Saturday, January 13, 2007

Sandy Berger II

Gordon made note of this story a few days ago. But it's worth a second post. It's really a shame (and a sham) that this guy gets only a slap on the wrist for stealing (and destroying) classified US documents and then lying about it. Image the uproar if he were a Republican! The media and the Democrats would be calling for a Saddam-like, mother of all, political hanging.

"One incident is particularly suggestive. By his fourth and final visit to review documents and prepare for testimony before the 9/11 Commission, the Archives staff had grown suspicious of how Mr. Berger was handling the documents, so they numbered each one he was given in pencil on the back of the document. When one of them--No. 217--was apparently removed from the files by Mr. Berger, the staff reprinted a copy and replaced it for his review. According to the report, Mr. Berger then proceeded to slip the second copy "under his portfolio also." In other words, he stole the same document twice.

Thanks to Justice's and the Archives' leniency, or laxity, or both, Mr. Berger's plea deal expires in 2008--just in time, perhaps, for the next Clinton Administration. "

OpinionJournal.com: The Berger Files

Dung

District Attorney Mike Nifong is at it again. this time he's "quietly" asking to be removed from the Duke Lacrosse player case.

It would be the first thing he did quietly in this case.

Oh Nostradamus, tell me how this one is going to end.

The new prosecutors are going to review the case and drop the remaing charges on the players then Nifong is going to stand up on some courthouse steps and proclaim that the players are guilty and he never would have dropped the charges. It gives him cover for the groups he manipulated but helps his ethics charge since it was no harm, no foul on the part of the players.

What a scum bag!

Taxes and the Deficit

The Federal deficit is down, thanks to huge tax revenues. The deficit fluctuates up and down from year to year and one would have to be ignorant to how Washington works to think that it will continue to drop... but what's more telling about this story is the tax revenue part. Liberals want you to believe that tax cuts decrease the amount of money the government has to work with. But the facts say it's just the opposite - tax cuts increase revenue into the treasury. Just let people keep more of the money they make. This is a point that liberals will never understand (or admit) and that conservatives are always too timid to stand up for.

"The federal deficit has improved significantly in the first three months of the new budget year, helped by a continued surge in tax revenues.

Tax collections are running 8.2 percent higher than a year ago while government spending is up by just 0.7 percent from a year ago."

Breitbart.com: Deficit Falls to Lowest Level in Four Year.

Friday, January 12, 2007

Chabot & HR-4

Not sure if anyone noticed, but a so-called "conservative" Republican from Cincinnati's west side voted YES on HR-4. The Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act passed the House 255-170 and is basically a stepping stone towards federalized medicine. Maybe there's a story behind the vote that we don't know and he doesn't really support the bill. But it isn't real assuring.

"When the issue of having the federal government negotiate drug prices directly with pharmaceutical companies for the Medicare Part D program comes up later this week in Congress, it will be another example of an idea that seems to poll well and appears to enjoy a great deal of public support.

However an in depth look at public opinion shows that once the American people understand the possible implications of negotiating the cost of prescription drug prices, public opinion changes significantly and voters become very skeptical of the idea and the implications for public health."

Douglas Schoen: Public Opinion on Negotiating the Price of Rx Drugs

Minimum wage hypocrisy

Well, here's our new Congress... ethical from the get go. I'm not exactly sure why anyone would be "shocked" over these kind of things, especially a fellow politician.

"House Republicans yesterday declared "something fishy" about the major tuna company in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's San Francisco district being exempted from the minimum-wage increase that Democrats approved this week.

"I am shocked," said Rep. Eric Cantor, Virginia Republican and his party's chief deputy whip, noting that Mrs. Pelosi campaigned heavily on promises of honest government. "Now we find out that she is exempting hometown companies from minimum wage. This is exactly the hypocrisy and double talk that we have come to expect from the Democrats."

Washington Times: Pelosi's 'hypocrisy' on wage bill

Global Warming Questions

Last night I had and interesting discussion with a young woman regarding global warming. I'll pose to you the questions I posed to her.

1) NASA has come out with a report showing that Mars has been warming. Is it possible that whatever is causing the Mars warming might be the causing the same thing here, likely in increase in Solar heat and radiation? After all, just a slight tilting of the planet's axis results in a 80 degree temperature swing on average. Isn't it possible that a few extra solar flares would cause a 5 degree temperature change?

2) Is it possible that the earth goes through natural period of warming and cooling, IE the Ice Age and subsequent retracting of glaciers and this is just one of those transitions?

3) Let's assume that man is the cause of global warming... What's so bad about it?

4) Remember Acid Rain? It was going to be the end all of the Great Lakes. To my knowledge, we are kicking out more sulfur emissions than we did 20 years ago and yet that problem just went away. Isn't it possible that Al Gore and various "scientists" realize that they only get notoriety and funding for studies when there are "problems"? How do you get government funding when everything is OK? Would you go to an Al Gore movie titled Earth - the Perfect Temperature.

5) I keep hearing about all this research for alternative fuels sources, yet the most efficient fuel source we have to date, nuclear power, is a no no. If you believe that global warming exists, would you be a proponent of nuclear power plant production so we can start eliminating coal burning, carbon dioxide spewing coal plants?

6) When I had 8th grade biology we learned that plant life breathed in CO2 and exhaled O2 and we humans inhaled O2 and exhaled CO2. If that is true, wouldn't carbon dioxide increases be great for plant life on the planet?

7) Don't you really believe that Al Gore is the ultimate hypocrite on this issue? Whenever he does a presentation, he could very easily do it from a remote location and teleconference it across the planet; like corporate America does each and every day. Yet he finds the need to get into a private jet and kick out huge amounts of CO2 and then have a five car entourage complete with SUVs take him to some fund raiser. If he really believed in global warming, would he do this and would he own four huge ass homes that he keeps heated and cooled year round? It reminds me of when Sting did a concert in the Amazon to save the rain forest and they had to cut down 20 acres of trees to get the facility set up.

8) What do you propose as a solution? What are you doing to make a difference? There's a place on your state of Ohio tax form that allows you to pay into various environmental and natural resource funds. Have you made any contributions to those funds?

A few years ago, I met a woman from Phoenix yapping about SUV's and yet her commute to work was over 40 miles one way. So she was more than happy to get rid of the SUVs but, by God, no one should tell her she should live closer to work and/or take public transportation.

I'll tell you what, when the first environmentalist offs themselves because of their use of the world's resources, I'll start worrying about global warming. Got to go.... I need to get my recycle bin to the curb.

"Bonafide Hustla"

Lonnie Webster, the "Bonafide Hustla" was sentenced yesterday for the murder of Rob Pursley.

I knew Rob Pursley, not well, but well enough to know he never deserved a shotgun blast to the groin that caused his death.

Mr. Webster should have received a death sentence. Not just for the killing of Rob but for the whole resume of crime that he's compiled since he was 13 years old.

But Gordon, He'll be in prison the rest of his life, he won't victimize anyone while he's there.

That's where I depart from the anti death penalty crowd. He most certainly will victimize someone else. It may be another inmate in the prison or it may be a guard but rest assured society will be much better off when Webster is dead.

People don't remember William Zuern who was put to death a couple of years ago but I remember his legacy. In the early 1980's, he was in a holding cell awaiting arraignment for the robbery and murder of a King Kwik employee when he made a shank out of a bucket handle and stabbed a deputy sheriff to death. While awaiting all his various appeals, he started a prison riot in Lucasville that killed two guards.

When Zuern was put to death, we guaranteed society that he was no longer going to victimize anyone. We need to do the same to Mr. Wheeler.

School Choice

A few years ago a friend of mine was lecturing me about how vouchers were a bad idea and if we wanted to improve education we needed to increase spending on public education.

We went round and round about allowing poor people put their kids in schools that can address their child's particular needs. He stuck to his beliefs to the end...... No school choice.

A few days later, I kicked up the discussion again. Since he had no kids I asked him if he would put his kids in CPS or the Catholic school in the neighborhood even though he wasn't Catholic. His response "When I have kids I'll be moving to the suburbs".

That's the hypocrisy for the anti choice folks, they're for school choice for themselves, it's called the suburbs, but screw choice for the poor family. If you are affluent, you already have the ability to choose your neighborhood, your schools, your work commute. If you're poor you don't have those options.

Here's a list of the real estate cost for each $100,000 of residential value for each school district in Hamilton County.

I'm not the smartest guy on the planet but when I see in the news a higher percentage of public school teachers send their kids to private schools than the general population, I have to wonder why.

It's another way liberalism holds people down... the very people they say they want to help.

Another friend who was more honest about the whole school choice issue. His kids were attending private schools and his opinion was, "I'm against vouchers because I don't want any of those kids in my kids' schools and I'm willing to pay to keep it from happening."

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Need to make some extra cash?

Here's a way to help pay off those holiday credit card bills that are on there way...

"VeriSign’s security arm iDefense announced this week that the company would pay independent flaw finders $8,000 for each remotely exploitable flaw found in Microsoft’s Windows Vista or Internet Explorer 7.

In its first Quarterly Vulnerability Challenge for 2007, iDefense offered $8,000 for each flaw that can be remotely exploited in Vista or Internet Explorer 7. The company will award bounties for up to six different vulnerabilities. The company will pay an additional $2,000 to $4,000 for working exploit code…”

SecurityFocus: Bounty offered for Vista, IE flaws

Ted Kennedy

Ted Kennedy thinks the country needs universal health care.

The federal government should join the state of Massachusetts in enacting universal health coverage, said Sen. Edward Kennedy, the new chairman of the Senate committee with jurisdiction over numerous health issues.
Kennedy's home state is the first to require everyone to have health insurance, just as drivers must have automobile coverage.

Ted Kennedy: Seeks Universal Health Plan

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Welcome to California

Well, Gov. Arnold has officially lost his mind! He says he wants everyone in the state (including non-citizens) to have affordable health insurance. He said yesterday that if someone can't afford it themselves, then the state will help you pay for it. Shouldn't he really say, "If you can't afford it, we'll bill other Californians to pay for it."? Remember... what happens in Cali eventually happens in the other 49 states.

What are other people saying....

Before I get into what I hope to be a well-reasoned and economically sound discussion of Arnold Schwarzenegger's new "universal health care" plan, please bear with the following outburst: Arnold's plan is some of the most muddle-headed, idiotic, socialist crap I have ever seen from a serious politician, much less from a Republican.

When even Republicans are willing to legislate as Communists (and I do not use that term as hyperbole), there is little reason to have hope.

Ross Kaminsky: Schwarzenegger's Health Care Socialism

It's about time...

"Succeeding in Iraq also requires defending its territorial integrity – and stabilizing the region in the face of the extremist challenge. This begins with addressing Iran and Syria. These two regimes are allowing terrorists and insurgents to use their territory to move in and out of Iraq. Iran is providing material support for attacks on American troops. We will disrupt the attacks on our forces. We will interrupt the flow of support from Iran and Syria. And we will seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq.

We are also taking other steps to bolster the security of Iraq and protect American interests in the Middle East. I recently ordered the deployment of an additional carrier strike group to the region."

Read more...

Syria and Iran are the two biggest reasons this war has lasted so long as it has. This should have been taken care of a couple years ago.

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Illinois crime riddle

Here's a rich article about the "Illinois Crime Riddle"

The gist of the article is this. The author cannot understand how it is that so many people continue to be sent to prison despite the drop in crime statistics.

I guess it never occurred to the author the crime rates are dropping because criminals are in prison instead of being on the streets.

Big Ten

In case I didn't make my case about the Big Ten being overated. Below are the respective bowl records per conference.

Conference W-L

MAC 1- 3
Mountain West 3-1
Pac-10 3-3
C-USA 2-3
Independent 0-2
Big East 5-0
WAC 3-1
Sun Belt 0-2
ACC 4-4
Big -12 3-5
SEC 6-3
Big -11 2-5

If you think this year is an abberation, think again. this is pretty typical of Big Ten performance in bowls.

But what would you expect from a conference that can't even count the number of teams it has!

Sandy Burger NSA

Remember all the news coverage of Karl Rove and L. "Scooter" Libby outing Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson?

How much news coverage do you think that got as compared to the coverage of Sandy Burger's theft of classified documents from the National Archives? Didn't hear about that? Bet you would have if he was serving under Bush.

To summarize Burglar's actions it went something like this.

He was called to testify before the 9/11 commission regarding the WTC attacks. Since he was National Security Advisor under Clinton, it was hoped that he could shed some light on what was known about Al-Queda prior to 9/11.

He went to the National Archives to "review" classifed documents related to 9/11 in preparation of his testimony.

Then he decided to load his socks and pants full of documents, walked out of the National Archives to a construction trailer where he placed the documents under a floor and subsequently destroyed the documents.

How much time did old Burglar spend in jail. That would be a big old -0- days. His plea bargain allows him no access to classified documents for a period of two years.

Tell me again about the most ethical adminstration in history.

Boise State #1

Since Florida emasculated the Buckeyes last night, we can now crown Boise St. as the national champs. They are the only D-1 undefeated team.

But Gordon, Boise State didn't play anybody.

While it's true that the Broncos schedule left a little to be desired, mainly because their conference wasn't the best, the fact is, they beat every D-1 team on the schedule.

Yeah but Gordon, the OSU's schedule was so much more difficult, I mean they play in the Big Ten.

Well here's that dirty little secret about the Big Ten. It's the most overrated sports conference in the US. You're telling me that those big time games against Northwestern, Illinois, Purdue, and Indiana match up against Nevada, New Mexico St and Fresno St?

The fact of the matter, is that the Broncos never got a shot to play against either the Gators or the Buckeyes in the post season because the BCS is all about the haves getting more and the have nots always looking in the window.

Yeah, but Gordon, Boise St could have played someone in their non conference schedule.

Here's a question for you, don't you think BSU would have scheduled a game with OSU if they could? Big time college football is about keeping all your games at home with your officials. Below is the non conference for OSU for the next three years.

Sat 09/01/2007 Youngstown State Columbus, Ohio TBA
Sat 09/08/2007 Akron Columbus, Ohio TBA
Sat 09/15/2007 Washington Seattle, Wash. TBA
Sat 10/13/2007 Kent State Columbus, Ohio TBA

Sat 08/30/2008 Youngstown State Columbus, Ohio TBA
Sat 09/06/2008 Ohio Columbus, Ohio TBA
Sat 09/13/2008 USC Los Angeles, Calif. TBA
Sat 09/20/2008 Troy University Columbus, Ohio TBA

Sat 09/05/2009 Army Columbus, Ohio TBA
Sat 09/12/2009 USC Columbus, Ohio TBA
Sat 09/19/2009 Toledo Cleveland, Ohio TBA
Sat 10/31/2009 New Mexico State Columbus, Ohio TBA

How do you get a game with these guys when they would have to give up their Big Ten - MAC challenge games? It's all about piling up wins to get the big paycheck at the end.

Compare that to the Broncos non conference schedule, Sacramento State, Utah, Wyoming, & Oregon State.

I find it ironic that collegiate education, which is supposedly all about egalitarianism is really all about keeping what's mine and to hell with you.

By the way, don't think that I'm letting Florida and the SEC off the hook. You think
they might be able to find a better non conference game other than Western Carolina and Central Florida.

Also, if Tulane goes defeated in their SEC schedule, would they get a BCS shot?

Monday, January 08, 2007

Health Insurance

If the general public wants to reign in the cost of medical care they would do one simple thing... ban health insurance or at least limit coverage to catastrophic coverage.

One of the reasons health care costs continue to rise is that insured users of health care operate as if they have a blank check on their medical care. I'm as guilty as anyone, I had a surgery a few years ago and I asked no one how much any of the procedures was going to "cost" me because in my mind it wasn't going to cost me anything.

But Gordon, wouldn't your idea limit medical technological advances and, subsequently, substandard care?

Ask anyone who has had laser eye surgery and a boob job lately if the technology is better or worse than it used to be. Remember RK? the predecessor to laser eye surgery. Many of the procedures can be paid for on your credit card or the provider will set up a payment plan for you.

It used to be that breast implants were only for the rich and famous... now, apparently if you can afford a gym membership you can afford the procedure.

And guess what, rarely are either of those procedures covered by insurance.

Out of curiosity, how much would your car insurance cost if every time you had an oil change you only had to pay a $10.00 co pay? Or how about a $5.00 gasoline fill up co pay?

The fact of the matter is medical care will not become more affordable until the public takes an active role in deciding what procedures are affordable. Somehow, we find it distasteful that we would negotiate our health care like buying a flat screen TV. Yet, I bet that your doctor had no problem negotiating terms on that new Mercedes.