RESPONSE TO A FAIRTAX ATTACK

Last Thursday a college professor named Hank Adler published a 25-page attack on the FairTax at TownHall.com. As most of you already know, Congressman Linder and I have written a new book "FairTax, The Truth." The book will be published by HC (Harper Collins) in February. In the meantime, I just couldn't help sitting down and responding to Mr. Adler. I must say that for an educated man, this had to be one of the shallowest attacks on the FairTax I've ever seen ... but when we get hundreds of emails asking for my response ... well ... here you are! Sit back, click and enjoy!

HILLARY TRAILS

Polls are now showing that Hillary Clinton trails five Republican presidential contenders in general election match-ups. The top five were Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson, John McCain and Mike Huckabee. (Huckabee, by the way, was not considered a top five candidate in the first round of polling during the summer.) But against Barack Obama or John Edwards, Republicans were down in the hypothetical head-to-head match-ups.

Our best hope at this point is for the MoveOn Democrats to go ahead and nominate Hillary ... they we can watch with glee as she self-destructs and takes the Democrats with her.

SAUDI TERRORISTS ARE FREE

But don't worry, now there will be more room in the Saudi jails for rape victims.

Saudi Arabia is releasing 1,500 "jailed suspects" after they repented. What did they repent? Well that would be the ideology of "taqfir," which brands other Muslims as infidels in order to legitimize violence against them. It is used by militants who advocate the use of force to overthrow regimes they feel are corrupt and to establish a single Islamic state.

These 1,500 have apparently renounced Osama bin Laden's call to "cleanse the Arabian Peninsula of polytheists." They faced an advice committee of Islamic scholars, preachers, experts in Sharia law, psychologists and social workers, all of whom had to believe that you were no longer going to strap on a bomb vest in the name of Allah.

We'll watch and try to keep you advised as to when the first of these released Muslim radicals commits the first killing in the name of Allah.

PLEASE TRY TO CONTROL YOUR GAG REFLEXES

Here is the text of an email that was sent to every student at the University of Florida by the vice president for student affairs. Note, please, the hyphenated name. I don't know about you ... but that hyphen tells me a lot.

Pithy comments to follow:

So, Doctor Telles-Irvin seems to be upset over the "Radical Islam wants you dead" phrase. She says it "offended many Muslim students."

Frankly, Doctor, I don't give a flying you-know-what that many Muslim students were offended. Know what? I'm somewhat offended that radical Muslims call for the death of America and as many Americans as possible with every passing day. During World War II there were many Germans, Italians and Japanese who wanted as many of us dead as possible. I don't think that there were many Americans who were afraid to make that point because, God help us, it might have offended some Germans, Italians or Japanese.

Tell you what, Dr. Irvin, I'm just a bit offended that Radical Islamists continue to call for death to America and my neighbors without more moderate Muslims making a point of standing up to denounce their brethren. My guess is that there are many students on the Florida campus who would love to see the Muslim students hold a demonstration just once a year protesting the goals and actions of radical Islamists around the world. Has any such demonstration taken place on the Florida campus? I rather doubt it. I'm sure you would let us know if it did.

Another question, Dr. Irvin: Has any Muslim student or group ever written a letter to your office or to the student newspaper condemning radical Islam or Islamic terrorism? Did any Muslim student group hold a protest to object to Muslims shooting school children in the back in Beslan? Did any Muslim student or group hold a rally to protest the execution of fellow Muslims in Afghanistan just because they were daring to teach young Muslim girls? Come on, Dr. Telles-Irvin ... dates and times. Tell us all the wonderful things the University of Florida Muslim students have done to protest and condemn Islamic terrorism and the Islamic "death to America" radicals.

Oh .. I see. You don't have any dates and times? You don't have any records of any such meetings, demonstrations or protests? Well, frankly ... I'm offended by this. I'm offended by the lack of caring for their fellow students on the part of your Muslim student body.

You think that the groups that posted the movie advertisements owe Islamic students an apology? What the hell for? Is it not a fact, just as the poster says, that "Radical Islam" wants us dead? Listen up, lady! They're saying it day after day! The posters didn't say "Muslims want you dead." The reference was specifically to "radical Islam." OK, I understand that your college major was in education ... but even an education major can understand the difference.

Since you seem to be in a writing mood ... why not take the time to create another one of your wonderful emails. This one you can send to your Muslim students. Tell them that their non-Muslim fellow students are a little concerned that while radical Islamists call for death to them and their families, they aren't hearing anything from the Florida Muslim student body in protest.

Yeah .. let me hold my breath while you get that email out.

And what's with that stupid hyphen?

FEWER CASUALTIES, NO PROGRESS?

According to Bill Richardson, decreasing casualties in Iraq means absolutely nothing. Poor Bill .. this really is a worrisome problem to him and his fellow MoveOn Democrats. Any success in Iraq might make George Bush look good. This simply cannot be allowed to happen.

For years all the Democrats could talk about was the number of deaths in Iraq. Now, with violence at a low, this is all changing. Richardson told George Stephanopoulos that "Progress shouldn't be measured by casualty counts, body counts." He says that real progress can only be achieved by one thing and one thing only: withdrawing from Iraq. Richardson says that all of this talk about casualty counts going down is just, plain wrong.

Did you get that, my friends? According to Hillary's soon-to-be vice-presidential running mate, there is only one way to define progress in Iraq. You don't define progress in terms of less violence, more peace, more commerce, more electricity, more water, more telephones and a steadily improving standard of living for Iraqis. You only define progress by counting the numbers of American troops leaving the country.

Isn't the Democrat mind something wonderful to behold?

HURRICANE PREDICTIONS

When the former director of the National Hurricane Center says that hurricane forecasters "have a lot of explaining to do," you know that something ain't right. And something wasn't right this year when forecasters predicted that 17 named storms would grow into nine hurricanes, five of which would be particularly intense, with winds above 110 mph. The actual results for the 2007 hurricane season: 14 named storms, five hurricanes, two intense hurricanes. Basically, a hyped hurricane hysteria resulted in nothing more than an average number of storms and storm intensities well below average.

So I guess it makes it really hard to take articles like this seriously, warning us that the increase in major storms like Katrina coincides with a global increase of ocean temperatures --- all, of course, because of global warming.

If you take a look at this closely, even the National Hurricane Center is trying to slowly separate itself from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration after failing to accurately report seasonal predictions.

What is it going to take to fully discredit these climate change cultists?

OREGON'S ECO-FRIENDLY CHRISTMAS TREES

Oregon seems to have an obsession with Christmas trees. That might be because Oregon is the top Christmas tree producer in the country ... but where would we be without mixing environmentalists and Christmas.

Oregon growers have created a system to identify trees grown under specific environmental standards. So this means that there actually exists a Coalition of Environmentally Conscious Growers. This year, for the first time, more than 200,000 tags will hang on Christmas trees, which will indicate that the trees were farmed by the coalition's standards. (No telling if "coalition-friendly" trees are more expensive or not.)

In order to pass the Conscious Growers' Environmentally-friendly standards, a farm must be inspected to make sure that it meets certain standards for managing wetlands, nutrients and pests. Water and soil conservations are also reviewed, as well as biodiversity and worker safety efforts. They want to make sure that the Christmas tree farms aren't using excessive pesticides and contributing to erosion.

Sadly, only a handful of retailers will be selling the "safe" trees. It seems they just don't have time to fulfill the mandate of educating consumers about the difference between a coalition "safe" tree and a regular Christmas tree.

So ... now we have green green Christmas trees.

SEX OFFENDERS IN TEXAS

Forget owning a new home in one subdivision in Texas. The Woodlands in Amarillo, Texas has barred convicted sex offenders from owning or living in any new homes.

Guess who is going to man the effort to keep the sex offenders out? The homeowners association, which will periodically check the state online database of registered sex offenders.

Oh, that's just great; giving a homeowner's association even more power. This is going to be one dandy community. Y'all keep us posted out there in Amarillo, would you?

REPRIMANDED FOR HUGS AND KISSES

And where would we be without a little bit of government school outrage. A high school principal has been reprimanded for "inappropriately kissing three female employees and a student."

The Puyallup School District in Washington plans to survey the employee climate at Puyallup High School. The principal, Mike Joyner, has been told that future physical contact with a woman that is perceived as inappropriate or unwelcome could result in his firing.

In 2006, Joyner was reprimanded for "inappropriately squeezing the shoulders and arms" of a teacher as she tried to move away from him at an athletic coach seminar.

Let's just hire a eunuch to be the principal and be done with it.

GRADY'S SHIFT TO NON-PROFIT

In Atlanta yesterday, not everyone was happy with the board's vote to govern Grady Hospital with a non-profit board. The internets have poked fun at activist Derrick Boazman mixing it up with security in true lolcats fashion.

REDNECK SCRAP BOOK

Okay, big smile! Oh wait, maybe you should shut it... More in the Redneck Scrap Book.

READING ASSIGNMENTS

Ted Kennedy is being paid mega-bucks to write his memoirs. The advance is more than $8 million. I can't wait for the part where he describes that night when he allowed Mary Jo Kopechne to suffocate in the back seat of his car in four feet of water while he stumbled up and down the road nearby worrying about his political career ... and then how he (or his family's money) managed to get the Edgartown Police to whitewash the entire incident. Should be a gripping tale.

In spite of all the alarmism ... the general public still yawns when someone brings up the subject of global warming. Jonathan Adler may have that figured out.

Ok, ya'll ready? Osama bin Ladin will address the people of Europe with an Internet message "soon." Blah, blah, blah. Ok ........ now that we have that out of the way.

Oh no! We've upset the Russians ... again. Putin is accusing the U.S. of pressuring international voting monitors to stay away from Russia's recent parliamentary elections to make them look illegitimate.

No national anthem before the Steelers-Dolphins game on Monday night. Good. Maybe this will start a trend. No ... I'm serious. This nonsense started in World War II. Time to end it. I'm not down with forced patriotism.

Finally: On Friday Pakistani President Musharraf will quit as army chief and take an oath of office as civilian president.

Hezbollah says that it is ready to launch "a bloody reprisal" in Britain for any Western attack on Iran. Muslims threatening a bloody attack. Someone alert the media.

And speaking of Great Britain, English is considered a foreign language for 40% of Britain's elementary school children. They way the speak it over there it's a foreign language to me as well.

Here's a bit of good news you probably won't see reported in the lamestream media ... The United States tops the overall ranking in The Global Competitiveness Report 2007-2008.

Snohomish County, Washington is going to pay county employees a bigger bonus to walk, bike, vanpool or catch a bus. Vanpool? I guess carpooling isn't PC anymore.

Atlanta's Grady Hospital is making national headlines for its deficit projected at $55 million. It may close at the end of the year. This hospital has been propping up deadbeats for decades ... the chickens are coming home.

As if Florida doesn't have anything better to do ... a state lawmaker wants to crack down on ticket scalpers for the Hannah Montana concert who resell tickets at "hundreds of dollars more than face value." It's called the free market, buddy. If people want 'em, they'll pay top dollar for 'em.

I could have told you this one. Scientists are worried about children's bone quality, saying that they don't get enough milk, exercise and sunlight.

Verizon has decided to equip all of its new cell phones with an alarm that goes off when you dial 911. They say it is because the FCC requires it.

Awww isn't this cute ... Democratic candidate Chris Dodd's 6-year-old daughter is afraid that Santa Claus won't find her in Iowa.

Subject: Somebody's Gotta Say it
Name: Carl Campbell

Message:
Just wanted to say that your latest book is the best book I have read in a long time. I don't always agree with you, but have to really examine my position on things when our opinions differ after you lay out your reasoning. Thanks for making me stretch my brain, and keep up the good work.

By the way, I don't blame you for not wanting to run for president but this country needs someone who is not afraid to do what is best regardless of the offenses that it would cause so long is it made America better. You could be the shot in the arm that this country so desperately needs.

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