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**************************************** Na-na-na-na, Na-na-na-na. Hey, hey, hey...goodbye! And good riddance. Burn in that hot place Uday and Qusay. Hope your daddy joins you soon. I'm sorry. Was that insensitive? **************************************** How to Subscribe If you know someone who might like to receive News & Views, you can sign 'em up at: http://www.chuckmuth.com. **************************************** Miller Time "I don't think of myself as a classic conservative. I think of myself as a pragmatist. And these days, pragmatism falls into the conservative camp. We have to depend on ourselves in this country right now because we can't depend on anyone else. We are simultaneously the most loved, hated, feared, and respected nation on this planet. In short, we're Frank Sinatra. . . . As I get older, it seems unsafe to me to be anything but a conservative." - Comedian Dennis Miller, The Weekly Standard, 7/28/03 **************************************** Hatchet Job on Reagan, This Fall on CBS CBS, the television network that gives us the conservative-loathing Dan Rather every night on the evening news, is planning a four-hour "sweeps week" mini-series on the Reagans next November. Now, if there was ANY doubt that CBS intends to portray "The Reagans" in anything but a positive light, guess who they've cast to play the former president? Barbra Streisand's hubby, James Brolin. What...wasn't Ed Asner available? **************************************** Party of Liars At It Again "Republicans are crying foul over a new Democratic TV ad accusing President Bush of misleading the American public on the nuclear threat from Iraq. The original 16 words in the president's State of the Union Address have been shortened to 10 for the Democratic ad. The ad has Bush saying, 'Saddam Hussein recently sought quantities of uranium from Africa.' "But the complete Bush quote was, 'The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.' The Republican National Committee demanded the ad be yanked, claiming it was 'deliberately false and misleading.'" - New York Post, 7/22/03 **************************************** Blood Money for Extortionists "The only really sincere tribute was presented by Wachovia, the North Carolina banking conglomerate, $1 million for the NAACP's 'educational initiatives.' These 'educational initiatives' consist most prominently of preserving miserable public schools to trap hundreds of thousands of black children in drug-riddled schools with frightened and addled teachers who barely teach the kids to write their names, and opposing school vouchers, with which black parents yearn to liberate their children from the dreary cycle of poverty, ignorance and exclusion from the American dream." - Wesley Pruden, "Pruden On Politics," 7/22/03 **************************************** New Elephant King Comes Out Swinging "Ed Gillespie says his job as the Republican National Committee's new chairman will be to 'push back' whenever the Democrats attack President Bush, and he intends to be very combative during the next 15 months. . . . He says that while Mr. Bush has 'changed the tone in Washington' by staying above the political fray of charges and countercharges, the RNC chairman's job every day is to get into the thick of the fight and beat up the president's adversaries." - Washington Times, 7/22/03 **************************************** Looking Back "(Democrat presidential) Candidate (Sen. John) Kerry's political rhetoric is an indictment of his Senate record. His policy approach is based solely on hindsight, reflecting an inability to look ahead to the needs of securing our homeland and winning the war against terror. And now he wants the American people to think he's a champion of homeland preparedness? Come on." - Soon-to-be new Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie, Washington Times, 7/22/03 **************************************** Just Say So "If Senator Kerry regrets his vote to remove Saddam Hussein, he should just say so. If Senator Kerry would change his vote to remove Saddam Hussein, he should just say so. If Senator Kerry is embarrassed by his vote because it's unpopular with the antiwar base of his party, he should just say so." - Christine Iverson of the Republican National Committee, Washington Times, 7/22/03 ************************************ 4.75 cents-per-minute Long Distance * All state-to-state calls in the continental U.S. * Residential or commercial * 6-second billing increments * 24 hours/day * 7 days/week * No access codes * No minimums * No activation fees * Calling Card Rate is 10 cents per minute * No monthly service charge unless your bill is less than $20.00 a month (then a $1.99 service charge will apply) * No need to change your local phone company * No hassles * Easy sign-up. * And a small portion of each bill goes to help continue publishing our FREE Chuck Muth's News & Views e-newsletter. Just go to: http://www.NewsandViewsLongDistance.com ***************************************** Goin' Postal "Check this out for our postage increases at work: I live on a circle off of a street where the mailboxes are on the houses. But since the circle is a new development, the mailboxes are at the curb. Our post-man, disappointed I think that we didn't get a community mailbox, refuses to deliver the mail if there is any vehicle near the mailbox. All along his route he walks to the houses to deliver the mail, but on our tiny little circle he won't walk five feet from his vehicle to drop mail in our curbside box. Doing the absolute minimum, that's the way to run a federal business, and 'earn' a wage that is higher than the average on my street." - News & Views reader "Mike" **************************************** Out With the Old, In With the New The Orlando Sentinel has reported that "cost-cutting moves to close some post offices could change an American icon. A presidential commission studying ways to offer better mail services for less cost has recommended opening kiosks in shopping malls, banks and grocery stores to replace money-losing post offices, many in small towns and rural areas." And the Ventura County Star reports that "a presidential commission on the future of the U.S. Postal Service is wrapping up work, with its recommendations to be presented to President Bush later this month. The commission will recommend that the Postal Service be able to close excess facilities and get out of expensive prime real estate and into the shopping malls, banks and supermarkets where their customers have presumably gravitated." It's about time. **************************************** Mission Creep at the Post Office The President's Commission on Postal Reform is scheduled to make its final recommendations in a report to be released on July 31, 2003. In the meantime, two prominent postal officials have recently advocated USPS expansion into non-postal areas of service, including banking (if you think the lines are long now, you ain't seen nothing yet!), as a way to generate more money for this money-losing government-protected monopoly. We thought this was a bad idea and asked our friends over at Wilson Research Strategies to find out what the rest of America thought. So WRS surveyed 1001 adults over the weekend for us and found that a majority agrees that the post office needs to tighten its belt and "stick to the knitting," while just over a third support allowing the USPS to encroach on other areas where private businesses are already serving the public well. We sent these results over to the commission for their consideration. You can read a copy of our news release on these poll results at: http://chuckmuth.com/newsrelease.htm **************************************** The Gold Standard of Drug Safety "Americans have every reason to be confident that the prescription drugs they receive are safe, effective, pure and potent. Our regulatory system is the gold standard; we trust it, and we rely on it. But our confidence would be shattered in a moment and our health threatened in an instant if that standard were suddenly lowered or violated, which is what could happen if Congress passes H.R. 2427, a drug importation bill slated for a House vote this week. "...The answer for patients who need improved access to prescription medications is not to ask tens of thousands of them, many of them seniors, to take enormous personal risks every day by purchasing their medications from unknown sources." - Carl B Feldbaum, president of the Biotechnology Industry Organization **************************************** Out of Gas I attended a luncheon featuring Interior Secretary Gale Norton yesterday and learned the following: (1) Natural gas is a "clean" energy source, (2) greatly increased demand is quickly overtaking existing supply, (3) which means substantially higher prices for you and me, and (4) natural gas doesn' t grow on trees. Yep, natural gas is found underground and you have to dig to get it out. Who knew? And therein lies the problem. While there is plenty of natural gas in the ground that can be safely extracted, environmentalists are once again standing in the way of bringing it inexpensively to a stove or water heater near you. Some kind of balance needs to be reached between *reasonable* environmental concerns and this nation's energy needs in a new comprehensive energy bill. So it's all up to Congress now. Uh-oh. **************************************** Media Deregulation "The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Congress are both wrong in their current clash over whether media-ownership limits to promote viewpoint diversity should be either relaxed or maintained. The limits should be abandoned. Concentration of radio, television and newspaper properties should be policed only by antitrust laws that arrest anti-competitive mergers or acquisitions in all industries." - Columnist Bruce Fein ****************************************** Affordable Campaign Websites! Now you can get professional-looking campaign web sites for as little as $10 a month. That's right...just ten smackeroos a month. Here's what's included in this fantastic new program from Campaign Secrets, Inc. (available ONLY to Republican candidates): * Free Hosting * Unique Domain Name * Personal Email Accounts * Credit Card Processing * Unlimited Edits * Event Calendar * Volunteer Sign-up Page * Built-in Bulk Emailer Campaign Site Builder can be used for political organizations and non-profits, as well. For more information, just go to: http://www.campaignsecrets.com/websites.asp *********************************** How to Subscribe If you know someone who might like to receive News & Views, you can sign 'em up at: http://www.chuckmuth.com. Also, occasionally, the automatic listserve we use will "bump" subscribers off the list if your mailbox is full or experiences some other technical glitch. If you suddenly stop receiving News & Views, the first thing you should do is try to re-subscribe using the link above. Published by Citizen Outreach Chuck Muth Editor/Publisher 611 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE, #439 Washington, DC 20003-4303 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Citizen Outreach is a 501(c)(3) non-profit public policy organization and does not endorse candidates or lobby for specific legislation. The opinions and views expressed in Chuck Muth's News & Views reflect those of the writers, editors and columnists therein and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Citizen Outreach, its officers, directors or employees. To be REMOVED, go to: http://www.chuckmuth.com/remove/default.cfm and complete the removal request instructions you'll find there. Or send your request to [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # #
