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Politics : THE WHITE HOUSE -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DuckTapeSunroof who wrote (11385)	11/26/2007 2:52:40 PM
From: longnshort	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 25737

Dear Senator Reid and Speaker Pelosi First of all, let me say right off the bat that I am a huge fan of you both. I must admit though, last year at this time, I was dismayed and disheartened at the prospects of your Party gaining control of my Congress. While I should have known better than to worry about your capabilities (or lack thereof), it has been a not-so-pleasant "surprise" to watch each of you run your respective houses of government into the proverbial ground.Therefore, I wanted to begin this friendly letter by thanking you both for exhibiting the lack of courageous leadership that it requires to land your approval ratings in the "teens" (almost exactly half of what President Bush's are). As I reflected on the fact that Thanksgiving is upon us already this Fall, it recently occurred to me that neither of you, due to your insatiable desire to find the cloud in every silver lining, will have anything to say when your families go around the table to recite what each person is thankful for this year. So take a load off for the next few minutes and let this sagacious, conservative, optimist give you a few Gratitude Talking Points. Thanksgiving Day Talking Point #1- I am so grateful for the fact that there are young men and women who are proudly willing to put their lives on the line to procure my freedom.Even if engaged in a war that I don't fully agree with (understand), I can never thank the nearly 4,000 soldiers who have paid the ultimate price for liberty enough. It is by their blood, sweat, and tears that 50 million humans have been freed in areas of the world where human rights and dignity are as foreign to the soil as the sight of American G.I.'s upon it. Now this first idea will be hard, and may even take some practice in front of the mirror to re-teach your face how to smile, but as it turns out, the situation in Iraq continues to improve at an impressive rate that even the (purposely) ambiguously defined "Neo-con's" never predicted. When the topic of the war comes up as you pass your "green" green beans (to the left, of course), remind your guests that it isn't just right-wingers who are reporting achievements aplenty in Baghdad and Anbar province, but things have gotten so good (bad, for Democrats) that even The New York Times, Newsweek, The Washington Post, and US News & World Report have all had to admit that the "surge" and General Petraeus (thus far) are smashing successes. Thanksgiving Day Talking Point #2- A "Family" is the most precious social institution a society can participate in. It is the bedrock of our civilization and I thank God for my parents (each who was of a different sex), my children, my relatives, and the special friends and neighbors in my life that have become like family to me. Life is precious, and I know this to be true if for no other reason than the incredibly profound bonds that exist between my loved ones and me. This second idea is more for you, Speaker Pelosi, than you, Senator Reid, because you remind us so often that you are a proud Italian Catholic grandmother, and that the reason you seem to do almost anything (and I mean anything), according to you, is "for the kids."Madame Speaker, you'll have to try and forget the fact that you have publicly supported lowering the age of sexual consent to 12, are in favor of complete federal funding of the anti-fetus practice known as murd...abortion, and have approved of the jihad against such provocative groups as the Boys and Girls Scouts of America simply because they don't want homosexuals "den" leaders and mention "God" in their charter. Thanksgiving Day Talking Point #3- I've been blessed with family, friends, power, prestige, and wealth above and beyond what any 10 men (or women) could hope for in a lifetime, and I realize my good fortune is temporal above all else. I appreciate the things I have, the platform I've been given, but know that power for the sake of power, and money for the sake of money, ultimately end in a selfish and lonely existence. I do not envy my neighbor, nor will I encourage anyone else to envy their own. All right, please don't put down this letter just yet. A Congressional leader with higher approval ratings might have tossed my heartfelt sentiments in the trash at least three paragraphs ago, but you know you can use the "image" points with, if no one else, your family. Something we conservatives believe in is that idea that Americans should embrace personal responsibility in conjunction with civic duty. This means that we are to hold ourselves (and each other) accountable for the decisions we make in our local spheres of influence. Senator Reid and Speaker Pelosi, you are both strong advocates of entirely Socialistic policies, but have both benefited immensely from the free market system you besmirch. Your family (especially your pro-capitalist-even-if-they-don't-know-it kids) will be aware of your anti-growth stances as well, but are deep down grateful themselves that supply-side economics has consistently triumphed in America. Thanksgiving Day Talking Point #4 (last one)- I am so appreciative for Founding Fathers who intuitively recognized that it was our Creator, not any one man (or groups of men), who was the grantor of equality and freedom. Our Judeo-Christian heritage is a blessing that, for better or worse (but mostly "better'), has shaped the social, political, and cultural landscape of this greatest nation on God's green earth for some 230 years. All peoples and faiths are welcome, even those with no faith at all, but not all faiths played such an undeniably integral role in our formation, growth, and undeserving prosperity. God Bless America! I could hear your gasps just now from my highly fortified bunker. Obviously as products of a self-obsessed, anti-establishment, anti-religious generation (the Boomers), you will have to deny every instinct in your liberally-indoctrinated bodies to get this last talking point out (especially in front of other people), but give it a go. Forget your financiers from Moveon.org and the ACLU for a brief moment, embrace the foreign concept of "intellectual honesty" for a while, and let your loved ones know that it is indeed okay to proudly boast we are "One nation, under God." So that's my list. I hope it helps. I also would really suggest rehearsing before the big day because your family (kids especially) can smell phony a mile away. Nothing could be more embarrassing than getting called out by your 10 year-old nephew for disingenuously pretending you care about the troops because you had to peek at the notes I've just given you, which were written on your palms. I personally don't know what that would feel like from experience, but then again, I can't imagine being a liberal either. One request before I go: if you could please promise to maintain the status quo of accomplishing little if anything in Congress, I promise to keep dutifully sending my hard-earned tax money to you in D.C. Good day to you both, and have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

To: DuckTapeSunroof who wrote (11385)	11/27/2007 12:26:41 PM
From: Hope Praytochange	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 25737

Negative, Left-Tilting War Coverage Is As Unappreciated As It Is Obvious By RAGHAVAN MAYUR \| Posted Tuesday, March 13, 2007 4:20 PM PT Old habits are hard to break — so much so in the case of the national media that their left-slanted reporting may be risking their relationship with the American public. This is one key finding from our latest IBD/TIPP Poll, suggesting a wake-up call is in order if the media don't want to lose their 'customer base' by consistently disregarding what most people believe to be true. Like what? How about the military's conduct in Iraq, and what our troops have been doing these past four years? Beyond eliminating the brutal regime of Saddam Hussein and neutralizing the likes of al-Qaida leaders such as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, they've also been working to improve the daily lives of ordinary Iraqis by building schools and hospitals and cracking down on crime. But we're much more likely to hear from the likes of New York Times columnist Frank Rich, who recently said the 'actual reality is that we have lost in Iraq,' or Walter Cronkite, who said the war in Iraq is a 'terrible disaster' and that 'the earlier we get out, the better.' Looking Elsewhere Those views don't jibe with what troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan said when Fox News recently interviewed them. They said the war was going better than reported, that the image the media are portraying isn't accurate and that, by golly, the war is worth it. This type of reporting seems too antithetical for media elites such as William Arkin, an NBC News commentator and Washington Post blogger. The interviews, he wrote, were 'just an ugly reminder of the price we pay for a mercenary — oops, sorry, volunteer — force that is doing the dirty work.' Arkin went on to say that 'through every Abu Ghraib and Haditha, through every rape and murder, the American public has indulged those in uniform.' But Arkin's views are not those of most Americans, the majority (61%) of whom say the coverage of the war has not been fair and objective. And make no mistake, the media are not immune to customer dissatisfaction. Like any other industry that fails to deliver the goods, the media risk losing their customer base if they continuously disregard what is self-evident to a majority of the public. Among those migrating to the 'new media,' the discontent with the old media is high. We found that 73% who say talk radio is one of their major sources of war news, and 69% who say the Internet is a major source, believe media coverage of the Iraq war has not been fair and objective. Americans are sending a clear message: They want their news fair and honest, and if the mainstream media can't provide it, they'll take their business elsewhere. If this isn't enough of a wake-up call, here's another finding from our poll: 57% say coverage of the Iraq War has been too negative. The media's dislike of President Bush obviously has spilled over even to the war in Iraq. Consider that by the time he delivered his 'troop surge' speech Jan. 10, much of the national media had already spent days and countless pundit hours denouncing the strategy before it saw the light of day. • Tom Brokaw, NBC's longtime news anchor, said that sending more troops to Iraq seemed 'like a folly.' • Chris Matthews, MSNBC's well-known political analyst, said the American people wouldn't like it. • Lara Logan, CBS' Baghdad reporter, said on 'The Early Show' that the surge would make no difference. • NBC's 'Today' show, along with White House reporter David Gregory, suggested Iraq is a lost cause. Among Americans who believe coverage of the war has been too negative, we find an exodus away from establishment media and toward nontraditional outlets. The straw that breaks the media's back may not be negativity and lack of objectivity so much as the media's penchant for promoting a liberal ideology. According to our poll, fully 56% say coverage of the Iraq War favors a liberal point of view. Many (28%) of them are taking flight to talk radio, an outlet that has seen little liberal penetration. Change Ahead? Even members of the liberal news media admit there's a problem. Here's what ABC News political director Mark Halperin said on the Hugh Hewitt radio show last year: 'I don't know if its 95% . . . but there are enough liberals in the old media, not just in ABC, but in old media generally, that it tilts the coverage quite frequently, in many issues, in a liberal direction. . . . It's an endemic problem. And again, it's the reason why for 40 years, conservatives have rightly felt that we did not give them a fair shake.' So are the mainstream media running the risk of losing their customers because of their leftward tilt? It sure seems that way. Will things change? Maybe. Judging from a 2005 study by the Pew Research Center that compared the opinions of 72 top journalists with those of everyday Americans, the gulf may simply be too wide to bridge. Pew found that while the public was split on whether the Iraq War would help (44%) or hurt (44%) the U.S. in the war on terror, journalists by an overwhelming 68% to 22% majority believed the war would hurt. It also found that while 56% of the public believed U.S. efforts to establish a stable democracy in Iraq would succeed, 63% of media elites thought they'd fail. As far as opinions about Bush are concerned, the study found that while 40% of the public approved of his job performance, only 21% of the media felt the same. Mayur is president of TIPP, a unit of TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence, IBD's polling partner.

To: DuckTapeSunroof who wrote (11385)	11/27/2007 12:30:27 PM
From: Hope Praytochange	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 25737

Hillary's Record By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY \| Posted Tuesday, November 20, 2007 4:20 PM PT Campaign Trail: Lamenting the healthy U.S. economy, a certain senator from New York says "it takes a Clinton to clean up after a Bush." But the Clintons' brand of soap always seems to be a mix of sleaze and socialism. Campaigning in Iowa on Monday, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., spread doom and gloom about an economy that has produced more than 8 million new jobs over the past 50 months amid a powerful economic expansion. Hillary has been pushing the theme that being first lady for eight years gave her the experience that will make her a good president. "Every day spent learning the ropes is another day of rising costs, mounting deficits and growing anxiety for our families," she said in an obvious negative reference to her opponent, Sen. Barrack Obama, D-Ill. "And they cannot afford to keep waiting." But what exactly is it they are waiting for? Certain expiration of the Bush across-the-board income tax cuts, and his reduction in taxes on investment, policies that caused the economy's current sustained boom? Is the "experience" our families are waiting to reap the benefits of actually a new version of Hillary's 1993-94 attempt to impose socialized health care on America? The cleaning up that Hillary claims her husband undertook is a myth. The record shows Bill Clinton inherited from President George H.W. Bush an economy already in recovery. It also shows that two terms of Clinton Masculinus left George W. Bush in 2001 with an economy already in a downturn. It wasn't his income tax rate increases or sage words from Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin that produced Intel's Pentium chip and the Internet or the rest of the technological revolution behind the 1990s boom. The seed capital for it all came largely from the low-tax policies of Ronald Reagan years earlier. Bill Clinton, in fact, never succeeded in getting passed into law what he touted as his vital "jobs bill," a pork-laden $30 billion fiscal stimulus package; only a fraction of it, $220 million, was ever enacted. Yet government spending is clearly what Hillary's White House job experience would translate into. Her energy policy, for instance, consists of a $50 billion alternative fuels fund and $20 billion worth of new "green vehicle bonds" funding intensified gas mileage regulations. But businesses won't have to worry — if they can grease the lady's palm. Corning, Inc., Western New York state's stalwart Republican Party corporate donor, found that out in 2004 when China threatened a 16% tariff on Corning's fiber optics products. By having the Red Chinese ambassador to her Capitol Hill office, Hillary apparently got the Communist government to drop the duty. But it seems to have cost Corning executives $46,000 in campaign contributions. Sleazy deals and big spending are well-remembered from the days of Hillary Clinton's other half. That kind of experience is no recipe for continued economic health.