Take From The Poor, Give To The Middle Class

Captain's Quarters: Take From The Poor, Give To The Middle Class

"As passed by the House, the State Children's Health Insurance Program,
known as SCHIP, will create a major new middle-class entitlement even as we face
looming national bankruptcy from our $50.5 trillion (yes, you read that number
right) in planned spending under Social Security and Medicare. Today, some 6.6
million kids are covered under SCHIP, at a cost of about $25 billion over five
years. The new bill raises that to 9 million kids covered, at a cost of $60
billion. It pays for it with a 61-cent hike in the tobacco tax. Sounds good,
except that tax will hit the poor hardest. And those it helps are not poor.
Under the new bill, families earning $83,000 a year could be eligible. If this
bill were targeted at the poor, President Bush and the Republicans wouldn't
oppose it. But it isn't. It's a new, radically expanded middle-class
entitlement."

I don't know that I feel like I want to take a stand on this issue. There are a number of parts of this bill that appeal to me. What does not appeal to me though, is the nature of the debate as it has been put forward by the democrats. It is the mean Republicans who don't want to provide health care to children versus the gentle Democrats. The facts are not that simple and clean cut. Another source of funding for this program has been reported to be a cut back in medical spending on the elderly.

Randi Rhodes joined by Melissa Etheridge

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Newt Gingrich Running For President, Maybe, But Probably Not

Chairman Chris Van Hollen Condemns Rush Limbaugh's Outrageous Comment that Soldiers Who Support Withdrawing From Iraq Are "Phony Soldiers"

The Stakeholder::: Chairman Chris Van Hollen Condemns Rush Limbaugh's Outrageous Comment that Soldiers Who Support Withdrawing From Iraq Are "Phony Soldiers"

"CALLER: No, it's not, and what's really funny is, they never talk to real
soldiers. They like to pull these soldiers that come up out of the blue and talk
to the media. LIMBAUGH: The phony soldiers. CALLER: The phony soldiers. If you
talk to a real soldier, they are proud to serve. They want to be over in Iraq.
They understand their sacrifice, and they're willing to sacrifice for their
country. LIMBAUGH: They joined to be in Iraq. They joined -- CALLER: A lot of
them -- the new kids, yeah. LIMBAUGH: Well, you know where you're going these
days, the last four years, if you signed up. The odds are you're going there or
Afghanistan or somewhere.CALLER: No, it's not, and what's really funny is, they
never talk to real soldiers. They like to pull these soldiers that come up out
of the blue and talk to the media. LIMBAUGH: The phony soldiers. CALLER: The
phony soldiers. If you talk to a real soldier, they are proud to serve. They
want to be over in Iraq. They understand their sacrifice, and they're willing to
sacrifice for their country. LIMBAUGH: They joined to be in Iraq. They joined --
CALLER: A lot of them -- the new kids, yeah. LIMBAUGH: Well, you know where
you're going these days, the last four years, if you signed up. The odds are
you're going there or Afghanistan or somewhere."

Clearly in Limbaugh's view of the world there are two kinds of soldiers. One that accepts the views of the president and the right on the war, and bad soldiers. This is highly insulting to the troops, claiming that if they don't stand the party line when they come home from Iraq, that some how they are not real soldiers. I think the contrary is true, it takes a real solider to come home from a war, and speak what they view to be the truth of that war.

£10 000 coin domino effect

Glenn Beck CNN Headline News- Ahmedinejad Visit

Just What They Needed: US plans $2.3bn Arms Sale to Iraq | Air America Radio

Just What They Needed: US plans $2.3bn Arms Sale to Iraq Air America Radio:

"In what is seen as a “brilliant” move, the US is ready to sell Iraq up to $2.3
billion of weapons to help the Iraq army grow. The Defence Security Co-operation
Agency (DSCA) statement read, 'This expansion will enable Iraq to equip new
forces to assume the missions currently accomplished by US and coalition forces
and to sustain themselves in their efforts to bring stability to the country.”"

I'm confused, the left want us to leave Iraq. They want Iraq to stand up and defend itself. They just don't want us to to sell them any arms to help them do it. Where does this strained logic come from?

A Tiny Revolution: Hillary Clinton Would Like To Take This Opportunity To Spit In Our Face Just One More Time

A Tiny Revolution: Hillary Clinton Would Like To Take This Opportunity To Spit In Our Face Just One More Time:

"CLINTON: [W]e don't have as much information as we wish we did. But what we
think we know is that with North Korean help, both financial and technical and
material, the Syrians apparently were putting together, and perhaps over some
period of years, a nuclear facility, and the Israelis took it out. I strongly
support that...there was evidence of a North Korea freighter coming in with
supplies. There was intelligence and other kinds of verification."

Hilary makes a strong statement.

"OBAMA: Now, we don't know exactly what happened with respect to Syria . We've
gotten general reports, but we don't know all the specifics. We got general
reports in the run-up to the Iraq war that proved erroneous, and a lot of people
voted for that war as a consequence."

Obama makes a weak one.

MiniMediaGuy » Blog Archive » Nonprofit journalism no panacea for nation of digital idiots; still, see leads to grant $$$ below.

MiniMediaGuy » Blog Archive » Nonprofit journalism no panacea for nation of digital idiots; still, see leads to grant $$$ below.:

"That’s why I want to keep journalism in the marketplace, which provides some
immediate feedback as to whether or not the audience is consuming the knowledge.
To “preserve” journalism in a foundation setting would be to consign it to
irrelevancy. It would not learn the skill of engaging with its time-strapped,
short-attention-span audience. Journalism would become the tree that fell in the
forest but went unheard."

Click on the link, read the whole article. Those who think that journalism can't survive in the market don't understand that it can't survive without a market.

'The View' to Dump Shepherd Over 'Conservative Religious' Views? | NewsBusters.org

'The View' to Dump Shepherd Over 'Conservative Religious' Views? NewsBusters.org:

"While Rosie got well over a year to spout her anti-American, anti-Bush
garbage before the folks at The View finally got motivated to dump her for a new
hostess, it looks like the new gal isn't as lucky. What seems to have disgusted
'The View's' backstage handlers this time is a perceived 'conservative' doubting
of evolution in favor of a religious viewpoint that Sherri Shepherd recently
revealed in one of her early appearances. "

She should be dumped because she is stupid. That has nothing to do with her beliefs, and if they were going to can someone for being conservative, wouldn't Elisabeth be in trouble? No, Sherri just doesn't have what it takes to keep up if you ask me.

Bill Clinton’s ‘Squinting Two-Minutes Hate’ on CNN | NewsBusters.org

Bill Clinton’s ‘Squinting Two-Minutes Hate’ on CNN NewsBusters.org:

"This was classic bait-and-switch.... These Republicans that are all upset about
Petraeus - this is one newspaper ad. These are the people that ran a television
ad in Georgia with Max Cleland, who lost half his body in Vietnam – in the same
ad, with Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. That’s what the Republicans did.'
Clinton also brought up the 'Swift Boat' attack on John Kerry during the 2004
presidential campaign. 'These are the people that funded the Swift Boat Veterans
For Truth. And the President appointed one of the principal funders of the Swift
Boat ads to be an ambassador. But they’re really upset about Petraeus. But it
was ok to question John Kerry’s patriotism on the blatantly dishonest claims by
people that [sic] didn’t what they were talking about.'"

The Republicans do not have the strongest leg to stand on when it comes to these matters.

NPR Rebuffs White House On Bush Talk - washingtonpost.com

NPR Rebuffs White House On Bush Talk - washingtonpost.com:

"'We thought this would be a good opportunity for the president to sit down with
someone and have a broader conversation about race relations,' Perino said. 'The
president has talked with Juan before and we know him well. He's active in
trying to keep good relations with us. . . . We could have done a print
interview, but I felt I wanted people to hear the president's voice.' Williams
called his bosses, who expressed concern that the only interview Bush has
granted NPR during his tenure was also with Williams, in January. "

I understand the concern of NPR, about not giving control of its news function to much over to the news makers. In this case though the balance appears to have been lost, the interview would have been good for the network, and it may have reached an audience that missed it on Fox News. The interview was carried out on Fox News, which was a bonus for Fox, it gets to come off as open to NPR being closed. The network should have allowed the interview.