Posted 1:08 AM by Steve
FACTS DEMOCRATS WOULD RATHER YOU DIDN'T KNOW:

When Ronald Reagan took office in January 1981, the federal budget deficit was $79 billion dollars and total federal debt held by the public was $909 billion. President Reagan and his successor, President Bush, experienced growing deficits and in 1992, the deficit hit 6% of GDP or $290 billion. During this twelve-year period, total debt held by the public expanded by $3.1 trillion.

These deficits were created by the out of control spending by Democrats in Congress and Reagan's military spending to defeat the Soviet Union in the Cold War. The debt could be viewed as an investment in winning the Cold War and restoring the economy to health after the malaise of the 1970s, but Democrats spent $1.29 for every dollar in increased revenue.
While breathless forecasts of economic catastrophe circulated weekly in the press, the economy improved dramatically, productivity growth accelerated, inflation fell, and so did interest rates. The 30-year mortgage rate, which was 16.6% in 1981, fell to 8.0% in 1993 when President Bush left office.

At the same time deficits grew, the total net worth of U.S. households climbed from $9.6 trillion in 1980 to $22.9 trillion in 1992 - an increase of $13.3 trillion. Rather than a drop in national savings, the net worth of individuals rose by more than four times the increase in government debt. As Rich Karlgaard, publisher of Forbes, pointed out, the Reagan tax cuts and the 1980s deficits were actually a high-yield investment.

According to the IRS Commissioner's Annual Report, federal tax revenue doubled from $519.4 billion in 1980 to $1,014 trillion in 1989 despite dropping the top marginal tax rate in 1981 from 70 percent to 28 percent and cutting tax rates across the board. U.S. manufacturing productivity growth tripled during the 1980's creating 18.6 million new jobs of which 82 percent were in high-paid technical, managerial and professional areas. After Reagan's 1981 tax cut, the U.S. experienced 92 months of economic growth - the longest peacetime growth in American history.

Posted 7:54 PM by Steve
Rep. Waxman, as the chief author of the Clean Air Act amendments of 1990, presided over massive delegation of lawmaking authority from Congress to the Environmental Protection Agency. That act, like other delegations of the power to make regulatory laws, is structured so that Congress gets to take CREDIT for promising regulatory benefits and the agency takes the BLAME for the inevitable costs and disappointments.

-opposed the line item veto.

-expanded entitlements as automatic non-governmental income transfers

-condemned House Joint Resolution 350, a proposal urging Congress to conduct hearings on the trafficking in aborted baby tissues.

-tried to rob Americans of their 2nd amendment rights along with Sen. Diane Feinstein and Sen. Dick Durbin, and Sen. Jack Reed

-had knowledge that Enron was likely to collapse but did nothing to try to protect innocent employees and shareholders, who ultimately lost their life savings

Posted 5:43 PM by Steve
According to a recent poll on MSNBC.COM it appears most Americans have their heads on straight:

Even with ridiculously loaded question this poll can't help but indicate that most Americans strongly back President Bush:

55% dismiss the notion that President Bush's "primary concern" should be the economy. They realize that national security is first and foremost the concern of the President and without national security a strong economy CANNOT exist!!

61% realize that lowering taxes is "a good way to boost the U.S. economy".

45% of Americans are justifiably concerned about terrorism at least as much if not more so that the "economy".

50% of Americans think President Bush is doing his best to " improve the unemployment rate in the U.S."

53% of Americans think President Bush "will be able to lead the nation out of it's economic woes".

Note: not a single question was asked about Democrat obstructionism in congress. The survey also neglected to mention that Democrats are trying to hamstring the President's economic stimulus package.

Posted 2:26 PM by Steve
File this under "I TOLD YOU SO YOU STUPID LIBERAL MORONS!!!!"
U.S. Has Suspected Iraq Arms Lab


By PAULINE JELINEK
The Associated Press
Wednesday, May 7, 2003; 2:48 PM


WASHINGTON - American forces in Iraq are doing tests on trailer that matches the description of a mobile biological weapons lab given by various sources including defectors, the Pentagon said Wednesday.

It was the first time the Defense Department has announced it has evidence of the sort of prohibited unconventional weapons program that justified forcibly disarming Saddam Hussein.

"This is a smoking gun," Under Secretary of Defense Stephen Cambone said, when asked whether this was a breakthrough in the continuing coalition search for weapons of mass destruction.

Cambone said that what the U.S. military has in its possession is the kind of mobile laboratory that Secretary of State Colin Powell described in a report to the U.N. Security Council as he sought to justify forcibly disarming Saddam.


The information Powell gave the U.N., Cambone said, "was based on information from a number of sources and it confirms what the source said."

Cambone said that experts had done initial tests on a trailer taken into custody April 19 at a Kurdish checkpoint in northern Iraq but said that more substantial testing is required.

Cambone said more testing will be required, noting that the surface of it had been washed with a caustic material and it likely would have to be dismantled before testing can be done on hard-to-reach surfaces.

It is painted a military color scheme, was found on a transporter normally used for tanks and - as an Iraqi defector has described Iraq's mobile labs - contains a fermentor and a system to capture exhaust gases, Cambone said.

Earlier Wednesday, Lt. Gen. William Wallace said that American forces have collected "plenty of documentary evidence" suggesting that Saddam had an active program for weapons of mass destruction.

Lt. Gen. William S. Wallace, commander of the Army's V Corps, told a press conference the reason Saddam didn't use unconventional weapons against invading forces may be that these weapons were buried too well to retrieve before the fast coalition dash to Baghdad.

"We've collected evidence, much of it documentary, that suggests there was an active program" for unconventional weapons, Wallace said.

"A lot of the information that we're getting is coming from lower-tier Iraqis who had some knowledge of the program but not full knowledge of the program," he told Pentagon reporters in a videoconference from the Iraqi capital. "And it's just taking us a while to sort through all of that."

He did not elaborate.

The Bush administration said destroying Iraq's suspected chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs was the main reason for the war. Despite weeks of searches of suspected sites, none has been reported found so far. And though Pentagon officials suggested before the war that some Iraqi units were armed with chemical weapons, none was found when those units were overrun.

Experts were still studying a truck suspected to be the first discovered biological-chemical mobile lab, said Wallace, who also was battle commander for the battle of Baghdad.

The suspect truck was handed over to U.S. forces in northern Iraq and was being moved to Baghdad for further investigation, a senior official said later, speaking on condition of anonymity.

On several occasions, troops have found substances they said tested positive as nerve agents or other chemical weapons materials, only to learn from more sophisticated testing that they were crop pesticides, explosives and so on.

The defense official said that he and others "feel good" about the prospect this time that they have found good evidence of an unconventional weapons program.

But they are being careful to cover all bases. He noted that many questions will be asked if it is announced as the evidence - including "chain of custody" information on who has handled the truck and whether it might have been tampered with.

Acknowledging that it was only one of his theories, Wallace said the reason such unconventional weapons never were used was that the Iraqis had to hide them from U.N. weapons inspectors up until the last days before the war.

"Inspectors only left Baghdad a few days before the start of the campaign," Wallace said. "Because they were so clever in disguising them and burying them so deep, they themselves had a problem getting to it."

Wallace said among work his men are doing now is joint police patrols and helping train Iraqis in police procedures.

He said there is still small arms fire in Baghdad and occasional criminal acts that he attributed partly to prisoners Saddam released before the war in an unusual pardon.

Looting also has been a problem in the power vacuum left by the fall of Saddam's regime. "I'm not particularly concerned about security in Baghdad at all," other than that, he said, adding that there are no areas in the entire country that he is "overly concerned about."

Troops are making progress in Tikrit, Saddam's hometown, and are expanding operates all the way to the Syrian border in the west of Iraq, he said.

Posted 10:47 AM by Steve
Education is mental and moral development and cultivation. So why have liberals in Oregon politicized the education debate? The Democratic Party and the teachers union have a mutual stranglehold on each other. Because the ends justify the means in the mind of relativistic liberals, they have disigenuously turned schools into little voter factories. Education has become socialized left-wing proselytism. They make all sorts of claims that lack of school funding has hurt education. To believe this you would have to believe the following fallacies:

1. Throwing money at the problem is solving the problem.

The socialized education system cannot possibly consistently provide a better product to our students than it is capable of. As with socialized health care or any other socialized program, socialized education will simply make sure that everyone recieves an equally poor education.

2. Prior to funding changes schools were models of efficiency.

Waste is rampant and far too much money has been going to things other than educating our youth. Administrative costs are sky-high and six figure incomes abound in the heirarchy of the school system. In other words, education was poor prior to funding changes and is poor now.

3. It's the only system we've got and education is too important.

Wrong. Parochial schools have long done a better job educating kids for less money per pupil per year and used creative methods of funding to supplement private tuition. Tuition certificates and vouchers should be made available for all parents so that school choice could become a reality and kids would be able to escape failing schools.

It's a sad truth that the unions have become totally politicized and self-serving in an industry where the PRODUCT is what matters most. Teachers manage to portray themselves as martyrs when they actually work a fraction of the time per year compared to people in other professions.

Posted 10:20 AM by Steve
The State Department, in its annual report on global terrorism, says
the number of terror attacks declined sharply last year due to increased
international cooperation and resolve. Seven countries--Cuba, Iran,
Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Syria, and Sudan--were again listed as state
sponsors of terrorism, though Iraq may soon come off the list. The State
Department says there were 199 terrorist attacks last year, a 44 percent
drop from 2001 and the lowest figure in more than 30 years....The past
year's most deadly single attack was the car bombing last September in
a tourist area of Bali, Indonesia that killed more than 200
people....Among the other countries listed as terrorism sponsors, the report said
Iran is the 'most active.' It said Iran's Revolutionary Guards and its
Ministry of Intelligence and Security were involved in planning of, and
support for, terrorist acts, while the country's leaders continue to
verbally and materially support groups opposed to Middle East pea!
ce efforts. Syria, which Mr. Powell will visit later this week, was
cited for continuing to host offices of radical Palestinian factions."

The recent lull in terrorist attacks is proof of the effectiveness of President Bush's no-nonsense attitude toward terrorism. Th threat remains while state-sponsors of terror like Syria and Iran remain in power but they certainly know that to avoid consequences they have to cover their rear-end. Bush's strategy is brilliant because it clear to terrorists that if they act, the consequences will always be worse than the benefits. Do you think the Taliban would have supported Osama Bin Laden if they knew they would be imprisoned, slaughtered and taken out of power in Afghanistan? Do you think Saddam would have supported Islamic terror if he knew he would become a pariah in his own country? A hunted fugitive who had to give up yachts and palaces to become a fugitive? Terrorism is the specific targeting of civilian non-combatants to create fear in a populace. Now that terrorists know that if they identify themselves with their actions the risk of carrying out terrorism becomes greater.

Posted 11:45 AM by Steve
WOULDN'T YOU THINK THAT LOCAL GOVERNMENT WOULD SLOW DOWN ITS SPENDING WHILE IT'S CLAIMING TO BE BROKE.
NO...FAR FROM IT
JUST A FEW DAYS AGO, THE REGIONAL GOVERNMENT METRO ANNOUNCED IT WOULD SPEND ANOTHER ONE BILLION
DOLLARS OF YOUR MONEY...ON ANOTHER LEG OF LIGHT RAIL.
INCIDENTLY...THAT LIGHT RAIL WON'T CUT CONGESTION A BIT...BECAUSE EVEN TRI MET ADMITS TWO THIRDS OF OF THE RIDERS WERE ALREADY ON BUSES...AND WILL JUST SWITCH OVER.
AND CONSIDER A COUPLE OF OBVIOUS OBJECTIONS TO THIS FIRST...VOTERS HAVE TURNED DOWN LIGHT RAIL TWICE ...BEFORE GOVERNMENT STOPPED ASKING THE QUESTION AT ALL.
SECOND...ITS THE MOST HIDEOUSLY EXPENSIVE FORM OF MASS TRANSIT THIRD...LOCAL GOVERNMENT CLAIMS IT'S OUT OF MONEY
FOURTH...WE'VE BEEN SPENDING ABOUT 80 PERCENT OF OUR TRANSIT DOLLARS...ON A SYSTEM THAT SERVES
FEWER THAN ONE HALF OF ONE PERCENT OF ALL COMMUTERS.
WHEN THEY ASK YOU FOR CASH IN THAT BIG TAX VOTE A FEW WEEKS FROM NOW...JUST REMEMBER LIGHT RAIL