Economists Against Stimulus - Cato Institute

Economists Against Stimulus
by CATO Institute
Issue 127 - March 4, 2009

"There is no disagreement that we need action by our government,
a recovery plan that will help to jumpstart the economy."

— PRESIDENT-ELECT BARACK OBAMA, JANUARY 9, 2009

With all due respect Mr. President, that is not true.

Notwithstanding reports that all economists are now Keynesians and that we all support a big increase in the burden of government, we do not believe that more government spending is a way to improve economic performance. More government spending by Hoover and Roosevelt did not pull the United States economy out of the Great Depression in the 1930s. More government spending did not solve Japan's "lost decade" in the 1990s. As such, it is a triumph of hope over experience to believe that more government spending will help the U.S. today. To improve the economy, policy makers should focus on reforms that remove impediments to work, saving, investment and production. Lower tax rates and a reduction in the burden of government are the best ways of using fiscal policy to boost growth.

• Burton Abrams, Univ. of Delaware
• Douglas Adie, Ohio University
• Ryan Amacher, Univ. of Texas at Arlington
• J.J. Arias, Georgia College & State University
• Howard Baetjer, Jr., Towson University
• Stacie Beck, Univ. of Delaware
• Don Bellante, Univ. of South Florida
• James Bennett, George Mason University
• Bruce Benson, Florida State University
• Sanjai Bhagat, Univ. of Colorado at Boulder
• Mark Bils, Univ. of Rochester
• Alberto Bisin, New York University
• Walter Block, Loyola University New Orleans
• Cecil Bohanon, Ball State University
• Michele Boldrin, Washington University in St. Louis
• Donald Booth, Chapman University
• Michael Bordo, Rutgers University
• Samuel Bostaph, Univ. of Dallas
• Scott Bradford, Brigham Young University
• Genevieve Briand, Eastern Washington University
• George Brower, Moravian College
• James Buchanan, Nobel laureate
• Richard Burdekin, Claremont McKenna College
• Henry Butler, Northwestern University
• William Butos, Trinity College
• Peter Calcagno, College of Charleston
• Bryan Caplan, George Mason University
• Art Carden, Rhodes College
• James Cardon, Brigham Young University
• Dustin Chambers, Salisbury University
• Emily Chamlee-Wright, Beloit College
• V.V. Chari, Univ. of Minnesota
• Barry Chiswick, Univ. of Illinois at Chicago
• Lawrence Cima, John Carroll University
• J.R. Clark, Univ. of Tennessee at Chattanooga
• Gian Luca Clementi, New York University
• R. Morris Coats, Nicholls State University
• John Cochran, Metropolitan State College
• John Cochrane, Univ. of Chicago
• John Cogan, Hoover Institution, Stanford University
• John Coleman, Duke University
• Boyd Collier, Tarleton State University
• Robert Collinge, Univ. of Texas at San Antonio
• Lee Coppock, Univ. of Virginia
• Mario Crucini, Vanderbilt University
• Christopher Culp, Univ. of Chicago
• Kirby Cundiff, Northeastern State University
• Antony Davies, Duquesne University
• John Dawson, Appalachian State University
• Clarence Deitsch, Ball State University
• Arthur Diamond, Jr., Univ. of Nebraska at Omaha
• John Dobra, Univ. of Nevada, Reno
• James Dorn, Towson University
• Christopher Douglas, Univ. of Michigan, Flint
• Floyd Duncan, Virginia Military Institute
• Francis Egan, Trinity College
• John Egger, Towson University
• Kenneth Elzinga, Univ. of Virginia
• Paul Evans, Ohio State University
• Eugene Fama, Univ. of Chicago
• W. Ken Farr, Georgia College & State University
• Hartmut Fischer, Univ. of San Francisco
• Fred Foldvary, Santa Clara University
• Murray Frank, Univ. of Minnesota
• Peter Frank, Wingate University
• Timothy Fuerst, Bowling Green State University
• B. Delworth Gardner, Brigham Young University
• John Garen, Univ. of Kentucky
• Rick Geddes, Cornell University
• Aaron Gellman, Northwestern University
• William Gerdes, Clarke College
• Michael Gibbs, Univ. of Chicago
• Stephan Gohmann, Univ. of Louisville
• Rodolfo Gonzalez, San Jose State University
• Richard Gordon, Penn State University
• Peter Gordon, Univ. of Southern California
• Ernie Goss, Creighton University
• Paul Gregory, Univ. of Houston
• Earl Grinols, Baylor University
• Daniel Gropper, Auburn University
• R.W. Hafer, Southern Illinois
• University, Edwardsville
• Arthur Hall, Univ. of Kansas
• Steve Hanke, Johns Hopkins
• Stephen Happel, Arizona State University
• Frank Hefner, College of Charleston
• Ronald Heiner, George Mason University
• David Henderson, Hoover Institution, Stanford University
• Robert Herren, North Dakota State University
• Gailen Hite, Columbia University
• Steven Horwitz, St. Lawrence University
• John Howe, Univ. of Missouri, Columbia
• Jeffrey Hummel, San Jose State University
• Bruce Hutchinson, Univ. of Tennessee at Chattanooga
• Brian Jacobsen, Wisconsin Lutheran College
• Jason Johnston, Univ. of Pennsylvania
• Boyan Jovanovic, New York University
• Jonathan Karpoff, Univ. of Washington
• Barry Keating, Univ. of Notre Dame
• Naveen Khanna, Michigan State University
• Nicholas Kiefer, Cornell University
• Daniel Klein, George Mason University
• Paul Koch, Univ. of Kansas
• Narayana Kocherlakota, Univ. of Minnesota
• Marek Kolar, Delta College
• Roger Koppl, Fairleigh Dickinson University
• Kishore Kulkarni, Metropolitan State College of Denver
• Deepak Lal, UCLA
• George Langelett, South Dakota State University
• James Larriviere, Spring Hill College
• Robert Lawson, Auburn University
• John Levendis, Loyola University New Orleans
• David Levine, Washington University in St. Louis
• Peter Lewin, Univ. of Texas at Dallas
• Dean Lillard, Cornell University
• Zheng Liu, Emory University
• Alan Lockard, Binghampton University
• Edward Lopez, San Jose State University
• John Lunn, Hope College
• Glenn MacDonald, Washington
• University in St. Louis
• Michael Marlow, California
• Polytechnic State University
• Deryl Martin, Tennessee Tech University
• Dale Matcheck, Northwood University
• Deirdre McCloskey, Univ. of Illinois, Chicago
• John McDermott, Univ. of South Carolina
• Joseph McGarrity, Univ. of Central Arkansas
• Roger Meiners, Univ. of Texas at Arlington
• Allan Meltzer, Carnegie Mellon University
• John Merrifield, Univ. of Texas at San Antonio
• James Miller III, George Mason University
• Jeffrey Miron, Harvard University
• Thomas Moeller, Texas Christian University
• John Moorhouse, Wake Forest University
• Andrea Moro, Vanderbilt University
• Andrew Morriss, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• Michael Munger, Duke University
• Kevin Murphy, Univ. of Southern California
• Richard Muth, Emory University
• Charles Nelson, Univ. of Washington
• Seth Norton, Wheaton College
• Lee Ohanian, Univ. of California, Los Angeles
• Lydia Ortega, San Jose State University
• Evan Osborne, Wright State University
• Randall Parker, East Carolina University
• Donald Parsons, George Washington University
• Sam Peltzman, Univ. of Chicago
• Mark Perry, Univ. of Michigan, Flint
• Christopher Phelan, Univ. of Minnesota
• Gordon Phillips, Univ. of Maryland
• Michael Pippenger, Univ. of Alaska, Fairbanks
• Tomasz Piskorski, Columbia University
• Brennan Platt, Brigham Young University
• Joseph Pomykala, Towson University
• William Poole, Univ. of Delaware
• Barry Poulson, Univ. of Colorado at Boulder
• Benjamin Powell, Suffolk University
• Edward Prescott, Nobel laureate
• Gary Quinlivan, Saint Vincent College
• Reza Ramazani, Saint Michael's College
• Adriano Rampini, Duke University
• Eric Rasmusen, Indiana University
• Mario Rizzo, New York University
• Richard Roll, Univ. of California, Los Angeles
• Robert Rossana, Wayne State University
• James Roumasset, Univ. of Hawaii at Manoa
• John Rowe, Univ. of South Florida
• Charles Rowley, George Mason University
• Juan Rubio-Ramirez, Duke University
• Roy Ruffin, Univ. of Houston
• Kevin Salyer, Univ. of California, Davis
• Pavel Savor, Univ. of Pennsylvania
• Ronald Schmidt, Univ. of Rochester
• Carlos Seiglie, Rutgers University
• William Shughart II, Univ. of Mississippi
• Charles Skipton, Univ. of Tampa
• James Smith, Western Carolina University
• Vernon Smith, Nobel laureate
• Lawrence Southwick, Jr., Univ. at Buffalo
• Dean Stansel, Florida Gulf Coast University
• Houston Stokes, Univ. of Illinois at Chicago
• Brian Strow, Western Kentucky University
• Shirley Svorny, California State
• University, Northridge
• John Tatom, Indiana State University
• Wade Thomas, State University of New York at Oneonta
• Henry Thompson, Auburn University
• Alex Tokarev, The King's College
• Edward Tower, Duke University
• Leo Troy, Rutgers University
• David Tuerck, Suffolk University
• Charlotte Twight, Boise State University
• Kamal Upadhyaya, Univ. of New Haven
• Charles Upton, Kent State University
• T. Norman Van Cott, Ball State University
• Richard Vedder, Ohio University
• Richard Wagner, George Mason University
• Douglas M. Walker, College of Charleston
• Douglas O. Walker, Regent University
• Christopher Westley, Jacksonville State University
• Lawrence White, Univ. of Missouri at St. Louis
• Walter Williams, George Mason University
• Doug Wills, Univ. of Washington Tacoma
• Dennis Wilson, Western Kentucky University
• Gary Wolfram, Hillsdale College
• Huizhong Zhou, Western Michigan University

Additional economists who have signed the statement

• Lee Adkins, Oklahoma State University
• William Albrecht, Univ. of Iowa
• Donald Alexander, Western Michigan University
• Geoffrey Andron, Austin Community College
• Nathan Ashby, Univ. of Texas at El Paso
• George Averitt, Purdue North Central University
• Charles Baird, California State University, East Bay
• Timothy Bastian, Creighton University
• Joe Bell, Missouri State University, Springfield
• John Bethune, Barton College
• Robert Bise, Orange Coast College
• Karl Borden, University of Nebraska
• Donald Boudreaux, George Mason University
• Ivan Brick, Rutgers University
• Phil Bryson, Brigham Young University
• Richard Burkhauser, Cornell University
• Edwin Burton, Univ. of Virginia
• Jim Butkiewicz, Univ. of Delaware
• Richard Cebula, Armstrong Atlantic State University
• Don Chance, Louisiana State University
• Robert Chatfield, Univ. of Nevada, Las Vegas
• Lloyd Cohen, George Mason University
• Peter Colwell, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• Michael Connolly, Univ. of Miami
• Jim Couch, Univ. of North Alabama
• Eleanor Craig, Univ. of Delaware
• Michael Daniels, Columbus State University
• A. Edward Day, Univ. of Texas at Dallas
• Stephen Dempsey, Univ. of Vermont
• Allan DeSerpa, Arizona State University
• William Dewald, Ohio State University
• Jeff Dorfman, Univ. of Georgia
• Lanny Ebenstein, Univ. of California, Santa Barbara
• Michael Erickson, The College of Idaho
• Jack Estill, San Jose State University
• Dorla Evans, Univ. of Alabama in Huntsville
• Frank Falero, California State University, Bakersfield
• Daniel Feenberg, National Bureau of Economic Research
• Eric Fisher, California Polytechnic State University
• Arthur Fleisher, Metropolitan State College of Denver
• William Ford, Middle Tennessee State University
• Ralph Frasca, Univ. of Dayton
• Joseph Giacalone, St. John's University
• Adam Gifford, California State Unviersity, Northridge
• Otis Gilley, Louisiana Tech University
• J. Edward Graham, University of North Carolina at Wilmington
• Richard Grant, Lipscomb University
• Gauri-Shankar Guha, Arkansas State University
• Darren Gulla, Univ. of Kentucky
• Dennis Halcoussis, California State University, Northridge
• Richard Hart, Miami University
• James Hartley, Mount Holyoke College
• Thomas Hazlett, George Mason University
• Scott Hein, Texas Tech University
• Bradley Hobbs, Florida Gulf Coast University
• John Hoehn, Michigan State University
• Daniel Houser, George Mason University
• Thomas Howard, University of Denver
• Chris Hughen, Univ. of Denver
• Marcus Ingram, Univ. of Tampa
• Joseph Jadlow, Oklahoma State University
• Sherry Jarrell, Wake Forest University
• Scott Kelly, Albany State University
• Carrie Kerekes, Florida Gulf Coast University
• Robert Krol, California State University, Northridge
• James Kurre, Penn State Erie
• Tom Lehman, Indiana Wesleyan University
• W. Cris Lewis, Utah State University
• Stan Liebowitz, Univ. of Texas at Dallas
• Anthony Losasso, Univ. of Illinois at Chicago
• John Lott, Jr., Univ. of Maryland
• Keith Malone, Univ. of North Alabama
• Henry Manne, George Mason University
• Richard Marcus, Univ. of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
• James Barney Marsh, University of Hawaii at Manoa
• Timothy Mathews, Kennesaw State University
• John Matsusaka, Univ. of Southern California
• Thomas Mayor, Univ. of Houston
• John McConnell, Purdue University
• W. Douglas McMillin, Louisiana State University
• Mario Miranda, The Ohio State University
• Ed Miseta, Penn State Erie
• James Moncur, Univ. of Hawaii at Manoa
• Charles Moss, Univ. of Florida
• Tim Muris, George Mason University
• John Murray, Univ. of Toledo
• David Mustard, Univ. of Georgia
• Steven Myers, Univ. of Akron
• Dhananjay Nanda, University of Miami
• Stephen Parente, Univ. of Minnesota
• Allen Parkman, Univ. of New Mexico
• Douglas Patterson, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and University
• Timothy Perri, Appalachian State University
• Mark Pingle, Univ. of Nevada, Reno
• Ivan Pongracic, Hillsdale College
• Robert Prati, East Carolina University
• Richard Rawlins, Missouri Southern State University
• Thomas Rhee, California State University, Long Beach
• Christine Ries, Georgia Institute of Technology
• Nancy Roberts, Arizona State University
• Larry Ross, Univ. of Alaska Anchorage
• Timothy Roth, Univ. of Texas at El Paso
• Atulya Sarin, Santa Clara University
• Thomas Saving, Texas A&M University
• Eric Schansberg, Indiana University Southeast
• John Seater, North Carolina University
• Alan Shapiro, Univ. of Southern California
• Thomas Simmons, Greenfield Community College
• W. James Smith, University of Colorado Denver
• Frank Spreng, McKendree University
• Judith Staley Brenneke, John Carroll University
• John E. Stapleford, Eastern University
• Courtenay Stone, Ball State University
• Avanidhar Subrahmanyam, UCLA
• Scott Sumner, Bentley University
• Clifford Thies, Shenandoah University
• William Trumbull, West Virginia University
• A. Sinan Unur, Cornell University
• Randall Valentine, Georgia Southwestern State University
• Gustavo Ventura, Univ. of Iowa
• Marc Weidenmier, Claremont McKenna College
• Robert Whaples, Wake Forest University
• Gene Wunder, Washburn University
• John Zdanowicz, Florida International University
• Jerry Zimmerman, Univ. of Rochester
• Joseph Zoric, Franciscan University of Steubenville

I am finally about to return to writing my commentaries after eight months off. I've moved to New York City and will have plenty to say about the new administration in the weeks to come.

From Media Research Center

Liberal Media Cover-Up Speaker Pelosi’s Slander of American Troops,
Crediting Iran for Iraq Success

Last Thursday, a collection of reporters and members of the editorial board of the San Francisco Chronicle sat down for a nearly 80-minute interview with Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California.

At the 62-minute mark, Pelosi slandered and demeaned the hard-won successes of our armed forces in Iraq, saying “Whatever the military success and progress that may have been made, the surge didn't accomplish its goal. And some of the success of the surge is that the goodwill of the Iranians -- they decided in Basra when the fighting would end, they negotiated that cessation of hostilities -- the Iranians.”

No one at the Chronicle reported the Speaker’s vicious slander. Nor did NBC, ABC or CBS, CNN or MSNBC deem it fit for broadcast, either Thursday evening or at any point on Friday. The vaunted New York Times likewise did not deem this fit to print.

L. Brent Bozell:

“The liberal media continue to shred its tattered integrity with this willful exclusion of Nancy Pelosi’s atrocious remarks.

“The Speaker of the House of Representatives slanders our troops in Iraq, whose blood, toil and tremendous sacrifice have led to the great and growing success we have seen there, and the liberal media are silent.

“The Speaker’s slur is clearly newsworthy. Why then do the liberal media steadfastly refuse to report Pelosi’s comments?

“Perhaps because they know why it is newsworthy: because it so thoroughly damages the credibility and integrity of the person third in line to the Presidency.

“The media’s cover-up of Nancy Pelosi’s anti-U.S. troop comments is simply shameful.”

QUOTABLE QUOTES FROM HISTORY AND CURRENT THINKERS

** Former U.S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson, "No people in history have ever survived who thought they could protect their freedom by making themselves inoffensive to their enemies."

Headline at Free Market News:Americans Slam News Media

On Sunday, January 13, 2008, FreeMarketNews.com posted an article about a poll conducted by Sacred Heart University. See article: http://www.freemarketnews.com/WorldNews.asp?nid=53677

The Poll revealed that: "significantly declining percentages of Americans saying they believe all or most of media news reporting. " Most of the people polled agreed that there is a liberal slant to the major news organizations.,

James Castonguay, Ph.D., associate professor and chair of SHU's Department of Media Studies & Digital Culture, said about the poll results, "The fact that an astonishing percentage of Americans see biases and partisanship in their mainstream news sources suggests an active and critical consumer of information in the U.S." He added that the availability Internet news sources contributes to the skepticism.

In fact, the poll demonstrated that a growing number of Americans see the news media as an attempt to shape public opinion. And that the media has, in effect, abandoned their role as objective reporters.

Jerry C. Lindsley, director of the Sacred Heart University Polling Institute said about the poll that "American know bias and imbalance when they see it." And "they don't like it," he added.

His best comment, in my opinion, was: "Americans know that it's just not that hard to present both sides and keep personal bias at home."

The most trusted national TV news organizations, for accurate reporting, - according to the poll - in declining order included: Fox News (27.0%), CNN (14.6%), and NBC News (10.90%). These were followed by ABC News (7.0%), local news (6.9%), CBS News (6.8%) MSNBC (4.0%), PBS News (3.0%), CNBC (0.6%) and CBN (0.5%)

=====

For additional Sacred Heart University news, please visit
www.sacredheart.edu/pressroom.cfm.

SOURCE Sacred Heart University Polling Institute

IS THERE A PROBLEM? BLAME GLOBAL WARMING
By George Reisman

http://www.capitalism.net/

The Op-Ed page of Sunday’s (December 23, 2007) New York Times is devoted to moaning and groaning about the evils of global warming. One piece complains about the loss of a glacier. A second bemoans an abnormal weather pattern in which unseasonably warm weather was followed by cold snaps, with devastating effects on the writer’s olive trees in Provence. A third complains of China’s growing prosperity enabling people to consume more and more imported food, thereby contributing to greenhouse gas emissions because of the need to transport the food over long distances.

But it is the fourth piece that wins the prize for absurdity (and dishonesty). After casually substituting the words “climate change” for “global warming,” it dares to complain about “uncharacteristic frosts” ruining 40 percent of an avocado grower’s crop. In fact, in the apparent belief that its readers are unconcerned with contradictions, The Times actually titled this piece “Chile’s Rising Waters and Frozen Avocados.” The rising waters will supposedly come about because of the melting of Antarctic ice caused by global warming. And yet that same global warming is portrayed as the cause of uncharacteristic frosts and frozen avocados. The writer and The Times apparently believe, and expect their readers to believe, that freezing, no less than warming, is a product of global warming.

The news pages of the same edition of The Times contain yet another propaganda piece about the evils of global warming, this time without any excuse of being merely an expression of opinion. Disguised as a news story, the piece appears on page 16 of the paper’s main section, with the title “As Earth Warms, Virus From Tropics Moves to Italy.”

The virus in question is “chikungunya,” which is described as “a relative of dengue fever normally found in the Indian Ocean region.” A careful reading of the article, together with some investigation of actual climate conditions, shows no connection whatever between the arrival of this virus in Italy and global warming. In reality, its arrival in Italy is nothing more than an unfortunate by-product of globalization and its attendant increase in international trade and travel.

The facts reported in the article are that “[t]iger mosquitoes [a potential carrier of the virus] first came to southern Italy with shipments of tires from Albania about a decade ago” and then proceeded to enlarge their habitat. The mosquitoes by themselves caused no problems beyond that of being a nuisance. What was responsible for their becoming an actual carrier of the chikungunya virus was the arrival in an Italian city of a resident’s relative who had contracted the virus on a trip to India. He was bitten and the mosquitoes then spread the virus from him to others, in widening circles.

The only connection the article offers to global warming is the assertion that the tiger mosquito’s habitat “has expanded steadily northward as temperatures have risen,” as though there had been some significant rise in temperatures over the last ten years and that this rise was a prerequisite to the enlargement of the mosquito’s habitat, at least in a northerly direction. Yet the facts are that global mean temperature has risen a scant .7◦C (1.26◦F) over the entire period since 1900 and, according to data supplied by The University of East Anglia and The Hadley Centre, global mean temperatures have actually been modestly declining since 1998! (For verification of this last point, see the website http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-12/uoea-awy121207.php). Moreover, since temperature lows in the region of Italy where the outbreak occurred are lower than those in most of France and England by 1 or 2 degrees Celsius, temperature conditions in those areas, which are considerably further north, have been ripe for the tiger mosquito at least for a century or more. (For comparative temperature lows, see the website of Euroweather at http://www.eurometeo.com/english/climate/home_min).

Thus, however unfortunate the outbreak of the virus may have been, there is no actual basis for blaming it on global warming. The accusation is nothing more than part of the attempt to create panic over global warming and thus to stampede frightened and ignorant people into sacrificing their freedom and prosperity for the sake of what looks more and more like a coming global dictatorship.

This article is only one of many that make The Times read like something produced at a ministry of propaganda rather a newspaper produced in a free country. Its author, one Elizabeth Rosenthal, has previously demonstrated that she is an enthusiastic and utterly naive advocate of environmentalism. (See her “Cleaner consumption and the low-carbon life” in the February 23 issue of the International Herald Tribune, a newspaper owned by The Times.) The Times definitely does not read like a newspaper in which reporters apply critical thinking, exercise independent judgment and common sense, verify the facts they report by means of doing the necessary research, and strive for logical consistency. It is in fact something of a joke as a newspaper, or at least would be a joke if it were not as successful as it has been in helping to poison our culture and destroy our country.

Copyright © 2007, by George Reisman. George Reisman is the author of Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics (Ottawa, Illinois: Jameson Books, 1996) and is Pepperdine University Professor Emeritus of Economics. His web site is www.capitalism.net.

George Reisman's blog is a commentary on contemporary business, politics, economics, society, and culture, based on the values of Reason, Rational Self-Interest, and Laissez-Faire Capitalism. Its intellectual foundations are Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism and the theory of the Austrian and British Classical schools of economics as expressed in the writings of Mises, Böhm-Bawerk, Menger, Ricardo, Smith, James and John Stuart Mill, Bastiat, and Hazlitt, and in my own writings.

This article is reprinted with the permission of the author.

IF ABORTION REALLY WERE MURDER

George Reisman's Blog on Economics, Politics, Society, and Culture

Friday, November 30, 2007

IF ABORTION REALLY WERE MURDER

In last Wednesday night’s debate among the eight Republican candidates contending for their party’s Presidential nomination, a young woman, via a YouTube video, asked the candidates an important and telling question on the subject of abortion. If abortion were made illegal, she asked, what punishment would the candidates propose for a woman who broke the law and had an abortion?

To a man, the candidates who were opposed to abortion (apparently all of them, with the exception of former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani) declared that there would be no punishment whatever for the woman. Only the abortionist, i.e., the physician or whoever else performed the abortion, would be punished.

Now I am not an attorney. Still less have I had any experience working in a prosecutor’s office. However, I have watched innumerable episodes of the television program “Law and Order” and similar shows. “Law and Order,” of course, is the show in which one of the Republican candidates, former United States Senator Fred Thompson, has played the role of district attorney for the last several years.

What I have learned from such shows and from casual reading on the subject is that the law punishes premeditated murder more severely than murder that is not premeditated, and also that it generally punishes the instigator and planner of a murder more severely than the person who is employed to carry out the murder. Accordingly, let us imagine that instead of a woman who has had an abortion and has paid a physician to perform it, we have a woman who has arranged the murder of her husband by means of hiring someone to do it.

I can imagine Senator Thompson, in his role as DA, telling one of his assistants to offer the suspected “hit man” a “deal,” in the form of pleading guilty to a lesser crime than Murder in the First Degree, say “Murder Two” or even “Man One,” in the vernacular of the show. The purpose of the deal, of course, would be to get the hit man to “roll” on the worse offender, in this case, the person—the woman—who employed him.

I now ask, what is different in the case of abortion, if abortion really is murder? Abortions do not occur spontaneously, in an isolated moment of disordered thinking and uncontrollable emotion. They must be planned. A woman who wants an abortion, must generally make an appointment at a medical facility to have it done. Before the abortion takes place, she will probably have to undergo an examination and tests of various kinds to be sure that the procedure does not pose an undue risk to her life or health. Thus, some period of time must elapse before the abortion actually occurs.

Especially in an environment of secrecy and stealth, of kitchen tables and coat hangers, in which abortions would once again have to be performed if they were once again made illegal, there must generally be a more or less considerable lapse of time between a woman’s forming the intent to have an abortion and being able to have it actually performed. This is because in such conditions, an abortionist cannot be found simply by looking in the yellow pages or on the internet. One can be found only through a series of discreet and time-consuming inquiries.

The inescapable conclusion to be drawn from all this is that a woman who has an abortion must not only form an intent to have it but must also maintain that intent for a more or less considerable period of time. What is the name for this if not premeditation?

Accordingly if abortion really is murder, then it is premeditated murder. And by the usual standards of justice, the guilt of the woman, as the instigator and planner of the murder, is greater, not less, than that of the physician or other party employed to carry it out.

But there is more, and it is downright scary. Most or all of the Republican candidates who oppose abortion are in favor of the death penalty for crimes such as premeditated murder. Thus, the logic of their view of abortion implies that they should not only urge the severe punishment of a woman who has an abortion, but capital punishment. Their alleged love of the life of the unborn fetus that is taken in an abortion should, in logic, lead them to urge the death of the woman who orders the taking of that life.

I must say that I am confident that the common sense and personal good will of the anti-abortion candidates would continue to prevent them from advocating any actual punishment of women who would have illegal abortions, let alone capital punishment, despite the fact that that is where the logic of their beliefs would take them. However, the same is by no means necessarily true of all of their followers and of the anti-abortion movement as a whole. In today’s world there seems to be no idea that is too bizarre to find followers once it is identified as a logical implication of a deeply rooted belief.

Hopefully, there will be a larger number of more reasonable people, who will be led to question the premise that abortion is murder. To do that, they will need to question the premise that a fetus, especially, in the early stages of pregnancy, is an actual human being. In reality, when, for example, a fetus must still be measured in mere tenths of an inch, it is simply not a human being. At that point, it is nothing more than a growth in a woman’s womb that has the potential to become a human being. Removing it is not killing a human being but simply stopping—aborting—a process that if left unchecked would result in a human being weeks or months later. Weeks or months later, there would be a human being. But not at the time of the abortion.

Unfortunately, persuading people of this elementary fact of perception can be very difficult. There are far too many people for whom seeing is not believing, but rather, if anything, believing is seeing—that is, people whose mistaken ideas are held so strongly that they override the evidence of the senses. Epistemologically, the notion that a speck in a woman’s womb is a human being is not all that different than the notion, popular elsewhere in the world, that animals carry the souls of one’s ancestors. Both notions represent seeing what just isn’t there, based on a projection from inside one’s mind.

Seeing a human being where there is none and consequently murder where there is none, serves to destroy the lives of women, and of families, who cannot afford the burden of an unwanted extra child, which they are nonetheless forced to accept because the possibility of abortion is denied them. Because of this distorted conception of things, a woman has only to become pregnant, and ownership of her body is immediately claimed by the State. Whatever plans she may have had for her future, such as gaining an education, pursuing a career, or simply enjoying her youth, are forcibly thrown aside, as she is made to live with no more choice in her own destiny than a pregnant animal. She is compelled to defer whatever hopes, dreams, and ambitions she may have had until she has completed what is tantamount to serving a twenty-year sentence in going through an unwanted pregnancy and then raising an unwanted child.

And why? By what right is such devastation inflicted on her life? The answer is that here in the United States, just as in the Middle East, there are large numbers of people who believe that the cloak of religion and their claim to be inspired by the will of God entitles them to practice lunacy, in total disregard of the suffering and harm they cause to others. Their pretended “love” and “goodness” is a sham.

This article is copyright © 2007, by George Reisman. George Reisman is the author of Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics (Ottawa, Illinois: Jameson Books, 1996) and is Pepperdine University Professor Emeritus of Economics. This article is reprinted with permission of the author.

Dr. Reisman's blog is a commentary on contemporary business, politics, economics, society, and culture, based on the values of Reason, Rational Self-Interest, and Laissez-Faire Capitalism. Its intellectual foundations are Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism and the theory of the Austrian and British Classical schools of economics as expressed in the writings of Mises, Böhm-Bawerk, Menger, Ricardo, Smith, James and John Stuart Mill, Bastiat, and Hazlitt, and in my own writings.

Barbarians in the Oval Office
by Paul R. Hollrah

Most conservatives were disappointed when former Speaker Newt Gingrich teased us for more than a year… all but convincing us that he would enter the Republican presidential primaries… before offering the lame excuse that he is the only native-born American, over the age of thirty-five, who is ineligible to seek the presidency. Hogwash!

Gingrich’s announcement left conservatives without a trustworthy voice in the Republican primaries. John McCain was once a conservative, but then he joined hands with the most liberal Democrat in the U.S. Senate to co-sponsor the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill… an outright attack on First Amendment rights.

We’re told that Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson, Duncan Hunter, Tom Tancredo, and Mike Huckabee are conservatives… but how can we be sure? Until now, some of the strongest words on Iraq have come from the mouth of a liberal Democrat from Connecticut, Senator Joe Lieberman.

Perhaps Pat Buchanan’s new book, Day Of Reckoning: How Hubris, Ideology, and Greed Are Tearing America Apart, will give Republicans a bit of new-found motivation. Buchanan warns, “America is coming apart, decomposing, and… the likelihood of her survival as one nation… is improbable – and impossible if America continues on her current course… on a path to national suicide.” (Hmm! Why not a new secessionist nation comprised of the oil and gas producing states of the south and southwest?)

What he says is true. In support of his thesis, Buchanan points out that the U.S. Army is “breaking” and is “too small to meet America’s global commitments;” that the dollar has sunk to historic lows and is being abandoned by foreign governments; that free trade is shipping jobs and technology to China, plunging America into permanent economic dependency and unpayable foreign debt; that the greatest invasion in history, from the Third World, is swamping the ethno-cultural core of the country; that the American culture is collapsing and the nation is being deconstructed along class and racial lines; and that unfunded mandates of Social Security and Medicare promise a fiscal crisis of unprecedented magnitude.

But such warnings are not new. The famed British parliamentarian T.B. Macaulay, predicted our ultimate demise in a May 23, 1857 letter to an American colleague. He said, “I have long been convinced that institutions purely democratic must, sooner or later, destroy liberty or civilization, or both…

“You may think that your country enjoys an exemption from these evils. I will frankly own to you that I am of a very different opinion. Either some Caesar or Napoleon will seize the reins of government with a strong hand, or your republic will be as fearfully plundered and laid waste by barbarians in the twentieth century as the Roman Empire was in the fifth; with this difference, that the Huns and Vandals who ravaged the Roman Empire came from without, and that your Huns and Vandals will have been engendered within your own country by your own institutions.”

He concluded by saying, “I seriously apprehend that you will… do things which will prevent prosperity from returning; that you will act like people who should in a year of scarcity devour all the seed-corn (deplete the National Petroleum Reserve?), and thus make the next a year not of scarcity, but of absolute famine… There is nothing to stop you. Your Constitution is all sail and no anchor.”

All sail and no anchor, indeed. From the day our Constitution was ratified it has been under constant attack by “Huns and Vandals,” the “progressives” of the political left who think they know better than the Founding Fathers. Engendered within our own institutions, they have never fully bought into the underlying principles embodied in our Constitution. Always on the lookout for some perceived unfairness in our system, they work tirelessly to subvert the genius of what the Founders produced.

To give credit where credit is due, it is liberal judges, the mainstream media, leftist college professors, liberal public interest law centers and think tanks, teachers unions, trade unions, trial lawyers, and radical environmentalists, all major elements of the Democrat Party, who have spearheaded our national deconstruction. If Macaulay and Buchanan are correct in predicting that our children will live to see the demise of the great American experiment… and I believe they will… then these are the “Huns and Vandals” who are to blame.

It matters little which of the 2008 Democrat presidential hopefuls the people might favor… Clinton, Obama, or Edwards. They are all equally dangerous and they all represent the “Huns and Vandals” of whom Macaulay wrote. But our fate is not sealed, entirely. There are things we can do to control our own destiny. For starters, the one thing we cannot do is to stay away from the polls in November 2008 and allow the “barbarians” of the left to elect one of their own to the Oval Office. We simply cannot allow that to happen.

Permission to republished granted by Paul Hollrah.
Mr. Hollrah is a native of St. Charles, Missouri. He holds a B.S. degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Missouri and is a member of the Civil Engineering Academy of Distinguished Alumni. From 1962-70 he served as a Senior Project Engineer for Cities Service Oil Company (Citgo) and the Sun Oil Company (Sunoco) in New York and Tulsa, Oklahoma.

He is a founder and former director of the State Governmental Affairs Council, a former member of the General Committee on State Relations of the American Petroleum Institute. Mr. Hollrah took early retirement from the Sun Company in 1984. Since retiring, he has worked as an independent consultant both in the U.S. and in Russia, seeking to bring Russia’s unique technological developments to the U.S. and working on humanitarian aid projects in Moscow and Siberia.

From June 1999 to January 2002 he served as U.S. Coordinator for the US-Russian Mayor-To-Mayor Program, and in November 2000 he was appointed to the Board of Trustees of the Congress of Small Cities of Russia. In 1998 he founded a publishing company, Patria Publishing, and has published a frontier history (1765-1885) of St. Charles County, Missouri, the jumping-off point for the Lewis & Clark Expedition. He currently writes a weekly political column for an eastern Oklahoma newspaper and for the Lincoln Heritage Institute, an Internet site for conservative political expression.

Is Media Bias An Established Fact Now That Even Harvard Sees It?

By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY
Posted Friday, November 09, 2007 4:30 PM PT

A new study finding the media give far more favorable coverage to Democrats than Republicans could have settled once and for all the debate over whether the news we get has a liberal bias.

After all, it was done by the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government — hardly a bastion of conservative orthodoxy.

But given the study's reception in the mainstream media, it's doubtful the issue has been put to rest. Like similar studies in the past, Harvard's went largely uncovered. A Nexis search found 20 news mentions of the report, with only a handful highlighting the revelation of extreme bias.

This, of course, backs the presumption of many news consumers that bias plays a key role in what media put out and hold back. In this case, a bias in favor of their own industry resulted in the burying of a study that places the industry in a bad light.
But one of the study's main findings — that political coverage is colored with a distinctly liberal bias — has been documented for years, if not decades. As such, the Harvard findings aren't nearly as surprising as the source.

Perhaps it's time, then, to stop debating whether the press is biased and move on to greater questions of how the bias is manifested and what effect it might be having on public discourse and opinion. In this series, IBD will examine these issues.
The Harvard study — conducted with the Project for Excellence in Journalism, part of the Pew Research Center for People and the Press — examined 1,742 presidential campaign stories appearing from January through May in 48 print, online, network TV, cable and radio news outlets.

Among many findings, it determined that Democrats got more coverage than Republicans (49% of the stories vs. 31%). It also found the "tone" of the coverage was more positive for Democrats (35% to 26% for Republicans).

"In other words," the authors say, "not only did the Republicans receive less coverage overall, the attention they did get tended to be more negative than that of Democrats. And in some specific media genres, the difference is particularly striking."
Those "genres" include the most mainstream of media — newspapers and TV. Fully 59% of front-page stories about Democrats in 11 newspapers had a "clear, positive message vs. 11% that carried a negative tone."

For "top-tier" candidates, the difference was even more apparent: Barack Obama's coverage was 70% positive and 9% negative, and Hillary Clinton's was 61% positive and 13% negative.

By contrast, 40% of the stories on Republican candidates were negative and 26% positive.

On TV, evening network newscasts gave 49% of their campaign coverage to the Democrats and 28% to Republicans. As for tone, 39.5% of the Democratic coverage was positive vs. 17.1%, while 18.6% of the Republican coverage was positive and 37.2% negative.

These findings are in line with a number of other studies that date back to the early 1970s:
• In 1972, "The News Twisters" by Edith Efron analyzed every prime-time network news show before the 1968 election and found coverage tilted 8 to 1 against Nixon on ABC, 10 to 1 on NBC and 16 to 1 on CBS.

• In 1984, Public Opinion magazine found that Reagan got 7,230 seconds of negative coverage and just 730 seconds of positive; Mondale's positive press totaled 1,330 seconds, vs. 1,050 negative.

• In 1986, "The Media Elite" surveyed 240 journalists at virtually every major media outlet and found that in presidential elections from 1964 to 1976, 86% of top journalists voted Democratic. A 2001 update found 76% voted for Dukakis in 1988 and 91% went for Clinton in 1992.

• A 1992 Freedom Forum poll showed 89% of Washington reporters and bureau chiefs voting for Clinton in '92 and only 7% for George H.W. Bush.

• A 2003 Pew survey found 34% of national journalists called themselves liberal and 7% conservative. By 7 to 1, they also felt they weren't critical enough of President Bush.

• In 2005, a study of bias by professors at UCLA, Stanford and the University of Chicago determined that only one media outlet — Fox News Special Report — could be tagged "right of center."

http://ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=279503526320834

(c) 2007 Investor's Business Daily. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.

A Philosophical Look at the issue of Torture

Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Texas at Arlington, where he teaches courses in logic, ethics, philosophy of religion, philosophy of law, and social and political philosophy. He blogs at http://keithburgess-jackson.com/.

In his article "The Logic of Torture" he analyzes the issues of torture from a philosophy point of view. The article appears in the November 29, 2007, issue of TCS Daily - and can be found at
http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=112707C


The article is a copyright of Tech Central Station.

The Clintons – One Lie Too Many?
by Paul R. Hollrah

At the very end of the Democrat presidential debate in South Carolina in May 2007, Hillary Clinton was asked about Wal-Mart… was it a good thing or a bad thing for America?

In her long rambling response, in which she tried to wrap herself around all sides of the issue, she took aim at the Bush Administration, saying, “they don’t see middle class Americans…” She went on to say that, to George Bush and other Republicans, middle class Americans are “invisible.”

It was a desperate lie, of course, and she knew it. But that’s just one of the things that separate people like Bill and Hillary Clinton from decent people… those who always try to be truthful and who never put into words those things which they cannot support.

As I heard her speak those words I couldn’t help but think back to something that Hollywood mogul David Geffen said in an interview with New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd. He said, “Everybody in politics lies, but [the Clintons] do it with such ease, it’s troubling.”

The Clintons exhibit all of the characteristics of pathological liars. If they are caught in a lie and backed into a corner, they become defensive (“I never had sex with that woman, Miss Lewinsky!”), but they may eventually respond with, “So what's the difference? You're making a big deal out of nothing!” (“Yes, I lied, but it was only about sex.”) They can also be expected to attempt to refocus the conversation to your perceived wrongdoing instead of theirs. (“Why are you doing this to us? This is all part of a vast right wing conspiracy.”)

But now comes what one reporter has dubbed the “mother of all lies.” Speaking at a Democrat rally in Muscatine, Iowa on Tuesday evening, November 27, and attempting to make the point that the wealthy should be asked to pay a larger share of the tax burden during time of war, Bill Clinton said, "Even though I approved of Afghanistan and opposed Iraq from the beginning (emphasis added), I still resent that I was not asked or given the opportunity to support those soldiers."

Could this be the same Bill Clinton who said in his January 1998 State of the Union address, “On the eve of a new century, we have the power and the duty to build a new era of peace and security… We must combat an unholy axis of new threats from terrorists, international criminals, and drug traffickers. These 21st century predators feed on technology and the free flow of information. And they will be all the more lethal if weapons of mass destruction fall into their hands.

“… Saddam Hussein has spent the better part of this decade and much of his nation's wealth, not on providing for the Iraqi people, but on developing nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons and the missiles to deliver them. If Saddam defies the world and we fail to respond, we will face a far greater threat in the future. Saddam will strike again at his neighbors; he will make war on his own people. And, mark my words, he will develop weapons of mass destruction. He will deploy them, and he will use them.”
Could this possibly be the same Bill Clinton who said in an Oval Office address to the nation on December 16, 1998, “Saddam (Hussein) must not be allowed to threaten his neighbors or the world with nuclear arms, poison gas or biological weapons… Earlier today I ordered America's armed forces to strike military and security targets in Iraq… Their mission is to attack Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs and its military capacity to threaten its neighbors.

“The Iraqi leader was given a final warning six weeks ago when Baghdad promised to cooperate with U.N. inspectors at the last minute, just as U.S. warplanes were headed its way. Along with Prime Minister Blair of Great Britain, I made it equally clear that if Saddam failed to cooperate fully we would be prepared to act without delay, diplomacy, or warning.

“The hard fact is that so long as Saddam remains in power, he threatens the well-being of his people, the peace of his region, the security of the world. The best way to end that threat once and for all is with a new Iraqi government – a government ready to live in peace with its neighbors, a government that respects the rights of its people.”

Yes, the senator from New York sent her husband to Iowa to improve her chances of winning the 2008 Democrat presidential nomination, but this lie, this “mother of all lies,” may spell the beginning of the end of her quest. From now and through the rest of the primary season it will be like a diseased cell eating away at the heart of her support. It cannot be undone and it will not be forgotten. It may be just one lie too many… even for the Democrat faithful.

Permission to republished granted by Paul Hollrah.

Mr. Hollrah is a native of St. Charles, Missouri. He holds a B.S. degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Missouri and is a member of the Civil Engineering Academy of Distinguished Alumni. From 1962-70 he served as a Senior Project Engineer for Cities Service Oil Company (Citgo) and the Sun Oil Company (Sunoco) in New York and Tulsa, Oklahoma.

He is a founder and former director of the State Governmental Affairs Council, a former member of the General Committee on State Relations of the American Petroleum Institute.

Mr. Hollrah took early retirement from the Sun Company in 1984. Since retiring, he has worked as an independent consultant both in the U.S. and in Russia, seeking to bring Russia’s unique technological developments to the U.S. and working on humanitarian aid projects in Moscow and Siberia. From June 1999 to January 2002 he served as U.S. Coordinator for the US-Russian Mayor-To-Mayor Program, and in November 2000 he was appointed to the Board of Trustees of the Congress of Small Cities of Russia.

In 1998 he founded a publishing company, Patria Publishing, and has published a frontier history (1765-1885) of St. Charles County, Missouri, the jumping-off point for the Lewis & Clark Expedition. He currently writes a weekly political column for an eastern Oklahoma newspaper and for the Lincoln Heritage Institute, an Internet site for conservative political expression.

ZOGBY INTERNATIONAL
THE RESPECTED POLLING ORGANIZATION
RECEIVES UNWARRANTED ATTACK OVER HILLARY CLINTON POLL NUMBERS DROPPING

Permission to republish has been granted by Zogby International
http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=1394

Comment by Sara Pentz: It is typical of a politician to throw stones at anyone who shows them in a bad light as this commentary by Zogby Internation demonstrates. See the full article below.

Mark Penn: Buckling Under the Pressure of an Unfavorable Poll

All is fair in love and war, the centuries–old proverb states. Politics is not included, but given the way the game is played in modern–day America, maybe it should be. That’s the sense I had again this morning watching Mark Penn, the chief political strategist for Democrat Hillary Clinton, denigrate our latest Zogby Interactive survey simply because it showed his client in a bad light (Link to Latest Poll Number). Penn made the contention on the MSNBC morning news program hosted by Joe Scarborough (Link to Video)

Zogby on "Morning Joe"; Interactive Poll on the Money - VIDEO

Penn mischaracterized this latest online Zogby poll as our first interactive survey ever – a bizarre contention, since we have been developing and perfecting our Internet polling methodology for nearly a decade (Zogby Intreractive Methodology), and since Penn’s company has been quietly requesting the results of such polls from Zogby for years. We always comply as part of our pledge to give public Zogby polling results to any and every candidate and campaign that asks for them. What is interesting is that no other campaign has made as many requests for Zogby polling data over the years as Penn has made on behalf of Clinton.

Because Mark Penn is a quality pollster himself, we chalk up his contention that our poll is “meaningless” as a knee–jerk reaction by a campaign under pressure coming down the stretch. Several other polls – Zogby surveys and others – have shown her national lead and her leads in early–voting states like Iowa and New Hampshire have shrunk. This is not unusual. These presidential contests usually tighten as the primaries and caucuses approach.

Fritz Wenzel
Director of Communications
Zogby International

(11/27/2007)

George Reisman's Blog on Economics, Politics, Society, and Culture

Thursday, November 08, 2007

WOULD HILLARY’S ELECTION
VIOLATE THE TWO-TERM LIMIT?

Hillary Clinton may win the Democratic Party’s nomination and go on from there to be elected President of the United States. If that happens, her husband, William Jefferson Clinton, who was President of the United States from 1993 to 2001 for two full terms, would once again be a principal occupant of the White House.

As Hillary’s spouse, not only exercising the normal substantial influence of one spouse over the other but also being in possession of eight years of actual experience in the Presidency, it would appear that Bill Clinton would thus once again effectively exercise Presidential Powers. Yet this would be in substantive violation of the Twenty-Second Amendment to the United States Constitution, which states that “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice . . . .”

True enough, Bill would not have been elected more than twice, and thus his presence and activities in the White House would not technically be in violation of the Constitution. But the obvious purpose of the Twenty-Second Amendment was to limit the occupation of the Office of President, and the exercise of the powers of that Office, to two terms. Its authors did not contemplate marriage as a route to the powers of the Presidency alternative to election to that Office.

If and to the extent that Mrs. Clinton’s chances of election increase, the couple needs to find a way to guarantee that Mr. Clinton would not in fact be a three or four-term President.

This article is copyright © 2007, by George Reisman. George Reisman is the author of Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics (Ottawa, Illinois: Jameson Books, 1996) and is Pepperdine University Professor Emeritus of Economics.

George Reisman's blog is a commentary on contemporary business, politics, economics, society, and culture, based on the values of Reason, Rational Self-Interest, and Laissez-Faire Capitalism. Its intellectual foundations are Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism and the theory of the Austrian and British Classical schools of economics as expressed in the writings of Mises, Böhm-Bawerk, Menger, Ricardo, Smith, James and John Stuart Mill, Bastiat, and Hazlitt, and in my own writings.

This article is reprinted with the permission of the author.

A Stroll Down Memory Lane
by Paul R. Hollrah
Posted here Courtesy Paul R. Hollrah

I remember a Yale Law School student from suburban Chicago, a young woman named Hillary Rodham, who led campus demonstrations in support of twelve Black Panthers charged in 1970 with the kidnapping, torture, and murder of a suspected police informant. The victim was tied to a chair and had boiling water poured over his body before he was mercifully shot to death and dumped into a river.

In addition to leading campus protests that caused a near shutdown of the university, the future first lady, New York senator, and Democrat presidential candidate volunteered to monitor trial proceedings, looking for potential civil rights violations that could later be used by ACLU lawyers to have guilty verdicts overturned.

I remember the young wife of an Arkansas Attorney General, a future governor, who opened a commodity futures trading account with an investment of $1,000. According to a February 20, 1995 report in National Review, Mrs. Clinton was assisted in her trading decisions by James Blair, the general counsel for Tyson Foods, Inc., one of her state’s largest corporations. Her very first trade, on October 11, 1978, was a short sale of ten live cattle contracts at 57.55 cents per pound.

By committing herself to deliver 400,000 pounds of beef cattle two months later, cattle that she and her husband did not own, she pocketed the sum of $230,000. However, on Blair’s advice, she bought back the ten contracts the very next day at 56.10 cents per pound, giving her a tidy one-day profit of $5,300.

Trading on a margin account that was rarely large enough to cover her trades, she consistently sold cattle futures short, in a bull market, turning her $1,000 margin account into a tidy $100,000 profit in just ten months.

I remember a lawsuit filed by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons in February 1993, demanding that meetings of Mrs. Clinton’s 630-member health care task force be opened to public participation. On March 3, 1993, Mrs. Clinton’s health care policy aide, Ira Magaziner, responded to the court by certifying that all 630 members of the working group were government employees and that, as such, they were legally permitted to meet in secret.

However, internal documents later released by the White House showed that several special interest groups, all of which would have profited if the Clinton plan had been adopted, served as members of the task force.

I remember the mid-1995 White House interrogation in which Mrs. Clinton told federal investigators that she had done “limited legal work” for the failed Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan Association, owned by James and Susan McDougal, and that she had done little or no work on a project called Castle Grande. Mrs. Clinton told the same story, under oath, before a grand jury in January 1996, and in sworn testimony before two government agencies, the Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

However, Rose law firm billing records, which mysteriously materialized in the White House living quarters in January 1996, showed that Mrs. Clinton had billed Madison for sixty hours of legal work, that she had discussed the Castle Grande project with Madison officials on fourteen separate occasions, that she had discussed legal matters with the McDougals on sixteen separate occasions, that she had participated in twenty-eight meetings on Madison Guaranty, and that she had discussed Madison with Arkansas state regulators on at least two occasions.

I remember Web Hubbell, a Hillary Clinton law partner at the Rose law firm in Little Rock. While Hubbell was serving a prison term for tax evasion and fraud, it was rumored that he was contemplating a lawsuit against his former employer, a lawsuit that would have exposed the over-billing practices of his former law partners… including Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Hubbell insisted that it was common practice for lawyers to over-bill clients, warning, “That would be one area that Hillary would be vulnerable.” What he was saying is that, as a lawyer in private practice, Hillary Rodham Clinton billed her clients for legal work she did not perform and the Rose law firm billing records contained proof of that wrongdoing.

In a recorded March 25, 1996 jailhouse telephone conversation, Hubbell learned that his wife, Suzanna, was being pressured by White House patronage chief, Marsha Scott. Mrs. Hubbell said, “(Marsha) says you are not going to get any public support… if you open Hillary up to this… “

Hubbell replied, “I will not raise those allegations that might open it up to Hillary.” Later, in discussing allegations that Hillary had billed his (Hubbell’s) time as her own, Hubbell told his wife, “So, I need to roll over one more time.”

So what’s the point of this little stroll down memory lane? It’s just a reminder that, anyone who might contemplate voting to return a Democrat to the White House in November 2008, should first understand that: a) the lady in question now wants to be President of the United States, and b) every one of her Democrat opponents was aware of these transgressions and did everything in their power to protect her from having to answer for them.

By Invester's Business Daily

http://ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=279503526320834
(c) 2007 Investor's Business Daily. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.

In this exclusive 7-part series, IBD explores the reasons behind the great paradox of a boom now in its sixth year – that despite spectacular gains, most Americans think the economy’s in bad shape and headed for recession.

Media bias has been detected in other studies, but this series raises an additional possibility – media incompetence in analyzing and explaining how the economy and financial markets work.

Installments will cover how the media report on subjects like tax cuts, deficits, trade and stocks, creating myths – and unwarranted fear -- as they go along.

---

Part Seven

How Liberal Dems, Major Media Perpetuate A Cycle Of Negativity

Journalism: Last fall, when the jobless rate hit a five-year low of 4.4%, Vice President Cheney was asked by ABC's George Stephanopolous why the administration didn't get more credit for it. "Well," said Cheney, "you guys don't help."

---

Part Six

Outsourcing Myths

Journalism: America's companies are shutting down factories and offices, and shipping jobs wholesale overseas. That's how the media have portrayed it. In reality, outsourcing has created more, better-paying jobs here.

---

Part Five

Free-Trade Fraud

Journalism: If you laid all the economists in the world end to end, goes an old joke, they still wouldn't reach a conclusion. But there's one thing almost all economists agree on: Free trade is good. Yet the media don't get it.

---

Part Four

Deficit Deceptions

Journalism: President Bush has been criticized unmercifully by politicians of all stripes and media of all types for failing to rein in federal spending and letting deficits "soar." But is the criticism fair?

---

Part Three

Blind To Reality

Journalism: The Dow had just pierced 13,000, but TV news anchors couldn't fathom why. All the data, they noted, showed the economy doing worse, not better. But therein lies a problem with media market analysis.

---

Part Two

The Tax Story Media Invariably Bury

Journalism: One of the assertions that the media make most often about the U.S. economy is that President Bush's tax cuts didn't do what he promised. But the data clearly show nothing could be farther from the truth.

---

Part One

A Boom That Falls On Deaf Ears

Journalism: The war in Iraq is a hard slog, and President Bush's domestic agenda has hit another pothole. But if nothing else is going well, he can always take comfort in the spectacular economy his policies have brought about. Or can he?

---

More editorials on Media & Culture

By Investor's Business Daily

http://ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=279503526320834
(c) 2007 Investor's Business Daily. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.

From U.S. successes in Iraq to systemic bias inside its own newsrooms, we take a look at what the media misses, misrepresents and ignores completely.

---

Part One

Is Media Bias An Established Fact Now That Even Harvard Sees It?

Media Bias: A new study finding the media give far more favorable coverage to Democrats than Republicans could have settled once and for all the debate over whether the news we get has a liberal bias.

---

Part Two

Dramatic Turn For Better In Iraq (Cue Sound Of Crickets Chirping)

Media Bias: When looking at media bias, it's important to realize it doesn't crop up in one area. A review of coverage in just the last few weeks shows how it infests a wide array of issues — from war and foreign affairs to economics and science.

---

Part Three

As Bad News Dries Up In Iraq, Media Search For It Elsewhere

Media Bias: In an era of thinly veiled media bias, it's probably fitting that as positive reports pour out of Iraq on an almost daily basis, the situation there has virtually disappeared from the radar screens of mainstream news outlets.

---

More editorials on Media & Culture and Politics

AN OPEN LETTER FROM IRAQ

From: Dill LtCol Jeffrey J (1/7 Bn Co)

Sent: Friday, October 05, 2007 3:45 PM
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED

Family, friends, and Fellow Marines,

As promised, here is my first "update" from this tour in Iraq . I will try and get one of these out about every month. I hope this finds you all doing well. It has been a very fast moving month and a half as we moved the 1,000+ Marines from 1/7 and literally tons of equipment and material half way around the world through Kuwait and eventually into Iraq . We have inventoried and signed for well over a hundred pieces of rolling stock, thousands of pieces of electronic equipment and computers, joined a few hundred more reinforcements to 1/7 (making us now "Task Force 1/7") and then we put everyone in their new positions, spreading us out over 500 square kilometers. Needless to say, the Marines of the First Team have been busy!

Here is the million dollar question I have been asked repeatedly since I have arrived, "How is it compared to the last time you were in Iraq ?" Well, I was in Hit, the main city within our AO, last October and daytime operations were limited to tanks and BFVs driving around the outskirts of the city because to venture inside meant a certain attack by an IED, RPG, small arms, or all of the above. Recently, I went on a 3 hour dismounted patrol through town in the middle of the afternoon and my biggest worry was having enough candy for all the children that came up to me to say hello and shake my hand.

I stopped in stores and talked to the merchants to see how business is doing. They told me business is good and improving everyday. I even went to a few shops to look for a carpet for my office and enjoyed myself as I tried to get the price lowered from "rich" American prices to normal Iraqi prices. I wasn't successful but will keep trying!

I stopped in one of the police stations in the city so I could make plans with the Station Chief to remove a number of the cement barriers on the street in order to open traffic back up. Those barriers were a must before as there was a constant threat of a suicide vehicle ramming into the station in an attempt to kill as many of the police officers as possible. While that threat still exists, the security provided by the police and my Marines has allowed us to take risks in certain areas as we try and balance security needs and normalcy.

I spend many hours working with the numerous city counsels and Mayors in my AO to address and solve many issues, problems, and to plan for the future. A year ago, the city councils would not show up to work because if they did, they were killed as they were seen as "agents" of the Americans by AQI. Now, they look forward to my arrival so issues like schools, rubble removal, water treatment plants, sewage repairs, repairs of the electrical grids, infrastructure modernization, and an assortment of other issues can be worked out, prioritized, and assets allocated for them to begin work.

I also spend a great deal of time with the major Sheiks in my AO. They are some of the most gracious hosts you have ever met. My Marines and I are treated liked royalty every time we arrive. Delicious lamb, goat, sheep, kabobs, fresh fruits and vegetables are served in amounts we could never finish and we always eat first and get the seats of honor closest to the Sheik. We then adjourn for Chi tea and discuss issues that require my attention such as security, economic stimulation, tribal reconciliation, local government issues, and of course stories of past battles and fights...all embellished but they make great stories anyway.

Three brothers in the town of Baghdadi , one of whom who happens to be the Police Chief and is known as the "Lion of Al Anbar", are particularly gracious hosts. They were some of the first to stand up against AQI and to stand with the Marines. They have suffered greatly for choosing to fight AQI and for freedom. The Police Chief, Colonel Shab'an has had no less then 7 direct assassination attempts against him. I was here last year and saw him after one attack against him was nearly successful. One of his brothers was killed, a brother-in-law was tortured and beheaded, and one of his younger brothers lost his legs in a mortar attack. Yet, he remains committed to a free and independent Iraq . His talks to me about freedom, democracy, and his loyalty to Iraq and justice are inspiring.

Colonel Shab'an has become a sort of folk hero to his community and his willingness to stand up for their freedom and safety has inspired thousands of Iraqis. His two brothers, one a Sheik and the other a local businessman are also servants to their community. The Sheik is the City Council Chairman and has almost single handedly reorganized the local government from a board of obstructionists to a functioning and effective governing body who work almost non-stop to improve the lives of the people within their area. The other brother is a very successful businessman who has donated tens of thousands of dollars to fix water treatment plants, to pay of the salaries of the police before the national government could or would, and his source network has led to the successful capture of many terrorists and criminals.

The nights in their neighborhood are particularly enjoyable as we sit outside to eat and the children in the neighborhood run around, laughing, and sneaking up to listen to me talk or to try and get some more candy from me. They are so proud of the security they have established for their families, their tribe, and the people in their community. I am proud just to be considered their friend.

Overall, the folks I have met are good people who want to raise their families, farm their land, and just have the ability to choose their own future for one of the few times in their country's history. Their admiration and appreciation to us and to the American people for the opportunity we have offered them is genuine and heartfelt.

While there has been a great deal of progress, there is still much to do. While most of the terrorists have been forced from the population centers, there are still secret cells. We have found and been attacked by a number of IEDs already. We have found a good number of buried caches along the river banks that were planted there for future use against us. Iraq is far from a peaceful land; there are many political issues above my level that must be worked out. The rifts between the religious sects are as tough a problem to figure out as anything else ever has been...think Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland .

The bottom line is this...we are winning the counter-insurgency fight here in Al Anbar. We are winning as a result of the past 5 years of work by thousands of Marines, Sailors, and Soldiers who worked tirelessly to get us where we are today This didn't happen overnight and we lost many good men and women to achieve it. We have put the enemy on the run and we are not letting the pressure off. We continue to hunt him down and provide him no rest. My Marines, actually your Marines, are patrolling in the cities, in the desert, and on the river to find the enemy and destroy him. And the Marines do not patrol alone. Almost every operation we do has Iraqi Police, Army, or both with the Marines. They are brave, committed to winning, and they try as hard as they can to emulate the Marines they are serving with. At the same time we continue to build our relationships with the local leaders, Sheiks, and most importantly the Iraq people.

I am optimistic that if given the time and support of the American people, we can help create a country whose vast natural resources and potential will make it one of the strongest and most powerful nations in the region. Iraq will be our Ally and they will not forget the sacrifices the American people have made on their behalf. I realize and understand that many back home are tired of this conflict and want it to end. I will not provide any argument there but I will offer that "wishing" away this problem is not reality. The Islamic extremists that wish to destroy us are not going away, they cannot be 'talked' to, and they will not negotiate.
***Ironman0311 added highlights ***

I have been here three years in a row now and I can see the progress. I can see the improvement in the capabilities and potential in the Iraqi Security Forces, I can see the willingness and desire of civic and local leaders to build a better future for their people, and I can see that most of the civilian population has turned its back on AQI because of their empty promises. I can see hope, a hope that many Iraqis have never known before, and a hope they do not want to loose.

Your Marines are doing exceptionally well. They are focused, they are disciplined, and they continue to attack each day with vigor and enthusiasm. I am continually inspired by their courage, dedication, and willingness to sacrifice for others. I am truly blessed for the privilege to lead them.

I would like to thank all of you for your continued prayers and support. It means the world to us to know you are all still behind us and that you want us to successfully complete this mission. Please remember all the 1/7 families and all the families of those serving here in Iraq that have been left behind in your prayers as well.

Semper Fidelis and God Bless,
JJ
LtCol JJ Dill
Commanding Officer
Task Force 1/7
Hit , Iraq