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*********************************** Twas the Night Before Christmas... Not the night before the "winter holidays." More on this in tomorrow's EXTRA SPECIAL (albeit brief) Christmas edition. *********************************** Flying the Unfriendly Skies John McCaslin's "Inside the Beltway" column on Tuesday included the latest example of stupidity striking the airline industry. Seems award-winning fiddle champion Bonnie Rideout was on her way from Washington, DC, to Wichita, Kansas and "didn't wish her violin to get damaged or even lost by baggage handlers." Rideout took the valuable violin from its case, checked the bag and wanted to hold the instrument in her lap for the duration of the flight. "My violin is smaller than an infant and bothers no one," the musician pointed out. The airline folks didn't agree and refused to let her violin onboard. Rideout objected...and was promptly arrested. She and the violin will have their day in court on February 13. Now...don't you feel a lot safer about air travel this Christmas season? *********************************** Subscribe FREE to News & Views If you or someone you know would like to receive our FREE daily News & Views e-briefing, just go to: http://www.chuckmuth.com/newsletter/ And if you want to read past issues of News & Views, you can do so by going to: http://www.mail-archive.com/newsandviews%40chuckmuth.com/ *********************************** Another Victory for Bush's "Cowboy Diplomacy" "Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi made it clear that his decision to disarm was prompted by Operation Iraqi Freedom. 'I will do whatever the Americans want because I saw what happened in Iraq, and I was afraid,' Mr. Gadhafi told Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, according to a Berlusconi spokesman who was quoted in yesterday's Telegraph of London." - Washington Times, 12/23/03 *********************************** And Yet Another Victory for Bush's "Cowboy Diplomacy" "Russia has offered to write off more than a half of the $8 billion it is owed by Iraq, but in return it envisages a multi-billion investment in rebuilding the country. . . . Moscow earlier said it had no intention of writing off the debt, after learning that it -- along with other countries that opposed the U.S.-led war -- was unable to participate in the U.S.-funded reconstruction projects. But after a meeting last week with President Bush's special envoy on Iraq, former Secretary of State James Baker, Putin expressed conditional readiness to ease the debt burden. In exchange for the debt reduction offer, Russia expects to benefit from the rebuilding efforts." - CNS News, 12/23/03 *********************************** Boca Cerrada, Muy Bueno "Libya's decision to give up its weapons of mass destruction is making it harder for Democrats such as Howard Dean to disparage President Bush's war against Iraq, which prompted Libya's move. Mr. Dean, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, has been uncharacteristically silent about Mr. Bush's bombshell announcement on Friday that Libya has agreed unconditionally to relinquish its chemical-, biological- and nuclear-weapons programs." - Washington Times, 12/23/03 *********************************** The UN's "Spider Hole" "Many of the Democratic presidential candidates, their fannies smarting from having the rug pulled out from under them, returned to their favorite mantra - the capture of Saddam, said Sen. John Kerry and others - was an 'opportunity' to get the United Nations more involved in postwar Iraq. What is this mythic U.N. they keep invoking? Memo to liberals: The U.N. bugged out of Iraq after the bombing of its headquarters, remember? It's perched at a safe distance in Cyprus." - Columnist Mona Charen *************************************** 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 *********************************** Liberty vs. Security "If you are sleeping easy at night over the federal government's success at protecting the nation from more mega-terrorist atrocities since the horrors of September 11, read James Bovard's latest broadside and think again. . . . "Terrorism and Tyranny: Trampling Freedom, Justice and Peace to Rid the World of Evil" is a timely, troubling book, exhaustively and impeccably researched and documented. "One need not agree with all Mr. Bovard's conclusions or arguments to welcome it as an important, indeed essential, guide to the complex issues with which we must now grapple. It is difficult to argue with the author's claim that "the more freedoms Americans lose, the more dangerous government becomes." One can hardly imagine Thomas Jefferson, James Madison or Patrick Henry disagreeing with that." - UPI columnist Martin Sieff *********************************** Supreme Attack "The Supreme Court's Dec. 10 decision upholding the May 2002 campaign finance reform law was, in its own way, as great an attack on American liberty as the terror attacks of September 11, 2001. . . . President Bush, by not vetoing the bill, violated the oath of office he took in January 2001 to uphold the Constitution. . . . Mr. Bush's position on the world stage is increasingly magnificent, but he can't maintain it if he is less bold in protecting freedom at home than abroad. Mr. Bush needs to assert he strongly disagrees with the court's decision and that he will oppose it in his upcoming campaign." - Columnist, diplomatic historian and former intelligence analyst William Goldcamp *********************************** South Park Potty-Mouths "Wesley Clark, talking to a man at a forum in New Hampshire this weekend, told the man live on C-SPAN that if Mr. Bush or Democrats questioned his commitment to the military and veterans, he would kick the spit out of them. Only the retired Army general didn't say 'spit.' And Sen. John Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat, in an interview with Rolling Stone published this month, said he never thought the president would go and muck up reconstruction in Iraq. Only he didn't say 'muck.' " - Washington Times, 12/23/03 *********************************** We Knew Ike...And General, You're No Ike "Retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark says it would have been 'easy' for him to run for president as a Republican because he would remind the Republican Party of Dwight David Eisenhower." - Greg Pierce's "Inside Politics," 12/23/03 *********************************** Yes, You Did...No I Didn't...Yes You Did...No I Didn't. "Howard Dean, the current front-runner among Democrats seeking George W. Bush's job, is denying that he offered rival Wesley Clark a spot on his ticket. Dean for America Communications Director Tricia Enright said on Monday, 'While it's flattering that the Clark campaign has spent the past two days doing nothing but trying to prove that Governor Dean offered General Clark a Vice Presidential slot, saying something 100 times doesn't make it true and this isn't.' "Clark has told reporters that he would consider Dean (D-VT) or Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) as his running mate and explained how Dean had offered him the role of his number two prior to the retired general's decision to get into the race." - Talon News, 12/23/03 *********************************** For the Record "This year, Republicans in Congress have passed the largest expansion in federal entitlements in four decades and have presided over record increases in domestic spending." - Columnist John Fund, OpinionJournal.com, 12/22/03 *********************************** Swimming in Pork "Like most other members of Congress, Representative Jim Gibbons, Republican of Nevada, tries to do what he can for the folks back home. . . . But it was...$225,000 to repair a swimming pool in Sparks, Nev., his hometown, that got Mr. Gibbons in hot water. The 59-year-old congressman confessed that he sought the money because he had always felt guilty about clogging the pool's drain with tadpoles when he was 10 years old. 'Congressman Gibbons is using taxpayer dollars to repay his debt to society,' Brian M. Reidl, a federal budget analyst at the Heritage Foundation, a research organization, said in describing the pool money as his 'favorite pork story.' " - New York Times, 12/19/03 *********************************** The High Cost of Compassionate Conservatism "Many conservatives have joined the lament over current federal spending trends. Nearly every elephantine program Congress could conceive has met with White House approval. . . . It is easy to predict this current borrow-and-spend tactic eventually will backfire, if not from rumblings within the conservative movement, then by virtue of its own unsustainable nature. "...Federal spending has jumped drastically and understandably in the defense budget, considering the one-two punch of being underfunded by the previous administration and the exigencies created by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. But tack on $58 billion for 'No Child Left Behind,' plus the bailout of state governments (apparently running without any adult supervision), stir in Medicare and energy spending, then add an enormous portion of pork and 'Houston, we have a problem.' "...There are many great, positive things to say about this Congress and this administration. At the same time, there is an undeniable negative - federal spending." - Paul Weyrich, president, Free Congress Foundation *********************************** The Making of a Conservative " 'The soul of the new machine,' is how Mother Jones describes Grover Norquist in an in-depth profile. 'As national ward boss for the right,' writes Michael Scherer, 'Norquist has gone a long way toward demolishing the old Democratic agenda. And he isn't done yet.' "For readers who don't know the 47-year-old president of Americans for Tax Reform, his invitation-only Wednesday meetings, for which he is the blunt master of ceremonies, 'have become a hot ticket for Washington's conservative In Crowd, the place for GOP players to brain-storm, swap intelligence and see and be seen.' Even Karl Rove, the president's top political adviser, is known to drop by. As do senators and congressmen, from 259 of whom Mr. Norquist has secured written promises not to raise taxes. ".'My ideal citizen is the self-employed, home-schooling, IRA-owning guy with a concealed-carry permit,' he says. 'Because that person doesn't need the [expletive] government for anything. And rather than negotiate with the teachers unions and the trial lawyers and the various leftist interest groups, we intend to break them,' says Mr. Norquist, who at age 12 volunteered for Richard Nixon's campaign. "What first turned the former leader of the College Republicans against unfair taxes? 'After church,' reveals Mr. Scherer, his father would buy him and his three younger siblings ice-cream cones and then steal bites, announcing with each chomp, ' 'Oops, income tax. Oops, sales tax.' ' " - John McCaslin's "Inside the Beltway, 12/23/03 *********************************** Put Your Two Cents In Today on the Discussion Board... * Death Penalty & Deterrence * Big Government/Big Spending * Illegal Immigration * Drug War Quagmire * Zero Tolerance Stupidity * Hating George Bush * The Patriot Act Weigh in. Share your opinion. Comment. Inter-activate. Just go to: http://blog.chuckmuth.com/blog/ *************************************** About Us Chuck Muth's News & Views is published by Citizen Outreach, a member-supported 501(c)3 non-profit corp. If you enjoy News & Views, please make a tax-deductible contribution using your Visa, MasterCard, American Express or Discover card by going to: https://www.paypal.com/xclick/business=donations%40citizenoutreach.com&item_name=Citizen+Outreach&no_shipping=1&tax=0¤cy_code=USD Published by Citizen Outreach Chuck Muth Editor/Publisher 611 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE, #439 Washington, DC 20003-4303 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 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] - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
