Thursday, July 31, 2008
I'VE YET TO RECEIVE MY TALKING POINTS THIS MORNING This just can't be a good day.I have no idea what to talk about on the program today because the White House has failed to send me its daily talking points. I was hoping that I could fill in with material from Karl Rove or Dick Cheney .. but they didn't come through either. This is the world according to Scott McClellan. In an interview with Chris Matthews last week, McClellan was asked, "Did people say call Sean, call Bill, call whoever? Did you do that as a regular thing?" (No mention of the Talkmaster, obviously). McClellan's response was, "Certainly. Certainly. It wasn't necessarily something I was doing, but it was something that we at the White House, yes, were doing." So there you go. For all of you who believe that I am just flapping my gums, filling the airwaves with my Republican talking points ... it seems that your conspiracy has been confirmed. Unfortunately your joy was short-lived ... McClellan has since apologized for the comment. Darn. Guess we'll have to move on to our own talking points ... LIMITED GOVERNMENT ... ACCORDING TO A LIBERAL
A listener pointed us to this column by a resident of Lebanon, PA. The author, Paul Heise, is a liberal. He is a liberal who despises the idea of limited government. This is a man that thinks that this country is great because of government. Government is the solution all of our problem ... the government should educate our children ... in his eyes, the government can do no wrong. Here's a little taste of what he has to say: "The era of limited government is ending in a crash. We subjected those limited-government theories to the market test and, like President Herbert Hoover's theories, they failed. The idea that we can limit government and depend on markets alone to allocate resources and income in a just and efficient manner led us to a world of multiple economic crises. The word "depression" is back in the economist's vocabulary. From President Ronald Reagan to the present, the free-market ideology was tried and simply did not work. The most telling example of resulting wasteful injustice is the crisis in our banking system. Banks are failing, and people are losing their homes and savings because of the deregulation where government did not do its job ... We gave the laissez-faire theories of Milton Friedman and Ronald Reagan their chance. We got the least government that money can buy. It has cost us trillions and bought us nothing. Now, let's go back to governing and hope we can still avoid what The New York Times called "a financial conflagration of historic and devastating proportions." That polysyllabic mouthful is their euphemism for a depression."
Don't you just love that part about using the government to allocate income? Golly, and all this time I thought that income was earned, not allocated. It just goes to show how far out of touch The Talkmaster is. If you want to read the article in its entirety, you can click here. I feel sorry for any students who are in the man's economics class at Lebanon Valley College. BONUS GOVERNMENT OUTRAGES THIS WEEK! Every day this week, Don Corace, author of Government Pirates (read an excerpt here) will come on the show and talk about a government outrage from his book. You won't want to miss that! |
SORRY, BUT I DISAGREE
I was a guest on Your World with Neil Cavuto yesterday afternoon on Fox News. Sorry, but I can't remember the name of the host filling in for Cavuto. The subject was taxes and whether or not conservatives were going to buy McCain's renewed pledge of no tax increases. During the course of the discussion the host said that he, unlike others, has faith in the intelligence of the American people. Sorry. I can't go along with that ... especially when it comes to the issue of taxes and our economy. I mean ... come on now. The average American can't tell you the difference between a profit an a profit margin. Ask them and they will tell you that the average corporate profit is around 20 percent. They couldn't identify pictures of the Senate Majority Leader or tell the difference between Karl Rove and Dick Cheney. They couldn't name their State's two Senators and more than one congressman. Ask them to identify the branches of government and smoke comes out of their ears. Let's just be honest here. Thanks to generations of government education we are basically a nation of economic idiots. About 50% of the people in this country shouldn't even have access to a ballot box. Sorry .. but that's the way it is. OBAMA THE CELEBRITY
John McCain's latest angle with Barack Obama is to paint him as a celebrity. McCain has an ad which associates Obama with pictures of Britney Spears and other celebutwits. My response? Duhhhhh. Doesn't McCain realize that this is what the country wants? This is the American Idol Era of American history? Celebrity worship drives the populace? That insipid "People" magazine outsells any news magazine. The American people want a pop star ... and Barack is their man! They want a celebrity in the White House who they can worship.
The only hope is that some people will either mature or wake up. Remember that Satrday Night Live skit on the media's love for Obama ... suddenly people got the message. However, that requires the voting population of this country to actually have an intelligible thought every now and then. Maybe they can squeeze it in between Entertainment Tonight and the latest sports highlights. Just maybe. LUDA'S LOVE FOR OBAMA
Yesterday on the program we played a bit of Ludacris' latest love song for Obama. If you haven't heard it, here's the link. Naturally, it didn't take long for the Obama camp to condemn the song ... "As Barack Obama has said many, many times in the past, rap lyrics today too often perpetuate misogyny, materialism, and degrading images that he doesn't want his daughters or any children exposed to ... This song is not only outrageously offensive to Senator Clinton, Reverend Jackson, Senator McCain, and President Bush, it is offensive to all of us who are trying to raise our children with the values we hold dear. While Ludacris is a talented individual he should be ashamed of these lyrics."
Hey, Luda. If you want some love just give us a call man. NANCY PELOSI'S FAVORITE WORD: 'HOAX'
Nancy Pelosi can come up with no other argument against off shore drilling than to call it a "hoax." She has used this word many times in the past few months. This time she says, "The President has failed in his economic policy, and now he wants to say, 'but for drilling in protected areas offshore, our economy would be thriving and the price of gas would be lower.' That hoax is unworthy of the serious debate we must have to relieve the pain of consumers at the pump and to promote energy independence."
The fact of the matter is that the Democrat just can't stand the idea of doing something that would make the Republicans look good. She would rather you spend $5 a gallon than do something to actually change the situation. She knows that, rightly or wrongly, if gas prices start down the party holding the White House will get much of the credit. Pelosi would much rather you pay big bucks for gas than think kindly toward Republicans. And don't forget that Nancy is so out of touch with gas prices. When do you think was the last time Nancy Pelosi pulled up to a gas pump and actually pumped her own gas? This woman is so adamant about making sure that the Republicans fail that she has no problem with you paying those high gas prices ... so long as her Democrats "win" the energy debate. READING ASSIGNMENTS Israeli Prime Minister Olmert is planning to resign in September. Rep. Barney Frank proposed that the US should stop arresting people who carry fewer than 100 grams of marijuana. See! Even Barney gets it right every once in a while. Bravo! A few Democrat Senators are calling for the head of the EPA to resign because "he sided with polluters instead of fighting global warming and other ecological problems". What could the Supreme Court have to do with the Fairness Doctrine? Let's hope we never find out. No surprise here ... China has decided that it will place blocks on Internet sites in the Main Press Center during the Olympics. They originally said they wouldn't, but you know how they lie. Wouldn't it be grand if the press just boycotted the Olympics until the censorship ended? Sorry .... They don't have the collective guts. A leading expert on airfare gives his opinion on flying with ankle biters: banish them to the back of the plane. Gee .. now where have I heard that before. My own pie hole? The latest global warming nuze: the Norwegian Meteorological Institute found that there is more ice than normal in the Arctic waters. Don't you just hate it when that happens? Florida universities are collectively working on ways to use the ocean as an energy resource. The number of people who are chronically homeless (perpetual urban outdoorsmen) has dropped 30% between 2005 and 2007. Canada's solution to a growing list of people who have to wait for an organ thanks to their government healthcare system ... make everyone an automatic organ donor, unless they explicitly opt out. Seize those organs! A couple works for many years to become millionaires. They build their dream house worth tens of millions of dollars. Now they say it is too big, and they want to sell. Apparently this has a name: 'Oversized Mansion Syndrome'. Residents of one Atlanta neighborhood are a little upset because a train manages to trap them in their neighborhood for hours at a time. Now we have to work on figuring out whether or not society is well served by trapping these people in their neighborhoods. The Food and Water Watch, a consumer rights organization, has started a Take Back the Tap campaign to make New York City restaurants ban bottled water in order to save the environment. Saudi Arabia has banned the sale of cats and dogs because men are using them to pick up chicks. There's something wrong with a culture that doesn't like dogs. Apparently they are going to try using instant replay for the Little League World Series in efforts to 'right obvious wrong'. |