Phyrfight Intel

Documentary

Martyn Burke says that the Public Broadcasting Service and project managers at station WETA in Washington, D.C., excluded his documentary, Islam vs. Islamists, from the series America at a Crossroads after he refused to fire two co-producers affiliated with a conservative think tank. “I was ordered to fire my two partners (who brought me into this project) on political grounds,” Burke said in a complaint letter to PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which supplied funds for the films.

From: Neal Boortz

… A task force appointed by the Mayor has determined that Atlanta needs a cultural investment fund in the amount of at least $10 million that will provide money to artists, arts organizations and what it refers to as “cultural organizations.” The suggestion is that there should be a tax on businesses operating in Atlanta to provide the funds. The story in this morning’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution says that “Many of those who work in the arts in Atlanta said they hope to see some progress on arts funding soon.”

At this point you shouldn’t need a translation of that quote from the AJC. But then again, many of you went to government schools, so I’ll provide that translation for you. Many of the people in the arts community in Atlanta remain frustrated by the fact that Atlanta residents will not voluntarily pay for their art. So, of the Atlanta residents won’t voluntarily buy their art, the government should step in and make them buy the art by seizing their money and transferring that money to artists and arts organizations.

And what about this idea of placing a special tax on Atlanta businesses? What we have here is the arts community taking advantage of the ignorance of our government-educated residents. They know that many people think that if the tax is placed on the businesses this means that the rank and file Atlantans won’t be paying for the art. Sadly, they’re possibly right. Our education is so pathetic that most people can’t noodle out the fact that all taxes paid by businesses are passed on to the consumers of whatever service or goods they sell.

Every political leader on every issue.

http://www.ontheissues.org

It must be very “inconvenient” for Al Gore that people insist on debating the merits of his claims. Isn’t this the guy that also claimed to have invented the Internet?

From Best of the Web

Here we have a major American politician who is calling for policies that would impose huge costs on society but appears to be profiting handsomely himself; who is leading an extravagant lifestyle while demanding sacrifices from ordinary people; and who is calling on the media to suppress the views of those with whom he disagrees, while at the same time urging more government regulation in the name of “fairness” to his partisan and ideological allies.

Why is it left to think tanks and bloggers to investigate and expose all this? Why aren’t the mainstream media all over the story? Could it be . . . bias?

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Don’t spend your money with corporations who invest in state sponsors of terrorism. The Center for Security Policy is dedicated to informing the public on which companies do and do not invest in hostile governments. The best way for the public to voice its opinion in a capitalistic society is with its money.

The Washington Post has a great site where they keep track of every vote in the House of Representatives and the Senate. The site even has an RSS feed for each member of congress.

By George F. Will
Newsweek

… Over the millennia, the planet has warmed and cooled for reasons that are unclear but clearly were unrelated to SUVs. Was life better when ice a mile thick covered Chicago? Was it worse when Greenland was so warm that Vikings farmed there? Are we sure the climate at this particular moment is exactly right, and that it must be preserved, no matter the cost?

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Am I the only one that thinks this could be a really bad idea?
From New Scientist:

“Could there be forbidden sequences in the genome – ones so harmful that they are not compatible with life?…

Whether these sequences have any biological significance in living organisms is not yet known – the next step is to test 20 of the peptoprimes in bacteria and human cells to see whether they have any effect such as causing death or provoking an immune reaction.”

The head of C-SPAN has asked Nacy Pelosi, the incoming leader of the House of Representatives to allow more freedom to the cameras inside the House.

“In a Dec. 14 letter, C-SPAN CEO and Chairman Brian Lamb asked Pelosi to roll back the three-decade old practice that put the House Speaker in charge of the cameras.”

It was brought to my attention recently that former president Clinton signed a presidential directive that is in direct violation of the Constitution. So naturally, me being me, I did not take the person’s word and looked it up myself. After reading the directive I have come to agree with said person. To be more specific the presidential directive violates the first paragraph of Article 2 Section 2 which states:

The President shall be commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states, when called into the actual service of the United States; he may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices, and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.

But don’t take my word for it, check it out yourself.

Many Iraqi leaders are upset over the recently released Iraq Study Group Report. They fear that the report will lead to a stronger move to leave that country before the Iraqis themselves have everything under control. The Iraqis want us there, end of story.

It looks like the Democrats are about to severely cut spending on missile defense. This comes as North Korea has recently tested a mid-range ICBM and Iran is working on missile technology as well. I can’t understand this kind of reasoning, if in fact that’s what you could call it.

From: Bob Ray Sanders

“Kinky Friedman, one of the independent candidates running for governor of Texas, supposedly is in hot water these days because of some racially insensitive statements he has made in the past…

…Kinky’s recent poll numbers have dropped a little, and some folks believe – actually some Democratic leaders are hoping – that he is about to self-destruct because of his “racist” views.

Come on, y’all. There may be plenty of reasons not to vote for Kinky Friedman, but his being a racist is not one of them, mainly because he is not.

As far as I can tell, Kinky – the guy who once led a group called the Texas Jewboys – is a lot of things, but he is no bigot.”

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From: NewsMax.com

According to a new study by the Cato Institute’s Radley Balko SWAT teams are increasingly being used to take down small time drug offenders. These take downs are resulting in incidents of violence that don’t need to take place.

Cato is one of my favorite organizations, because they truly stand for all things libertarian.

Check out a review of Radley Balko’s book concerning the same subject, Overkill.

I’ve added a category called “Our Money” dedicated to government waste and how our tax money is spent.

The first post is from Forbes via Britt.

Rx For Fraud

“Government spending on power wheelchairs climbed 450% between 1999 and 2003, to $1.2 billion. A report released last year by Health & Human Services’ inspector general found that only 13% of those it surveyed who got the most popular wheelchair met the Medicare coverage requirements. This is what happens when someone is spending other people’s money.

The four contractors that process Medicare’s wheelchair claims–Palmetto GBA, Cigna HealthCare, AdminaStar Federal and HealthNow New York–saw a spurt in spending as early as 1997, but the office that runs Medicare and Medicaid did not lead a coordinated response until 2003, says the Government Accountability Office.

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