American Republic Online

The president of Iran is in New York for the UN General Assembly.  During his visit, he stopped by Columbia University to deliver a speech.  After he was accused of being a dictator by the university’s president, Ahmadinejad questioned 9/11 and the Holocaust, denied sponsoring terrorism, and proclaimed Iran free of homosexuals.  Not bad for a university address.

You can find plenty of comments on whether he should have been allowed entry, if Columbia should have invited him, and general comments on his character and style of leadership, so we’ll spare you the same.  I’d like to take a different approach:

Only in America.  Seriously, is there any where else (besides Iran and Venezuela) that Ahmadinejad could have gotten away with the same?  Any where he would have even considered that he could, let alone be allowed?  I’m not trying to be sarcastic here; isn’t America great?!  We have a crazy dictator that spews all sorts of nonsense, and he gets invited to a university as a key note speaker?  Put aside issues around empowering and enabling him, and just consider that question: where else in the world could he do that?   I love this country.

P.S. While Ahmadinejad is out entertaining university students and faculty, he’s on our turf, and we are responsible for his security.  Sounds like a great opportunity to gather intelligence.  Everyone who comes with him, everyone supporting him, meeting with him, etc. will not go unnoticed.  So, thanks for the info big guy!  Enjoy your flight back as you try to figure out any advantages we gained by your desire to come fill our heads with your jibba jabba.

Last week, Senator Clinton revealed her plan for “improving health care.” The bullet points in the press release sound great: choice, good for small business, reining in insurance companies. However, if we look at a little more detailed description, we see that saying we have a choice is insulting.
Some high points:

1. Individuals will be required to have health insurance. So, yes, you have choice, as long as one of them is not going without insurance.

2. Employers will have to make sure you have insurance before they can hire you. Neal Boortz commented on this at length.

3. If you obtain a policy that has “too much coverage” you will have to pay a penalty. To the federal government.

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Newt Gingrich points out that the real problem in current politics is not left vs. right, but politicians vs. the voting public:

Contrary to what candidates in either party may think, the political dividing line in America doesn’t run between the GOP and minorities. For most Americans, it’s not even found between Republicans and Democrats, or the red-versus-blue-state invention of the media.

The real division is between hardworking, tax-paying Americans - of both parties and all races - and an entrenched, permanent governing system in Washington and state capitals designed to serve its own needs and not the needs of the American people.

While somewhat of a commercial for his organization and its upcoming events, Newt recognizes a growing frustration with our current political leadership.  Your editor has spoken of this at length, and prefers the optimistic approach of thinking that reactions will come sooner rather than later.  Indeed, I’ve found that most people I encounter are more concerned with living their lives, and being allowed to live their lives, rather than trying to consolidate power for their “party.”  The tone and tenor of politics today has become less of “do what is best for America (or, what we truly believe is best for America)” and is instead “do whatever it takes for our party to win the next election.”  Both sides are more interested in obtaining and maintaining power.  The majority of Americans recognize this.

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Nebraska Democratic State Senator Ernie Chambers is suing God to “fight possible laws restricting the filing of frivolous lawsuits.”

You can’t make this stuff up.

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Neal Boortz responds to recent attempts to associate the FairTax with Scientology:

Bartlett is illustrating one basic truth about the FairTax. It is easy to demagogue. Has the FairTax so-alarmed advocates of big government that they actually have to resort to childish attacks such as this Scientology nonsense? You would think that if FairTax opponents had a choice they would rather base their attacks on the FairTax on solid and defensible criticisms or objections. Perhaps these attacks centered around the absurd notion that the FairTax is a part of some great Scientologist plot are more evidence of concern that the idea is catching on … an idea that could cost them a livelihood or render their intricate knowledge of the current tax code useless … than anything else. 

The Democrats have new option for their 2008 bid.  Here’s his platform:

 My platform for President of the United States Of America is Criminal Law. It is developed from my Method of Education.  I was ordered to create and or invent by the United States Army that is now intact regulating the United States Government protecting it through Military Intelligence Computerization Management a new Disipline I invented and the Administration of Criminal Law Laws across the board.

His stance on the economy:

There is concern about the U.S. Government Economy and the US Public’s Economy enforcements. I will enforce the U.S. Government’s Economy and the US Public’s Economy regulating its enforcements itself  with its regulations pretaining to itself and according to it’s enforcements to maintain 100% effectiveness with my tools. 

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Robert E. Rector of the Heritage Foundation has released his latest research on poverty in the US. The numbers on many of the 37 Million “poor” are surprising. Before jumping into Rector’s work let’s define poverty. The US Census Bureau uses the Office of Management and Budget’s Statistical Policy Directive 14. In 2005 the OMB defined the Poverty Thresholds at $9,367 - $43,254 depending on family size. (U.S. Census Bureau Report)

Does the high end of that spectrum seem, well, high? It should, the same report lists the median household income in the US for 2005 at $46,326. But it gets better because “The official poverty definition uses money income before taxes and does not include capital gains or noncash benefits (such as public housing, Medicaid, and food stamps).” - Appendix B. Which means if you have a large family and are using food stamps you can actually be both poor AND above the median household income. But that could be an extreme case, right? So let’s take a look at the top third of the poor and see just how nice “poverty” can be.

The Top One Third of the “Poor” in the US:

• Own a 3 bedroom 1 1/2 bath home worth $95,276 and have more living space than a European (Poor Americans have 439 sq ft per person while the average, not poor, European has 396 sq ft per person).
• Own two cars.
• Own two or more TVs - and most (75%) own a big screen. (Which you need to get the full enjoyment out of your cable or satellite feed)
• Own a computer
• Own a cel phone & a land line
• Own a stereo, dishwasher, microwave, DVD player & have air conditioning

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Many of you may have noticed the quotes that appear in the upper right-hand corner of our homepage. Well, your senior editor just added quote #100. That’s right, we have compiled 100 statements from the likes of Thomas Jefferson, Dennis Miller, Matt Groening, Thomas Sowell, Ludwig Von Mises, and more. Feel free to refresh the homepage to see more (and add to our hit count. Does that count as more hits? I have no clue, and will have to check with our web guru. I’m guessing the Einsteins at Google have a figured out a way to track that. Who knows, maybe they have figured it out and don’t just so people can waste their lives furiously refreshing their own web pages to drive up their numbers. Google is truly the embodiment of evil.) Any how, the 100th quote is from John Adams, and is a good one:

Be not intimidated… nor suffer yourselves to be wheedled out of your liberties by any pretense of politeness, delicacy, or decency. These, as they are often used, are but three different names for hypocrisy, chicanery and cowardice.

Why don’t people talk like that any more? Hell, if someone busted open the door of the bar and said

If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen. [Samuel Adams. Brewer. Patriot.]

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Here’s a good rule of thumb for new college freshmen:

Don’t keep accusing your crazy roommate of stealing from your purse, or you may wake up with her standing over your bunk with a knife…