Right Mind

Community discussions set on climate change

Read the story below. Then shift the players. Say that instead of being the liberals’ universalist church, it was an evangelical church; and instead of being the Sierra Club it was a pro-business club.

Then imagine the calls for revoking tax-exempt status; separation of church and state; and the typical attacks.

Why do the same rules never apply to the leftists in the People’s Republic of Moscow?

As reported in today's edition of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

The public is invited to a series of community discussions to learn more about climate change, beginning Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at the 1912 Center in Moscow. The series will continue Feb. 8, 15, March 1 and 8 at the same time and place.

 

The event is supported by the social action committee of the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Palouse, the Palouse Group of The Sierra Club, and the Moscow High School Environmental Club.

 

More information is available at www.moscowclimate change.com.

More on Global Warming

See:

• OpinionJournal - Very, Very Big Corn
• A Culinary and Cultural Staple in Crisis - washingtonpost.com
• Ethanol Makes Gasoline Costlier, Dirtier

From Bryan Fischer at the Idaho Values Alliance:

Expect global warming hysteria and rhetoric to reach unprecedented levels this weekend as the UN releases a report insisting with 99% certainty that humans are causing global warming. This will increase the drive on the part of the environmental movement to subvert the view of man's relationship to the environment presented to us in the early chapters of Genesis - that man has been given dominion over the earth, and that his authority over the earth includes not only stewardship but development of natural resources for the benefit of the human family.

Increasingly, the thrust of radical environmentalism is to restrict the God-authorized human activity that leads to prosperity, security, and a better quality of life for more and more people, especially the poor. It works to reduce, rather than expand, man's imprint on the globe, and to eliminate it wherever possible.

Part of that environmental push is a drive to mandate and artificially reward an increase in the production of ethanol as an alternative to gasoline.

Despite the hype surrounding ethanol - and current efforts in the Idaho legislature to make ethanol consumption mandatory - it is hardly a benefit to the environment and is hard on the poor. (You will hear hype about "cellulosic ethanol," but it's just that - hype, as no cellulosic ethanol industry even exists at present.)

Because it costs several times as much as gasoline to produce, ethanol must be heavily subsidized by both federal and state taxpayers - that's you and me - to the tune of $6 billion last year alone, which is about half of its wholesale market price. (In contrast, "Big Oil" got $1 billion in subsidies.)  In other words, you and I are actually paying twice the pump price for ethanol - but half that cost is hidden in the taxes we pay to subsidize the ethanol industry. Ethanol gets a 51-cent a gallon domestic subsidy at the pump, and there's another 54-cent a gallon tariff applied at the border against ethanol. (So much for "free trade.")

This corporate welfare has increased the percentage of the U.S. corn crop devoted to ethanol from 3% five years ago to 20% today. If the President's goal for alternative fuels - as stated in his State of the Union speech - is to be met by 2017, it would require the entire - yes, the entire - U..S. corn harvest, leaving nothing left for food for humans and feed for livestock.

Plus, due to the staggering amount of coal, natural gas, and nuclear energy required to grow corn and turn it into ethanol, less than 25% of ethanol's energy is renewable.

Artificially propped up at your expense and mine, the price of corn has risen nearly 80% in 2006 alone. Corn growers naturally love this, but it will be hard on those families who eat corn flakes for breakfast in the morning, and it's even worse for cattle, poultry, and hog farmers paying suddenly exorbitant prices for feed corn.

As I have mentioned before, in Mexico the price of corn tortillas - the dietary staple of the country's poor - has tripled or quadrupled in some parts of the country since last summer.

The poorest Mexicans depend on the lowly tortilla for up to 40% of their protein supply, and are now spending up to one-third of their income on tortillas, or switching to cheaper but less nutritious alternatives. China has been forced to halt ethanol-plant construction because of the threat it poses to the nation's food security.

To make matters worse, ethanol fuel actually pumps more nitrous oxides into the air than ordinary gasoline, causing more smog. It is extraordinarily costly to produce, meaning ethanol's net energy output is only 1.3 to one, compared to gasoline, whose net energy output is 10 to one.

Ethanol is less efficient than gasoline, so drivers will have to burn more of it to drive the same number of miles. It cannot be shipped using pipelines (the alcohol eats through the seals), so it must be trucked or barged - which requires consumption of petroleum products.

Even some environmentalists are starting to cry foul: the president of the Wildlife Conservation Society says that farming for ethanol production in Brazil has displaced small tenant farmers, who are now cutting down the Amazon rain forest for farm land to feed their families. Plus, there is talk in the U.S. of converting the 40 million acres tied up in the Agriculture Department's conservation reserve to put them into ethanol-producing plants. Goodbye wildlife habitat.

According to researchers, ethanol is fantastically inefficient in reducing global warming. According to one, ethanol reduces greenhouse gas emissions by no more than 5%, and costs 10 times what a Yale economist believes is economically sensible.

Giving radical Islam its start

Bill J. writes:

Within weeks of 'Jimmy's' visit to Teheran in early 1978, Iran started to unravel. By June-July the city was under marshal law. Over 45000 Americans evacuated Teheran by December. Almost one year after Carter's visit the Shah fled Iran. A terrorist state was born. I was there and saw it. Historians will link Jimmy Carter as one of the great enablers of the rise of Islamic radicalism and terrorist state. CSPAN covered a speech this past weekend by Carter at Brandeis University on his new book. Alan Dershowitz had equal time afterwards, and peeled back the peanut shell from this nut.

From TownHall:

Recently Jimmy Carter was on television, denouncing President Bush’s policies in Iraq. I find this highly ironic, because Jimmy Carter and his liberal advisers helped the Ayatollah Khomeini to come to power in Iran a quarter of a century ago. Thus they gave radical Islam control of its first major state. How this happened is worth recalling, because from Carter’s failure there’s a valuable lesson to be learned in Iraq.

Islamic radicals have been around since the 1920s, but for decades they were outsiders even in the Muslim countries. One of their leading theoreticians, Sayyid Qutb, argued that radical Muslims could not just promulgate theories and have meetings; they must seek to realize the Islamic state “in a concrete form.” What was needed, he wrote, was “to initiate the movement of Islamic revival in some Muslim country.” Once the radicals controlled a state, he suggested, they could then use it as a beachhead for launching the takeover of other Muslim countries.

Read the rest of Dinesh D'Souza’s fascinating article.

HT: Bill J.

Hypocrite or stupid?

The following letter to the editor appeared in yesterday’s Lewiston Tribune:

I read, with great interest, the article "Gore: Slide show shocked crowd," Jan. 23. Did you know that during the Clinton administration, eight years, Al Gore was in charge of the nuke power program in the U.S.? He virtually stopped all the building of nuke power plants. The U.S. was forced to build natural gas and coal-fired electrical generating plants. Nuke plants put no carbon dioxide in the air, whereas coal put lots into the air. Burning natural gas for electricity is the height of stupidity and raises the price of heating our homes.

Did you know that Mother Nature put uranium and all its bad brothers into coal, and when we burn it to generate electricity we really pollute the atmosphere with radioactive junk? The amount of radioactive pollution from coal-fired plants far exceeds all the radioactive pollution from all the nuke bombs by tenfold or more. By burning coal, we are slowly killing ourselves because we are being led by stupid people. Just the slack from coal plants is dangerous and ends up polluting our water. I would not live downwind from a coal-fired plant and I would live next to a nuke plant.

Did you know that to make a gallon of ethanol we release twice the carbon dioxide in the air than if we just burned the gallon of gas and that we can never make ethanol as cheap as gas? Mother Nature and the economic laws will not allow it. There really is no free lunch.

Now I ask you, is Al Gore a hypocrite or just stupid? I voted for the latter, and this fool wanted to be our president.

Bill Hauf
Lewiston

Hemp, dogfights don't interest lawmakers

I cannot say that I have any interest in either of these either. There are bigger fish to fry than non-existent problems.

The following article ran in today’s Lewiston Tribune (subscription required).

Hemp and dogfights don't stir much passion in the hearts of House Agricultural Committee members.

But at least the House State Affairs Committee let one of Rep. Tom Trail's bills -- an affirmation of Idaho's support for human rights -- see the light of day.

More form over substance from Rep. Tom Trail.

Hemp, dogfights don’t stir much interest.

Trail, R-Moscow, went one for three Tuesday when it came to introducing bills.

He had a good start in the morning in state affairs when he spoke of the smear left on Idaho's image by the Aryan Nations, a white supremacist group formerly headquartered in Hayden Lake.

"We as a state have to stand up and reaffirm our commitment to human rights," Trail said.

A friend's daughter was rebuffed by a black student at a Wisconsin university when picking dormitory roommates, Trail said.

The black student said, "'I will not have anything to do with a student from Idaho because the Aryan Nations permeates the state with their beliefs,' " Trail reported.

His bill would say, "citizens of Idaho have endured an unwarranted, unfavorable barrage of publicity related to certain opinions held by a small minority of persons who claim Idaho as their home, but whose opinions we strongly denounce ..."

Rep. Eric Anderson, R-Priest Lake, expressed skepticism about the value of such a proclamation.

"Coming from a part of the state where we have many of these issues ... you're not going to overcome ignorance of outside perception by a resolution," Anderson said. "But I think the intent of this resolution is good."

The committee sent the bill, without further debate, to the House floor for consideration.

As the day wore on, the welcome for Trail's bills wore out.

The House Agriculture Committee, chaired by Trail, killed two bills without giving them a hearing.

One resolution called for legalization of industrial hemp farming.

Trail told his peers North Dakota has leaped ahead this year by pioneering a licensing program through the federal Drug Enforcement Agency. He also appealed to Mormon colleagues by invoking the name of an early church patriarch.

"It received the blessing of Brigham Young in 1847, who told Mormon farmers to go out and plant industrial hemp and flax," Trail said.

The committee decided to wait.

"Why would we not wait and see how North Dakota comes out?" said Rep. Darrell Bolz, R-Caldwell.

At least one legislator wanted nothing to do with a crop that has been championed by countercultural marijuana smokers.

"I don't want my name attached to it," said Rep. Dennis Lake, R-Blackfoot, a rancher.

The committee voted to kill the bill.

Trail's second attempt in as many years to make dogfighting a felony also failed.

Last year, lawmakers were unconvinced dogfighting even happened in the state.

"We have somebody coming in to testify they have seen a live dogfight," Trail said.

Lake argued the current misdemeanor penalty lets judges put someone in jail for six months with a $5,000 fine anyway.

"The only difference is whether you call them a felon or not," Lake said.

Trail, who received more than 10,000 letters in support of the legislation, argued law enforcement agencies want the felony distinction to allow for criminal pursuit over state lines. Wyoming is the only other state where dogfighting is not a felony.

Other committee members suggested the bill should go through the House Judiciary, Rules and Administration Committee.

"I raised the question before," Trail said. "The counsel I had was that since it involved dogs, it would be appropriate to run it through the ag affairs committee."

The chairman of the judiciary committee, Rep. Jim Clark, R-Hayden Lake, happened to be standing in the doorway watching the proceedings. "You're a good dog committee," he said.

The committee voted to deny introduction of the bill.

A message from Brigitte Gabriel: the President and Founder of American Congress for Truth

From Brigitte Gabriel over at American Congress for Truth:

War has been declared on Christians, Jews, non-Muslims and secularists worldwide by Islamic extremists...simply because we are infidels according to their belief.

As Islamic fundamentalism spreads its tentacles worldwide, it is crucial for the people of the Western world to understand the danger, know what to expect, and know what to do about it.

Threats and realities of forced conversions to Islam, beheadings, torture and murder are quickly becoming commonplace. They’re rarely mentioned in the news and when they are, it’s with a disclaimer…the word “insurgent” has replaced the truth of “terrorists.”

Political correctness is killing us.

This Is The New Reality

We are in for the fight of our lives.

That we have not yet had another terrorist attack in the United States is remarkable, but it will happen. Al Queda keeps its promises.

How do I know this? I was born in Lebanon and raised as a Christian. When the Lebanese Civil War broke out, our family, and our Maronite community came under vicious attack by Islamic extremists.

They promised to destroy us, and as you know from the recent war in Lebanon, the country is now nearly Islamic.

I was nearly killed by a mortar. Our home was destroyed. We lived in a bomb shelter for seven years. Most of my childhood friends were killed. That’s how I know.

We must make the connection between individual safety and a strong national defense, increase civic preparation and political responsibility, and train all Americans to become defenders of our community safety and national security.

"All that is required for evil to triumph is for a few good men to do nothing." Edmund Burke

Anguish struck the citizens of the United States of America on 9/11 as a
handful of hateful men murdered nearly 3,000 innocent people. A heavy pall of grief covered our nation.

Many of us wondered if we'd ever laugh again.

But 9/11 wasn't the only act of terrorism. Bali, London, Madrid, Jerusalem...the list goes on and on. Yet the West does not fully realize the bloodthirsty intentions of the menace of fundamental Islam.

This enemy -- is relentless. It is determined.

Why Does Our Struggle Matter? It Matters Because...

If we don't win the war against Islamofascism other issues won't matter at all.

We won't have an economy to worry about.

We won't have equal rights for all.

We won't have our cherished freedom.

And we will live under Sharia Law.

We Must Win This War

The enemy loves death -- far more than we love life.

The enemy uses children as human bombs, mothers as suicide bombers, men driven by the glory of death and the promise of eternal sexual bliss in heaven...and martyrdom on earth.

This is the enemy reality: murder and death of "infidels" by any means for the glory of Allah.

The pain-rich attack of 9/11 changed most Americans lives forever, but it struck an especially sensitive chord with me. It reminded me that the entire world is under brutal threat and physical attack by the same radical Islamic ideology that massacred “infidels” in Lebanon during the Lebanese Civil War.

The American Congress for Truth (ACT) was formed in June 2002 to clear away the fog of the brutal attack of September 11, 2001. Our purpose is to preserve our cherished values and freedoms.

We can see from history that this is true. We can see that today this is true.

Field burning ruled illegal: Court says it violates Clean Air Act, orders EPA to reconsider rules

After all these decades of field burning, it now is in violation of a 1993 law.

What’s changed?

The following story of interest was in today's Spokesman Review (subscription required).

Grass seed farmers on the Rathdrum Prairie set their fields ablaze every summer, sending plumes of thick smoke into the skies. And the state of Idaho defends the controversial practice.

But the burns actually are illegal under federal law and have been since 1993, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday in a surprise victory for clean-air advocates.

"This decision shows that the handwriting is on the wall for field burning in Idaho," said David Baron, a Washington, D.C., attorney with Earthjustice, which represented Safe Air For Everyone and the American Lung Association of Idaho in the case against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

A unanimous three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in the groups' favor and ordered the EPA to reconsider SAFE's challenge to a 2005 EPA decision approving field-burning in the state.

Chamber to bid farewell to Kimmell

As reported in today's edition of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

The Moscow Chamber of Commerce will have a farewell gathering at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at the Best Western University Inn for Executive Director Paul Kimmell.

One Year Ago Today

As reported in today's edition of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

Moscow City Council members were taken by surprise when about 20 audience members leapt to their feet to recite the Pledge of Allegiance before Mayor Nancy Chaney was able to address the public. The action came after Chaney decided to express patriotism in other ways at the beginning of each council meeting.

And now, with a year under our belts, we can reflect back — removing the symbol of reciting the pledge was a drum beat of things to come.

Chaney’s actions not fair

The following letter to the editor appeared in today’s Moscow-Pullman Daily News:

Most recently, Mayor Nancy Chaney directed Moscow city staff to hassle Latah County over paving a parking lot for the ice rink in the middle of winter, despite the City Council’s objections. Nobody is complaining about the 1912 Center’s lack of a sidewalk, despite the city spending $100,000 per year for the 1912 Center. Is having a paved parking lot that important for the ice rink at this juncture?

For some time, the ice rink has been seeking a permanent location on the fairgrounds or on other sites. Chaney’s hypocrisy and dream-stealing attitudes are once again displayed. Is this fair to our community?

Gerald E. Weitz,
Viola

Aquifers: Study to look at area recharge

As reported in today's edition of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

There may be more than one way to keep water flowing to homes and businesses on the Palouse.

A study to determine the feasibility of pumping water to Kamiak Butte to recharge the area’s aquifers could be an indication of future studies that would be funded by Washington state.

The Washington State Department of Ecology has allocated $170,000 to study the possibility of pumping water from the North Fork of the Palouse River to the south side of Kamiak Butte to let the water seep into the aquifers below.

Groundwater is the primary source for private and municipal water in Whitman and Latah counties. The two aquifers that supply the area’s water have been on a steady decline for the past several decades.

Nuclear Plant in Grangeville

The following editorial by Tom Henderson ran in today's Lewiston Tribune (subscription required).

I wonder if Mayor Chaney would consider a nuclear power plant outside of Moscow as smart growth?

WSU and UI could educate many nuclear engineers for our local area.

An interim legislative committee just released the first update of Idaho's energy plan since 1982. The 93-page document leaves the decision on where to build big power plants to county governments. State agencies would be involved in the decision-making process but wouldn't have final authority.

This makes environmentalists jittery -- especially when a Virginia company wants to build a 1,500-megawatt nuclear reactor in Idaho.

"You've got an anti-coal, anti-conventional coalition that feels if they have a statewide authority, you'll never see a nuclear or a coal power plant in Idaho," says Rep. George Eskridge, R-Dover, co-chairman of the interim committee.

Maybe so, but that avoids the question. Should decisions that affect all of the state be made at the county level? The rest of the West doesn't think so. Washington, Oregon, Montana, California and Arizona all have panels overseeing the siting of power plants.

Idaho jumped into the debate last year after a California utility proposed building a $1.4 billion coal-fueled power plant in Jerome County. The project was tabled when the Legislature passed a two-year moratorium on such plants. But legislators decided to go ahead and revamp the state's energy plan anyway.

No Grandparent Rights

The following letter to the editor appeared in yesterday’s Lewiston Tribune:

This comes from a statist mindset that children belong to the state, and that the state has the overriding claim on their lives.

So, you think you have rights over your grandchildren and great-grandchildren? Well, think again. Our local and state government own them, and they don't let you forget it for one minute.

We acquired our little 3-year-old great-granddaughter last May. The child protection agency in Orofino took her away from her mother and placed her in foster care. She was in a state of panic when we finally got her three months later. We finally took foster parenting classes and got our license to be her foster parent.

Then the harassment began from the Health and Welfare office in Orofino, and it has never ended.

The latest one was that she was to be put in Head Start or else they threatened to come into our home and take her out and put her in a home where she would be placed in Head Start.

She is only 3 1/2 years old, and it's winter time. They said that didn't matter. She doesn't belong to me, and I would do as they told me. She is being treated like a piece of clay that they can do as they please to show me who is boss. I am never sure just when they will call me and demand that I do what they want or else.

What has happened to our freedoms and rights as grandparents? The government has taken over our lives and homes, and we have nothing to say about it.

Josephine Mulalley
Lewiston

Forum at UI tonight to discuss modern slavery

The following article ran in today’s Lewiston Tribune (subscription required).

Modern Day Slavery will be the topic at the University of Idaho's Martin Forum at 7 p.m. tonight in the Student Union Building Ballroom.

Micheline Slattery, a former slave, will be the guest speaker at the event. Slattery was enslaved as a child in Haiti after she had become orphaned. Janie Kiser, a graduate of UI and the program director of American Anti-Slavery Group, will assist Slattery in the talk.

This event is free and open to the public.

Hillary Knows How to ‘Neutralize’ Bad Men

From Scott Ott over at Scrapple Face:

Just a day after laughing along with the crowd at an Iowa campaign stop over a question about how her background prepares her to deal with “evil, bad men” Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, today said such men must be “neutralized” and that she “knows how to do it.”

Despite her laughter about the “bad men” remark, Sen. Clinton said, “I was thinking of no one in particular, but whoever I was not thinking of will eventually pay for his nefarious deeds when I am president.”

Reporters speculated about whether her remarks referred to terror leader Usama Bin Laden, or perhaps even to her husband, former President Bill Clinton who violated their marriage covenant when he sexually abused a young White House intern.

The senator, however, refused to specify and simply said, “I wouldn’t be where I am today if I didn’t know how to neutralize such men.”

“If a bad man knows me at all,” she said, “he knows that I have always been able protect my liberty to pursue my vision for the future and I can do the same for the United States of America when I’m commander in chief.”

The Left's Inquisition. Where's Their Cardinal Fang?

Day By Day© by Chris Muir.

Chamber members deliver requests: Local-option taxes, education top list

The following story of interest was in today's Spokesman Review (subscription required).

BOISE – Chambers of commerce from across Idaho pulled together Monday to ask lawmakers and Gov. Butch Otter to back local-option sales taxes to pay for public transportation, more state investments into science and technology, and an expanded community college system.

Chambers' issues

Here's the initial legislative agenda for the new Idaho Chamber Alliance:
•Expand community college system.
•Tougher math and science requirements for high school graduation.
•Allow local-option sales taxes to fund public transit
•Report retail sales by county or ZIP code.
•More state investment in science and technology.

At a luncheon crowded with chamber members from throughout the state and much of the state Legislature, and headlined by a talk from the governor, the chambers pressed the point that they have a voice to add to the public policy process.

"We represent over 9,000 Idaho businesses. They employ … literally hundreds of thousands of Idahoans," Jonathan Coe, head of the Coeur d'Alene Area Chamber of Commerce and the president of the new Idaho Chamber Alliance, told the crowd of more than 300. The chambers, Coe said, "bring to the dialogue a very important perspective, and we hope we can do a little better job of delivering it than in the past."

The chambers formed the alliance and hired a lobbyist this year, after splitting off from another business lobby, the Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry, which now is focusing on its core business members. Those include some of the largest businesses in the state, mostly based in Boise.

Chambers, Coe said, represent businesses in every community. The alliance, he said, wants to send "a single, unified message … that businesses across the state can support."

The group also backed tougher math and science requirements for high-school graduation, which lawmakers have supported this year.

Sobering words

From a speech in New Hampshire by former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich.

Not a politically correct speech.

The third thing I want to talk about very briefly is the genuine danger of terrorism, in particular terrorists using weapons of mass destruction and weapons of mass murder, nuclear and biological weapons. And I want to suggest to you that right now we should be impaneling people to look seriously at a level of supervision that we would never dream of if it weren't for the scale of threat.

Let me give you two examples. When the British this summer arrested people who were planning to blow up ten airliners in one day, they arrested a couple who were going to use their six month old baby in order to hide the bomb as baby milk.

Now, if I come to you tonight and say that there are people on the planet who hate you, and they are 15-25 year old males who are willing to die as long as they get to kill you, I've simply described the warrior culture which has been true historically for 6 or 7 thousand years.

But, if I come to you and say that there is a couple that hates you so much that they will kill their six month old baby in order to kill you, I am describing a level of ferocity, and a level of savagery beyond anything we have tried to deal with.

And, what is truly frightening about the British experience is they are arresting British citizens, born in Britain, speaking English, who went to British schools, live in British housing, and have good jobs.

This is a serious long term war, and it will inevitably lead us to want to know what is said in every suspect place in the country, that will lead us to learn how to close down every website that is dangerous, and it will lead us to a very severe approach to people who advocate the killing of Americans and advocate the use of nuclear or biological weapons.

And, my prediction to you is that either before we lose a city, or if we are truly stupid, after we lose a city, we will adopt rules of engagement that use every technology we can find to break up their capacity to use the internet, to break up their capacity to use free speech, and to go after people who want to kill us to stop them from recruiting people before they get to reach out and convince young people to destroy their lives while destroying us.

This is a serious problem that will lead to a serious debate about the first amendment, but I think that the national security threat of losing an American city to a nuclear weapon, or losing several million Americans to a biological attack is so real that we need to proactively, now, develop the appropriate rules of engagement.

And, I further think that we should propose a Geneva convention for fighting terrorism which makes very clear that those who would fight outside the rules of law, those who would use weapons of mass destruction, and those who would target civilians are in fact subject to a totally different set of rules that allow us to protect civilization by defeating barbarism before it gains so much strength that it is truly horrendous.

This is a sober topic, but I think it is a topic we need a national dialogue about, and we need to get ahead of the curve rather than wait until actually we literary lose a city which could literally happen within the next decade if we are unfortunate. So

(APPLAUSE)

This is a very sober description of the Islamic terrorist threat we are faced with. We are NOW at war with a culture that wants, not to take over our land, but to KILL us.

Soaking the Rich, Again

More Democrats who have never heard of the Laffer Curve.

From the WSJ Opinion Journal:

Democratic Senator James Webb of Virginia played the class card in his State of the Union response Tuesday night, but he is apparently too new to the job to realize how crucial "the rich" are to his party's spending ambitions.

Data released last week from the Congressional Budget Office confirm that the tax cuts of 2003 keep soaking the rich, especially on their capital gains. CBO and Congress's Joint Tax Committee originally estimated that reducing the capital gains rate to 15% from 20% would cost the Treasury $5.4 billion from 2003-2006.

Whoops. Actual revenues exceeded expectations by 68%, creating a $133 billion revenue bonanza for the feds. CBO's original forecast for 2006 was for $57 billion in capital gains revenues, but actual receipts were $110 billion. This surprise windfall is one reason the budget deficit is also far lower than CBO predicted.

The lower capital gains tax has raised stock values by raising the after-tax return on capital investment. It has also given stock owners a greater incentive to sell their shares, and then reinvest the proceeds, because the tax penalty on these transactions is lower. Class warriors like Mr. Webb often forget that the capital gains tax is voluntary. Investors can defer paying the tax for years by holding on to their stock. This creates what is called the "lock-in effect" that deters an efficient allocation of investment capital.

The 2003 rate cut liberated hundreds of billions of dollars of capital for new investment. By the way, the National Venture Capital Association reports that venture capitalists invested $25.5 billion in 2006, the biggest burst of dealmaking since the stock market bubble burst in 2000. This is seed money for new companies and new jobs that will lift future tax revenues.

A Tale of Two Marches

See:

• FRC Video of Graffiti on Capital Steps
• Anti-war protesters spray paint Capitol building

I’ve asked this question of the Daily News as well — why cover 15 people having a “protest” when there are numerically bigger stories in town.

From the FRC:

What a difference an ideology makes. Last Monday, 200,000 pro-lifers descended on the nation's capital to peacefully protest 34 years of abortion-on-demand. Despite record crowds and a line-up of speakers that included President Bush by phone, the March for Life earned little more than a footnote in the nation's news. Days later, radical anti-war protestors staged a march in Washington that mustered only 10,000, and the event made the front page of nearly every newspaper in America. Yet for all the media the small demonstration received, few news outlets reported the true headline of the day. According to reports, hundreds of demonstrators were allowed to take the steps of the U.S. Capitol during the march and desecrate the property with "anarchist symbols." When police formed a security line to stop them, U.S. Capitol Police Chief Phillip Morse ordered his men to fall back and allow the protestors to "exercise their First Amendment rights" by spray-painting the Capitol grounds with graffiti. One source at the scene said that Morse issued an order that no one was to be arrested for desecrating America's and arguably the world's greatest symbol of democracy. In an e-mail on his actions, Morse writes, "The graffiti was easily removed by the [Architect of the Capitol] staff... It is [our] duty and responsibility to protect the Capitol complex, while allowing the public to exercise their [freedom of speech]." Imagine the response had Christians "trespassed" onto this public property and prayed for our leaders! I dare say the outcome would have been quite different. Unlike last Monday's peaceful pro-life protest, this mob of liberals was given access and leniency to commit criminal acts on government property. This special treatment is unacceptable. The Capitol Chief of Police reports directly to the Speaker of the House, a title which now belongs to one of the demonstrators' most outspoken allies, Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). Surely, the tens of millions of dollars the American people have invested in the security of their Capitol means there is videotape that will assist in the identification and arrest of the perpetrators. Speaker Pelosi should direct that investigation and prosecution go forward.

Tax Bracket Changes for 2006 Returns

To keep pace with inflation, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has revised a variety of tax provisions for 2006.

See: http://www.irs.gov/formspubs/article/0,,id=150856,00.html

By Shutting Down Others, Liberals Own the Whole Marketplace of Ideas

Day By Day© by Chris Muir.

Saudi appeals court upholds enforced divorce

Dedicated to Nick Gier, who still cannot tell the difference.

From Reuters:

RIYADH, Jan 28 — A Saudi couple have been forced to divorce against their will by a top court because of arcane tribal customs which allowed the woman's family to seek a split, the pair's lawyer said on Sunday.

Abdul-Rahman Al-Lahem said the court had upheld a ruling from a lower court and backed the divorce on the basis of the man's family background.

"The appeals court in Riyadh has supported the divorce because of 'inappropriate lineage'," he said in a statement.

The family of the Saudi woman, called Fatima, began legal action in 2005, saying her husband was not of sufficiently prestigious tribal stock to marry her, and had lied about his tribal background.

The woman and her two children were imprisoned for refusing to return to her family's custody after the lower court first annulled the marriage. Custom in the conservative kingdom requires women to live with their families until marriage.

Saudi Arabia rules by an austere school of Islamic law often termed Wahhabism, and judges in family courts are themselves Wahhabi religious scholars.

Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia

Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia.

Say that three times quickly.

Bird flu attracts less attention, but it hasn't gone away

The following article ran in today’s Lewiston Tribune (subscription required).

Bird flu has faded from the news to a large extent. This is not because of any conspiracy in news agencies and syndicates, reporters and editors, or the media in general to keep you from knowing about it.

Most of us get our news from television, radio, and newspapers and magazines. To survive, these businesses must attract an audience. The news you see is to a large extent what they think will attract the audience that will motivate their sponsors to give them money.

They have to sift through a huge volume of news every day and decide what has enough importance, entertainment value, and shock value. Bird flu just hasn't made the cut very often lately.

In 2006 thousands of birds in Europe died from bird flu, and they have found several cats that died from bird flu. Most of the cats apparently contracted the disease from eating dead or dying birds that were infected with bird flu, but some cats in Austria died in a shelter that had previously been used to house chickens that had the flu. According to the European Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the cats might have died from bird flu contracted from the chickens.

On that note, here’s a bird flu update. It’s not really been out of the news. You just have to look for it:

• Japan confirms third bird flu outbreak: Japan confirmed another outbreak of bird flu at a poultry farm and further tests will be carried out to check for the presence of the H5N1 strain, the agriculture ministry said on Monday.
• Japan says bird flu outbreak from H5N1 strain: An outbreak of bird flu at a poultry farm in southwestern Japan was caused by the H5N1 strain of the virus, farm ministry officials said on Saturday, confirming the second such case in Japan this month.
• Indonesia on highest alert over bird flu: JAKARTA - Indonesia is doing all it can to fight bird flu, the welfare minister said on Friday, a day after officials announced the country's 63rd death from the virus.
• Suspected bird flu case in Azerbaijan: BAKU - Health authorities in Azerbaijan are treating a 14-year-old boy for suspected bird flu, the Health Ministry said on Thursday.
• Six year-old Indonesian girl dies of bird flu: JAKARTA - A six year-old Indonesian girl who died six days ago had bird flu, an official at the health ministry said on Thursday, taking the country's death toll from the disease to 63.

Moscow Mayor Calls Gay Pride Parade Satanic

Imagine the firestorm that would occur if this were said in the "Land of the Free, and the home of the Depraved."

From Moscow News:

Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov said Monday he would never allow a gay parade to take place in Moscow despite pressure from the West, Russia’s RIA-Novosti news agency reports.

“Last year, Moscow came under unprecedented pressure to sanction the gay parade, which can be described in no other way than as Satanic,” Luzhkov said at the 15th Christmas educational readings in the Kremlin Palace.

“We did not let the parade take place then, and we are not going to allow it in the future,” said Luzhkov who has been in office since 1992.

HT: RFB

Hollywood moguls abandon Hillary

From ABC News:

For $2,300 a person and $4600 a couple, they can meet the candidate at a reception at the Beverly Hilton Hotel...Those who commit to raising $46,000 (10 couples/20 tickets) for the evening will be invited to a private dinner at Geffen's Malibu, Calif., home.

The fundraiser represents a major slap for Obama's main competitor, Sen. Hillary Clinton, who has received financial support from all three moguls in the past. Their company, Dreamworks SKG, has contributed $47,000 to Clinton since her 2000 New York Senate campaign. Spielberg alone has contributed $11,000 to Clinton since that campaign.

Does this mean that Hollywood is abandoning Hillary in favor of Obama?

HT: WorldMagBlog

Saudi police 'stopped' fire rescue

Dedicated to Nick Gier, who still cannot tell the difference.

Here’s the most visible example of the differences between Islam and Christianity — the way that each religion treats women.

You can read about it over at Mutaween and The Religious Policeman.

From BBC News back in 2002:

Saudi Arabia's religious police stopped schoolgirls from leaving a blazing building because they were not wearing correct Islamic dress, according to Saudi newspapers.

…

About 800 pupils were inside the school in the holy city of Mecca when the tragedy occurred.

In March 2002, fifteen girls were killed (and more than 50 injured) in a fire at their school in Mecca. Because only women were in the school, they had shed their outer garments, and when the fire broke out, they fled the building in that condition. The Saudi religious police (the muttawa) fought to chase them back into the burning building, preferring their deaths to any public displays of immodesty. The muttawa battled the police and firemen who were trying to get the school's doors open.

According to the al-Eqtisadiah daily, firemen confronted police after they tried to keep the girls inside because they were not wearing the headscarves and abayas (black robes) required by the kingdom's strict interpretation of Islam.

One witness said he saw three policemen "beating young girls to prevent them from leaving the school because they were not wearing the abaya".

The Saudi Gazette quoted witnesses as saying that the police - known as the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice - had stopped men who tried to help the girls and warned "it is a sinful to approach them".

The father of one of the dead girls said that the school watchman even refused to open the gates to let the girls out.

"Lives could have been saved had they not been stopped by members of the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice," the newspaper concluded.

After being gang raped by her village elders, Mukhtar fought back

Dedicated to Nick Gier, who still cannot tell the difference.

Mukhtar Mai's story is as horrific as it is simple, and it is quickly told. On June 22, 2002, the council of her tiny village, on the southern fringes of the Punjab in Pakistan, ordered that she be gang raped as a punishment for an offence supposedly committed by her 12-year-old brother.
  
At gunpoint she was taken into a stable. Her clothes were ripped off and she was violated by four village elders. The ordeal lasted about half an hour and, when it was over, she was dragged out, semi-naked, in front of all the village men. Her father covered her with a shawl and carried her home.

Mukhtar, who is also known as Mukhtaran Bibi, should then have killed herself. That was the custom. But such was her sense of outrage and injustice that she refused to commit suicide; and that act of defiance started a sequence of events that turned her into an international cause célèbre, who was first praised and then condemned by Pakistan's president, Gen Pervez Musharraf.

Mukhtar, an illiterate peasant, is an unlikely heroine. The crime committed against her is not uncommon in an area benighted by poverty, acts of brutality against women and the rule of thuggish overlords.

There is no clearer difference between Islam and Christianity than their treatment of women.

Some quotes from the Koran may help:

• "Men have authority over women because God has made the one superior to the other . . . Good women are obedient . . . As for those from whom you fear disobedience, admonish them, forsake them in beds apart, and beat them. Then if they obey you, take no further action against them" (Surah 4: 34).
• Two women are required to serve as witnesses comparable to one man (Surah 2:282). To show why this is true, one hadith puts it this way: "The Prophet said, 'Isn't the witness of a woman equal to half of that of a man?' The women said, 'Yes.' He said, 'This is because of the deficiency of a woman's mind.'"
• "If you fear that you cannot treat orphans with fairness, then you may marry other women who seem good to you: two, three, or four of them. But if you fear that you cannot maintain equality among them, marry only or any slave-girls you may own" (Surah 4:3). Note that it is the weaker man who is not up to polygamy.
• The doctrine of multiple companions for Muslim men in Paradise. "Gardens watered by running streams, where they shall dwell forever: spouses of perfect chastity . . ." (Surah 3:15ff).

Gier needs to get out more if he cannot tell the difference between Islam and Christianity.

Residents squabble over the future of this quaint rural community: Part 3

The following article ran in yesterday’s Lewiston Tribune (subscription required).

This is a huge article (in all respects). I’m going to pick and choose some choice sections and comments.

When “smart-growth” is indistinguishable from “no-growth” then it is “anti-growth.”

Enter Wal-Mart, the corporate behemoth that became a touchstone for the growth debate here nearly two years ago when plans for a super center were announced.

"I'm not a Wal-Mart defender per se," says Busch, "but I know we've had a free-market economy in the United States that's worked pretty well for more than 200 years. And if the business climate in Moscow is such that the biggest retailer in the world wants to locate here, that's the way it is."

Livingston counters that Wal-Mart in a super-size portion would mark the beginning of the end of Moscow's small-town character.

"There certainly are some people who don't want a Wal-Mart at all, but I'm not one of them," Livingston says. "However, I'm not sure you need a super center." [DMC: Notice the implicit statist mindset: “we” (MCA) decide what businesses should and should not come to Moscow. MCA doesn’t want James Toyota to expand. So force them across the state line.]

The proposed site for the super center and possibly other big-box stores is in the southeastern corner of town, across State Highway 8 from the Moscow Cemetery.

"Over their dead bodies," people organized against the Wal-Mart-anchored development seemed to say. A "No Super Wal-Mart" group was organized, a required zoning change was shot down and the big retailer at this time seems focused on locating in neighboring Pullman where the city council, to this point, has left the welcome mat out.

Meanwhile, members of the Moscow Planning and Zoning Commission on Wednesday voted to recommend a 130,000-square-foot cap on retail stores; a proposal that if adopted by the city council will effectively prohibit most big-box stores. A public hearing on the matter has been scheduled for Feb. 28. It promises to be an airing of ideas by PIMBYs, CAVE people and everyone in between.

Busch and Comstock warn that Moscow has an ever-growing reputation of being anti-business and Chaney recently reinforced the reputation by writing letters of concern about developments across the border in Washington.

"I think it's legal for her to do that," says Comstock, "but I disagree with it. I think the mayor has gone a little bit too far."

Chaney defends questioning the proposed 110-acre Hawkins Co.'s shopping center and an automobile dealership within a mile of Moscow city limits as prudent, if not necessary. "I had the council's full support to do that," she says of her letters addressed to Whitman County Planner Mark Bordsen.

Moscow Chamber of Commerce President Mike Nelson last week sided with Busch and Comstock.

"We must commit to eliminating any obstacles in the way of building true long-term regional economic cooperation," Nelson wrote in a letter-of-concern to Chaney in which he expressed "disappointment" with the mayor's cross-border intervention.

Bordsen, after reviewing all of Chaney's comments, decided none of them raised issues worthy of changing his initial approval of the development plans.

Chaney, who holds a master's degree in environmental science from the University of Idaho, suggests that growth and development should be tethered, rather than given a free rein.

"I am vocal and trying to make it clear that the green light is on for development in Moscow within the principals of smart growth."

Jim Anderson, vice chairman of the GMA, a local businessman and a former city council member, doesn't buy Chaney's pitch. "What she's doing is making us look like a bunch of jerks over here. I don't think she's stating the opinion of most people in the city of Moscow."

Anderson also chastises a majority of the city council.

"They're quoting smart growth, which equates to no growth. I think the present council has demonstrated that they're not in favor of growth. I don't care what they say, that reputation is there."