above items nothing, the higher gas prices aren't affecting my lifestyle

Those high gas prices sure have put a crimp on everybody's wallet.  So what's the solution?  Drive less?  Combine trips?  Carpool?  Take the bus?  Perhaps buy a more gas-efficient vehicle?  Well, those would all be sensible solutions.  But to the politicians, they've come up with a better solution.

Along with jumping up and down screaming at the oil companies, a group of Senators have decided it's time to send you a check for $100. It probably won't happen, since the proposal is tied to opening up ANWR to new drilling, but let's consider the proposal on its own merits, shall we?  This is nothing more than a simple vote-buying scheme.

If those senators really wanted to help people out, how about jumping on that bandwagon to eliminate the 18.4 cent a gallon federal gas tax for the summer?  Surely that would save most people $100 over the course of the next couple months.  But that's not the same as a "free" $100 check from Uncle Sam.

Remember, the goal of politicians is for more people to dependent on the government and by extension, them.  What's most outrageous about this handout proposal is that it comes from Republicans.  They are Charles Grassley of Iowa, Ted Stevens of Alaska, Pete Domenici of New Mexico and Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania.

As for how the they plan to pay for the proposal, who cares!  The government can always print more money, right?

ATLANTA CITY GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS -- INTO YOUR POCKETS AGAIN

Georgia has some of the worst government schools in the nation, and Atlanta arguably has the worst government schools in the State of Georgia.  I suppose, then, that you could argue that the City of Atlanta schools are among the worst in the nation.  Most locals understand that the Atlanta City Schools are merely jobs training centers for future state and local government employees. 

I've seen figures which show that the Atlanta City Schools spend nearly $13,000 per year per student.  They put that figure at
$11,215 per year.  This is much more than neighboring counties pay.  Cobb County, for instance, pays about $7,200 a year.  Now ... top this off with the fact that enrollment in the Atlanta schools is going down.  Well .. you know where this is going, don't you?  They want a tax increase.  Enrollment is down.  They're already spending more than any other area school system, and getting poorer results ... and they want a tax increase.  And you know what?  They'll get it!  There's not much the taxpayers can do about it? 

OK, Atlanta property owners.  Bend over and grab your ankles.  Here they come.

SAVE AIR AMERICA

Things aren't looking all that good for Al Franken and the gang over at lib-radio.  The Drudge Report has posted some of the latest radio ratings book (the "Winter" book)  is now out and it shows that WLIB, Air America's New York City affiliate, lost more than one-third of its audience in the last year!  That's not good. One year ago Air America had 1.6% of the radio audience in New York City.  Now that number is 1%.  In the previous ratings period Air America's Randi Rhodes had about 60,900 listeners every quarter hour.  That is now down to 27,900 listeners.  A loss of listeners will, of course, lead to a loss of advertising revenue.  And when you're actually paying radio stations to run your programming, as Air America does in many markets*, lost advertising revenue leads to non-payment of affiliates which leads to listenership going pretty much to zero. 

Drudge also tells us that things aren't going well at all for one particular left-wing book out there.  It's titled "Crashing the Gate" and the book tells the tale of the political power being wielded by left-wing Internet blogs such as the Daily Kos.  This book was released last month, and is heavily promoted on liberal blogs, and has sold a whopping 3,630 copies. 

This Air America thing worries me though.  Seriously.  No kidding here.  Democrats and liberals hate talk radio with a blue steam passion.  They want it to end.  They want it destroyed.  If Air America fails, and it's looking more and more like a failure with each passing ratings book, the left will increase the heat on the rest of talk radio.  First they'll blame the failure of their treasured Air America on some sort of corporate conspiracy to suppress liberal talk.  Then they'll set their sights on trying to force radio stations to carry liberal programming.  Paying radio stations isn't working.  Perhaps using the police power of government will.  Their main tactic will be to bring back the ridiculously-named "Fairness Doctrine."  People who worked in the Nixon White House will readily tell you that they used the Fairness Doctrine not to make sure that a conservative point of view was presented on radio and television, but to make sure that radio and television stations thought twice before daring to air a liberal point of view.  The Democrats are ready and eager to use the Nixonian tactics in reverse.  Just give them the power to enact the law, and they'll be off to the races. 

Maybe it's time for me to make another financial donation to Air America.  I could use another Air America tote bag. 

GOOD FOR THEM -- NOT GOOD FOR THE REST OF US

I'm told that the Local 888 of the United Steelworker's Union in Newport News, Virginia had an election recently.  It seems that in order to vote in this union election you had to show a photo ID.  Odd, isn't it.  The USW is highly supportive of the Democratic Party.  The Democratic Party is highly critical of the idea that voters should have to show photo IDs to prove they are who they say they are when they vote in local, state and federal elections.  But when it comes to union elections, photo IDs are just fine.  Maybe one of my more brilliant (not educated in government-schools) Nuze readers could 'splain this to me.

BEE COUNTY TEXAS -- RUN BY IMBECILES

The people who are running the show in Bee County, Texas have glommed on to an idea from Bee County Judge Jimmy Martinez.  They have decided to promote a county-wide boycott of ExxonMobile over the high gas prices.  They're demanding that ExxonMobile lower their prices at the pump to $1.30 a gallon.  Now never mind that ExxonMobile could not sell gas for $1.30 a gallon without losing huge amounts of money.  These are politicians doing the talking here, not businessmen. Now they're asking other Texas counties to follow suit.  So here we have a group of elected officials who have absolutely no clue whatsoever as to what is actually causing the increase in gas prices.  They have no understanding of the concepts of supply and demand and increased production costs.  They have no clue that government takes about 50 cents out of every gallon of gasoline while the retailer who sells it takes about 8 cents.  In short ... these people are fools.  Sadly, they have a lot of company.  I wonder how these people who are screaming about "Big Oil' will feel when, and if, they ever find out how the politicians have been exploiting their ignorance.

That people even are considering the idea of a gas boycott shows that government schools have done their job.  Politicians absolutely love the fact that children are indoctrinated on a daily basis in public schools with absolutely no basic understanding of how economics work.  Boycotts sound like a good idea, but ignore a simple fact.  And that is that purchases simply delayed are not sales denied the oil companies.

For instance, say if nobody bought gas on Saturday or Sunday, as the one protester suggested doing.  Guess what would happen?  Everybody would rush to the gas stations on Monday and Tuesday, creating a shortage.  Guess what that would do? Yup..you got it.  It would drive up the price of gasoline.  Oil Companies 1, Boycotting protesters 0.

Besides, as long as demand outstrips supply...a boycott doesn't really matter. The oil companies can't meet demand anyway.

By the way, ExxonMoble has released its earnings reports for the first quarter of 2006.  Earnings were a bit over $8 billion.  Look for the demagogues to come out of the woodwork again.  Of course the total earnings are up!  Demand is up!  They're selling more, and they're selling it for more.  The figure that matters is the profit margin, not the total profit.  How much is ExxonMobile making for every dollar it takes in?  What is the profit margin?  Watch the newscasts and newspapers.  You'll see the amount of the profit displayed prominently. Try to see if you can find out just what the profit margin is.  You can't demagogue oil companies on profit margins --- so just leave the profit margins out of the equation. 

SOME SOLID THINKERS IN DETROIT

Here's some light reading for you.  You will remember I told you about a Michigan State University professor who sent an email to a Muslim student group.  Among other things, this professor suggested that if these Muslims don't particularly like the values of the West, then they should just leave.  Now, of course, the Muslims are demanding that the professor be reprimanded.  This is in keeping with Muslim activists around the world.  They are working hard not only in this country, but in Europe as well to get government institutions to clamp down on any public speech that Muslims might find (gasp!) offensive!  Believe it or not, these anti-free-speech Muslims are actually making headway!  Will they succeed in getting this politically incorrect professor punished?  Well, the Detroit Free Press has comment board where people can post remarks on the controversy.  Here's your link.  I think you'll be heartened by most of what you read.

ABOLISHING FEMA CONSIDERED

Now there's a proposal to abolish FEMA.  This is in response to that government agency's botched handling of Hurricane Katrina's aftermath.  A Senate panel is proposing scrapping the agency and starting over.  A new FEMA, if you will.

So what will this do?  Absolutely nothing.  In fact, a new FEMA could be just as incompetent as the old one, with the government running the show.  FEMA is still the federal government, no matter what they call it.  This is like the feds getting rid of the TSA and calling it something else.  It's still incompetent government bureaucrats running the show.  The government recently changed the INS over...have you seen a reduction in illegal immigration?  I thought not.

If we're going to abolish a government agency entirely, how about the IRS? Then we would really be getting somewhere.  We could adopt the FairTax plan and actually save people money.

REDNECK SCRAP BOOK

This may be the second best use of a computer we've seen. We'll let you decide what came in number 1. More in the Redneck Scrap Book.

Atlanta listeners, what will you do with $10,000? How about a $10,000 shopping spree with Clark Howard? Register here for your chance at a $10,000 shopping spree and then listen for your name weekday mornings. Contest details.

Ohio listeners, 55krc.com has a poll asking who should replace Tony Snow. Neal is an option...

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