FC

problem? Guess they lost the kid in them.

Time to Control Dangerous Assault Journalists

By Alan Gottlieb

Seventeen confirmed dead and hundreds injured. This was not the work of some stereotypical lunatic with a gun, but the handiwork of a careless reporter who must have graduated from the Dan Rather School of investigative journalism.

Now that Newsweek has lived up to the high standard of prevarication established by Jayson Blair at the New York Times and by Janet Cooke at Newsweek's parent company, the Washington Post, maybe it's time to establish the kind of ground rules for reporters that the anti-gun press has advocated for American gun owners, who never lied, or caused harm to anybody.

Why isn't Sarah Brady screaming for a clampdown on "assault journalism?" Why can't we demand some "common sense" controls on out-of-control reporters who go off half-cocked faster than a broken musket?

Where's Chuck Schumer? He's good at dancing in the blood of gunshot victims to push his gun control agenda. Why isn't he just as eager to capitalize on the mayhem of riots that resulted from Newsweek's bogus story about the Guantanamo Bay flush that never happened? Schumer's never been one to hide from media exposure. This is the first time he's missed the opportunity to trample his way to the television camera.

With tongue-in-cheek, let's apply the same logic to exercising the First Amendment that the mainstream press has accepted as reasonable when applied to those exercising the Second Amendment. It might be shocking to members of the press just how eagerly American firearms owners would seriously embrace this concept of karma.

Henceforth, the First Amendment will be interpreted to apply only to state-owned newspapers. When the First Amendment was written, nobody envisioned computers, high speed presses, and the internet or television and radio news. There is no individual right to become a reporter, especially a freelance journalist. Only reporters employed by state-owned print media outlets have a legitimate reason to own laptops or personal home computers.

Journalists should be registered and required to pass a course in safe news writing before they can own, or have access to, a keyboard. They should need a special permit to carry a notebook and pen, and a mandatory background check before carrying a concealed tape recorder or hidden camera.

Newsmen should be limited to stories containing no more than ten paragraphs. All small one- or two-paragraph news shorts, like the one in Newsweek that caused all the trouble, should be banned because they are so easily hidden within larger news columns.

America must stop importing foreign news, because it might be dangerous if it fell into the wrong hands. If news is not clearly sports-related, the average American should not be allowed to read it or listen to it.

All personal computers, laptops and word processors must be registered because of their ability to rapid-fire words into print and onto the internet indiscriminately. Journalists who currently own computers will be able to keep them, but they won't be able to sell them to other reporters unless the buyers go through federally-licensed computer retailers, and pass a background check to make sure they haven't libeled anyone or ever filed an erroneous story.

"Civilian journalists" don't need laptops or personal computers. Manual typewriters are acceptable because of their slower rate of word production. Before a journalist can possess a typewriter he or she purchases, they must submit to a mandatory background check that can take up to three days.

If a reporter carelessly writes a story that falls into the wrong hands and causes the death of another person, that reporter should face criminal prosecution.

Reporters may not carry notebooks, tape recorders, typewriters or laptops aboard commercial aircraft. All such devices must be transported in checked baggage.

All news must be delayed from broadcast or print for a period of three days, allowing time for reporters and editors to "cool off."

Journalists would come unhinged if such measures were ever seriously considered, much less enacted. But this is exactly the kind of legal mine field through which gun owners must now tread; a regulatory nightmare the press has endorsed.

Newsweek's carelessness has killed more people than any law-abiding gun owner, outside of battlefield service in the armed forces.

What's good for gun owners should also be good for the press. Considering recent events, to argue otherwise is monumental hypocrisy.

Alan Gottlieb is founder of the Second Amendment Foundation (www.saf.org) and chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (www.ccrkba.org).

I appreciate it, but humbly so, since it takes a team. Something I've been learning while going to John Maxwell video presentations at lunch on Leadership, Winning with People, and Team Building, is that at least with me, in the past, sharing the work and credit means I don't get the credit. Wrong! Rarely do great things happen without a team. The team shares the glory and the victory, not just an individual.

The Army has decided to do the following:

Listen to customers, question the status quo, and improve results through fact-based decisions.

I thought about it and that is where we have had an edge, despite setbacks due to failures of EZBoard and Sizzly Hosting.

I think of the difference is board philosophies:

1. Listen to the customers (you) vs. Do what the board "owner" wants to do.

2. Question the status quo (why are we doing this? Can we do this better? What categories should be listed? Why? How will we do it and promote it? Where should we go to accomplish this task? vs. "I'm soliciting your opinions, which I don't do often".

3. Improve results through fact-based decisions. Begin innovative forums with new approaches. Delete ineffective forums. Deal with problems (like in-fighting) in a new way. Be open to varied opinions. vs. Stagnation, lack of innovation, doing what we've always done. Taking the easy path. Avoidance of risk.

that's pretty darned good!

This information is a little confusing. From what I've seen, NH and SD are about the least taxing states. I think TX is high tax, though there isn't a sales tax. NE is high (I lived there).

By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER, Associated Press Writer

Wed Feb 8, 3:01 AM ET

WASHINGTON - If it seems like your taxes have been going up, they probably have — at least at the state level.

State taxpayer burdens increased by an average of 41 percent from 1994 to 2004, according to newly released data from the Census Bureau. Only one state, Alaska, saw the amount it collects per person decline.

Even when the numbers are adjusted for inflation, the individual tax burdens increase in 43 states.

Hawaiians last year paid the most to state government — $3,050 per person on average. Texans paid the least — an average of $1,368.

Rising education and Medicaid costs have fueled spending growth, which has led to higher taxes, analysts said.

"Medicaid has been the fastest growing program in state budgets going back to 2000," said Arturo Perez, a fiscal analyst at the National Council of State Legislatures.

Medicaid is the state-federal health insurance program for the poor. In an effort to stem rising costs, Congress passed legislation last week allowing states to charge about 13 million Medicaid beneficiaries new or increased co-payments and premiums.

The big range in state taxes reflects the variety of government revenue systems throughout the country. The numbers do not include local taxes, which in many states generate most of the money for schools. They also do not include federal taxes.

Wyoming, Connecticut, Minnesota and Delaware round out the top five states in tax receipts per person. South Dakota, Colorado, New Hampshire and Alabama round out the bottom five.

New Hampshire had the biggest increase from 1994 to 2004, with the state tax burden more than doubling. But at $1,544 per person, it remained among the lowest in the country.

Alaska, which gets much of it revenue from oil production, saw its state tax receipts drop 1 percent, to $2,035 per person. Oil revenue helped Alaska spend $12,294 per person in 2004, far more than any other state.

States, on average, get nearly half their tax revenues from sales taxes. They get a third from personal income taxes and 5 percent from corporate income taxes.

Education is the biggest budget item, consuming an average of 31 percent of state spending. Public welfare comes in second at 24 percent. Highways account for 6 percent of state spending and police protection just 1 percent.

Many states raised taxes early in the decade because of budget shortfalls caused by the economic slowdown. Many of those states now have budget surpluses, leading some, including Hawaii, to debate tax cuts.

"Many states are having an unexpected surplus of revenue, and that is because of economic growth," said Stephen Slivinski, director of budget studies at the Cato Institute. "It's mainly because their estimates on economic growth were very low."

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Yup, it will show up on Yahoo based upon what I bid. If a top bid for a click is 23 cents, then if I bid .23, then I should be at the top. A lesser bid gets you further back. Some words like gunsmithing get pretty pricey, and I've debated whether to use the word. I have a daily budget of $6. When I hit $6 the ads stop for the day.

Tony,

 

For what its worth, I still can't find this site when I run a search for it through Yahoo. If they decide to carry the ad, will they recognize the site for search purposes?

Besides being a pig (not really), I was danged near raised in a barn. I was born in N.E. South Dakota (I pity those who weren't born in SD). Every nationality in N.W. Europe and British Isles.

Moved to TX when I was 11, joined the USAF, then out, nursing school after dental lab school, then Army Reserve, now Army. Let's see, I've been a koolaid salesman, greeting cards, shoveled snow, led a blind Fuller Brush salesman around door to door, washed dishes and bused tables, finish carpenter, antique restorer (of sorts), dental lab tech, cook, nurse, gas station attendant, etc.

Have three beautiful girls, oldest is 13. Remarried, and happy as a lark. My family is wierd, my mom is a hypochondriac, and other than that I'm kind of boring!

And the Mexicans get jobs without a problem rebuilding New Orleans.

Thank you Southpaw for your gift.

$165 ahead.

I should know in 3 days if it is accepted. It works like Google; I bid for placement, and hits cost money.

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Thousands of Katrina Victims Evicted By RUKMINI CALLIMACHI, Associated Press Writer

2 hours, 38 minutes ago

NEW ORLEANS - Hauling everything he owned in a plastic garbage bag, Darryl Travis walked out of the chandeliered lobby of the Crowne Plaza, joining the exodus of Hurricane Katrina refugees evicted from their hotel rooms across the country Tuesday.

More than 4,500 evacuees were expected to check out of their government-paid hotel rooms Tuesday as the Federal Emergency Management Agency began cutting off money to pay for their stays.

Far more people — a total of more than 20,000 storm victims — were given extensions by FEMA until at least next week and possibly as long as March 1, said FEMA spokesman Butch Kinerney.

FEMA said it gave people every possible opportunity to request an extension.

"We've bent over backward to reach out. We've gone door-to-door to all of the 25,000 hotel rooms no fewer than six times. And there are individuals who have refused to come to the door, refused to answer. There are people who have run when they saw us coming — those are the ones that are now moving on," Kinerney said.

While some of the evacuees leaving the Crowne Plaza said they had found other housing, several said they were now homeless.

Travis, 24, and his five childhood friends — all in their 20s — had been living on the floor of another evacuee's hotel room, never having registered.

"All I got is a couple pairs of pants and some shirts. The pressure is on," said Jonathan Gautier, 26, one of the six, who was also carrying a single plastic bag filled with clothes.

Wheeling out her boxes of belongings, 20-year-old Katie Kinkella and sister, Jennifer, were heading back to their ruined house in heavily flooded St. Bernard Parish. The sisters had stayed first at the Marriott, and later at the Crowne Plaza as they waited for FEMA to deliver a trailer. Then they waited some more for FEMA to hook up the electricity at the trailer.

"They just connected it yesterday," Kinkella said as she loaded bags, boxes and suitcases into the back of a pickup on the curb outside the hotel.

In Houston, where 4,000 evacuees were staying in hotels, around 80 percent had received permission to extend their stays until at least next Monday. The remaining 20 percent either failed to contact FEMA or made other housing arrangements, said Frank Michel, a spokesman for Mayor Bill White.

"People need to begin to take responsibility for themselves," Michel said.

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco complained that FEMA was pulling the plug on the hotel program before securing other housing.

Outside the Crowne Plaza, protesters held up signs that said: "No trailers. No eviction."

Brittany Brown, 21, wept as she explained that although she had been given an extension, eviction was now looming next week. She applied for a trailer in October and, although she keeps calling, her trailer has yet to show up.

I'm Tony. I'm a pig that was born in a barn. My mom told me so!

TX Veteran's Commission

Here's an interesting excerpt:

"The Mythical Heaven’s Houris

Many things are well-known here in Iraq but seldom, if ever, mentioned in the news. For example, Jihadist bombers are notorious for engaging in debauchery on a stag party scale the eve of their “holy mission.” The modus operandi for their crime against humanity is to get drugged up and thoroughly drunk the night before, lay up with a prostitute and then start the countdown on their souls by turning themselves into bomb delivery devices which explode while they are still high on drugs.

Many believe that what motivates many of the murderers is a selfish belief that their final actions ensure a most comfortable eternity, after a painless passage to Heaven where a harem of 72 Houris waits to service them. The word Houri describes a sensuous dark-eyed maiden, untouched by man or jinn, reserved for faithful Muslim men in Heaven. (This topic is apparently highly debated in America, but not here.)

In fact, one citizen of Mosul told me that the 72 is just a number that the Americans made up; a kind of exaggeration. “They only get 7 Houris,” he said, turning his nose up at the insignificance of that deal. Others think it’s just a sham, like those “great” time-share “deals” where the duped buyer arrives at the airport of a tropical paradise, only to find no one waiting to transport them to their “luxury vacation home.” Still others say it’s less about fanatical glory and more about familial greed, with survivor benefits exceeding annual household income exponentially. Plus they get the Houris.

Apparently it is taking a increasing amount of trickery and coercion to transform someone into sanctimonious shrapnel.

Often, the vest or belt they don or the car they drive is remotely detonated so that they cannot chicken out at the last second. This remote detonating system can cause near misses. The trigger man with the radio has to be distant enough to avoid becoming a permanent part of the blast, but this is often too far back to know exactly when to hit the button. Timing is everything.

Day 20

It was just after midnight when the man who had said, “For me to give the locations of these two men would be treason”–led Deuce Four to the house–“However, if death comes to greet you at your door, introduce him to your brother,” where, SMASH, the soldiers rushed in. At first the Algerians were silent, their eyes noticeably bloodshot. They appeared sedated, reflexes on a time delay, as if they had just used opium. The three “martyrs” had been traveling for about thirty days before sneaking into Mosul. Since their arrival 48 hours earlier, apparently they had been hanging around, doing drugs, killing time, you know, just waiting to explode.

At first, the soldiers did not realize they had stumbled onto the last stop of the underground railroad to hell. Deuce Four thought they were just hitting the home of a common terror cell leader. The soldiers quickly cleared all the rooms, floors, and hiding places. Some insurgents have boobytrapped their homes with explosives, so soldiers also search for bombs, while captives are immediately separated to prevent them from talking amongst themselves, or making eye contact or other signals to each other.

The owner of the house was a known mortar cell leader. The best thing about insurgent cell leaders is their meticulous record-keeping. No slaves to posterity, rather, their detailed notes of terrorist activities and videotapes of their operations, serve as proof for payment. Many insurgents simply work for hire. The man’s diary contained entries dated all the way back to the fall of Baghdad–including their successful attacks against Iraqis and Americans, and also those that failed, carefully noting the reasons for the failures. Comparing the entries with actual SIGACTs would later verify the accuracy of this record, and seal the fate of Mosul’s answer to Capone’s bookkeeper.

He was in the paper today. He got in big trouble for shooting when other men in the unit refused to engage.

Gates of Fire is quite a read.

Michael Yon

Thank you Brad D. and Eldora.

$145 ahead.

I'm going to quiz Yahoo soon on their introductory plan.

I don't see good farmland turned bad- I see LUMBER! I drool over that kind of thing! Up north it is just fallow land. Nobody I know of up there goes out and plants trees, but lets it go wild for the critters.

There is so much corn I have no idea what we do with it all.

Emul, you should watch that video. Boy she lets Schumer (I think) have it between the eyes at the end. Like Clinton, didn't matter what the lady said.

Fritz, I can tell Perry is lame, but I don't know if the granny is worth a vote or not. She doesn't make a stand on her ads. Being a tough granny isn't telling me much. I danged sure won't vote democrat.

What a gal!

She was right here in Killeen, TX at the Luby's about a decade ago when that occured.

Karl,

Panera bread is going up, up, up! My wife has a project with stocks in school. I recommended Panera and it hasn't lost a dime.

I think we can do it easily. My gosh, you drive through the nations' middle and it is corn, corn, corn, and soybeans everywhere.

True.

Sailorman is selling two Turks for $50 each.