Rational Review News Digest ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Published Monday-Friday, except for holidays Made possible by the generous support of our readers http://www.rationalreview.com/news
Produced in cooperation with the International Society for Individual Liberty http://www.isil.org ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Volume IV, Issue #817 Friday, January 20th, 2006 Email Circulation 2,071 ------ SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS -------------------------------------- JOIN THE BOLD NEW INTERNET FOR LIBERTY "... less 'Stephen Plus Stephen,' more like 'Stephen Squared ...'" -- Michael Badnarik. Join the revolution! http://hammeroftruth.com/new-venture-for-liberty/ LIBERTARIAN? TIRED OF BEING A SLAVE? Discover how to locally build, market and popularize liberty. No need to move or give up. Free libertarian outreach materials, eBooks and more. You can be free. Join us. http://libertopia.net/pages/downloads.html BUREAUCRASH CONTRABAND Buy a subversive tee or 5 for your favorite free-thinker. They make great Chrismukkahwanzadan gifts! http://bureaucrash.com/contraband LIBERTYSTICKERS.COM The world's most dangerous stickers! http://www.libertystickers.com -------------------------------------- SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS ----- Today's News: 1) Iraq: Multiple attacks create new casualties 2) Iran moves assets on sanction threats 3) Iraq: Election results show Sunni gains 4) Report: Japan to halt US beef imports 5) BlackBerry maker fights to keep device running 6) Wilson Pickett, 1941-2005 7) Faster checks of fliers to start 8) Google rebuffs feds on search data 9) Ex-Enron CEO Skilling likely to face fewer charges 10) Father: "American Taliban" should get clemency 11) Bin Laden tape won't raise security level 12) States push tougher DUI breath test laws 13) Cheney defends administration spy ring 14) Republican offers cash for "left-wing" class tapes 15) In Goth we trust ... 16) Army raises max enlistment age 17) Disney to buy Pixar? 18) Border crossing cards could become official ID 19) AZ: Senator can't even give it away 20) "Plantation" remarks echo on Hill 21) US plans to shift diplomats to developing countries 22) DoJ to declare illegal spying legal (again) 23) Illinois: Student expelled for "doodle" 24) FL: Fatal shooting ruled justifiable 25) NC: Man dies after alleged car theft attempt Today's Commentary: 26) Bin Laden returns 27) Mountains, Moles and Movers 28) Hiding behind the troops 29) US oil dependency due to refinery shortage 30) Going out of business 31) Uppity in Central Park 32) You can be too careful 33) The who and why of big-bucks politics 34) An incentive to give 35) The looming fiat currency train wreck 36) Israel's folly 37) Fear of spying 38) Modern liberalism's central flaw 39) Crashing the House party 40) This is your county on meth 41) Evidence of a stolen election 42) Drug addled 43) Taking on the hotels 44) Sidelining human rights 45) Where's the sleaze? (Hint: Not at clubs) 46) Lobbying scandal ambush 47) Assisted suicide ruling supports states' rights 48) Bring back the Golden Fleece 49) Treating the pain by ending a life 50) Al Gore is right, for once 51) Are you ready to be bugged and tortured by George W. Bush? 52) Dare to make a stand 53) A colony again 54) Snowflakes and the Second Law 55) New study confirms Kyoto's impotency 56) Bohm-Bawerk speaks again 57) Nothing new in tax reform report 58) Big brother by stealth 59) The war of Bush against the American people Today's Movement News and Events: 60) National Patriol Act Call-In Day 61) Petition: Mary Ruwart for President 62) Eminent Domain: Abuse of Government Power? 63) The Drug Czar's coming to a town near you 64) Austrian Scholars Conference 2006 Today in Political History: 65) Faulkner's folly News 1) Iraq: Multiple attacks create new casualties Reuters "Two civilians were killed and three wounded when a roadside bomb targeting a U.S. patrol exploded in Baghdad's Karada district .... Iraqi security forces said they had found the bodies of seven civilians just east of the village of Dujail .... One policeman was killed and four wounded when their patrol was struck by a roadside bomb in the town of Miqdadia .... Seven people were wounded, including four policemen, when a car bomb targeting a police patrol exploded in northern Baghdad .... Police said a U.S. patrol was struck by a roadside bomb in southern Baghdad, but there were no reports of injuries .... A police commando was shot dead by gunmen while he was leaving his house in Kerbala .... a former Baath Party member, was found shot dead in a playground in Shi'ite Kerbala. ... Police said they had detained five insurgents trying to launch rockets in the town of Mussayib ..." (01/20/06) http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L20295959.htm ----- 2) Iran moves assets on sanction threats Reuters "Embroiled in a nuclear standoff with the West, Iran said on Friday it was moving its foreign assets to shield them from possible UN sanctions and flexed its oil muscles with a proposal to cut OPEC output. 'Yes, Iran has started withdrawing money from European banks and transferring it to other banks abroad,' said a senior Iranian official, who asked not to be named. ... The United States and the European Union want the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to refer Iran to the Security Council at an emergency meeting on February 2. The council has the power to impose trade or diplomatic sanctions, though no swift action to punish Iran is likely. Russia and China, which both have major commercial interests at stake in the Islamic Republic, have urged caution." (01/20/06) http://tinyurl.com/d3fko ----- 3) Iraq: Election results show Sunni gains Houston Chronicle "he election commission said Friday that an alliance of Shiite religious parties won the biggest number of seats in Iraq's new parliament but too few to rule without coalition partners. Sunni Arabs gained seats over the previous balloting. Commission official Safwat Rasheed said the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance captured 128 of the 275 seats in the Dec. 15 election, down from the 146 it won in the January 2005 balloting. It needed 138 to rule without partners." (01/20/06) http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/3600222.html ----- 4) Report: Japan to halt US beef imports Maysville Ledger Indepent "Japan will halt U.S. beef imports following the discovery of material considered at risk of mad cow disease in a shipment from the United States, Kyodo News agency reported Friday. ... Japan in December partially lifted a two-year-old ban on American beef imports imposed in 2003 following the discovery of the first case of mad cow disease in U.S. herds." (01/20/06) http://tinyurl.com/bcvyk ----- 5) BlackBerry maker fights to keep device running Albany Times-Union "Research In Motion Ltd. says its BlackBerry e-mail device is so critical that a court-ordered shutdown of U.S. service could threaten public safety and business productivity. The Canadian company is trying to avoid a possible injunction, the result of a long-running infringement case won by NTP Inc., a tiny patent-holding firm. In a filing Tuesday in federal court in Richmond, RIM argued that there is 'exceptional public interest' in keeping BlackBerries beeping. And the idea of exempting government and emergency users from an injunction -- which NTP has suggested -- would result in errors, RIM said. In a filing of its own Tuesday, NTP asked U.S. District Judge James R. Spencer for a permanent injunction." [hat tip to Rocky Costanzo] (01/19/06) http://tinyurl.com/ad3qn ----- 6) Wilson Pickett, 1941-2005 Yahoo! News "Veteran soul singer Wilson Pickett, known for such hits as 'Mustang Sally' and 'In the Midnight Hour,' died on Thursday of a heart attack in Virginia, his manager said. He was 64. ... Dubbed 'Wicked' Wilson Pickett by Jerry Wexler, the co-founder of Atlantic Records, where he enjoyed his greatest success, Pickett was one of the leading exponents of the hard-edged Memphis sound, a grittier alternative to the pop singles being churned out by Motown Records in Detroit." (01/19/06) http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060120/ts_nm/pickett_dc ----- 7) Faster checks of fliers to start USA Today "Air travelers who pass extensive background checks will soon be able to avoid security hassles such as removing suit jackets and shoes at checkpoints, the nation's aviation-security chief said Thursday. Three years in the works, the Registered Traveler program is finally set to begin June 20, Transportation Security Administration chief Kip Hawley told USA TODAY. It could signify the greatest change in aviation security since 9/11 by shifting millions of passengers into expedited lanes at airports." (01/19/06) http://tinyurl.com/8zw98 ----- 8) Google rebuffs feds on search data Indianapolis Star "Google Inc. is rebuffing the Bush administration's demand for a peek at what millions of people have been looking up on the Internet's leading search engine -- a request that underscores the potential for online databases to become tools for government surveillance. Mountain View-based Google has refused to comply with a White House subpoena first issued last summer, prompting U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales this week to ask a federal judge in San Jose for an order to hand over the requested records." (01/19/06) http://tinyurl.com/867xm ----- 9) Ex-Enron CEO Skilling likely to face fewer charges Houston Chronicle "Former Enron Chief Executive Jeff Skilling will likely face 31 instead of 35 felony counts when his trial begins later this month. In a revised indictment, the Enron Task Force is suggesting downsizing the charges a bit. Though the bulk of the case against him, including conspiracy, fraud and insider trading accusations, remains the same, Skilling likely would no longer face four counts of wire fraud involving the Raptor hedging structures." (0/19/06) http://tinyurl.com/b8lhz ----- 10) Father: "American Taliban" should get clemency MSNBC "After years of silence, the father of American-born Taliban soldier John Walker Lindh called on President Bush on Thursday to grant clemency to his son, who he says was wrongly maligned as a traitor and murderer. 'In simple terms, this is the story of a decent and honorable young man embarked on a spiritual quest,' said Frank Lindh, swallowing back tears at times during a speech at the Commonwealth Club, a nonprofit organization." (01/19/06) http://msnbc.msn.com/id/10930555/ ----- 11) Bin Laden tape won't raise security level Detroit Free Press "The United States has no plans to raise the security threat level because of a new tape of Osama bin Laden saying al-Qaida is planning attacks, counterterrorism officials said Thursday. The White House firmly rejected bin Laden's suggestion of a negotiated truce. 'We don't negotiate with terrorists,' Vice President Dick Cheney said in a television interview." (01/19/06) http://tinyurl.com/e3zqe ----- 12) States push tougher DUI breath test laws CNN "States are trying to toughen penalties for suspected drunken drivers who refuse to take a breath test, arguing motorists too often get a milder penalty than if they had provided evidence that could convict them. Bills to lengthen license suspensions or make it a criminal offense to refuse a test are pending in five states, including Ohio, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, where the percentages of people refusing are among the highest in the nation." (01/19/06) http://tinyurl.com/9jyyd ----- 13) Cheney defends administration spy ring Cincinnati Enquirer "Vice President Dick Cheney on Thursday defended the Bush administration's domestic surveillance program, saying it is an essential tool in monitoring al-Qaida and other terrorist organizations. But Cheney stressed that the program was limited and conducted in a way that safeguarded civil liberties. ... Four Democrats, in a letter to the vice president, asked that the administration consult with all members of the House and Senate intelligence committees on the program." (01/19/06) http://tinyurl.com/bo52y ----- 14) Republican offers cash for "left-wing" class tapes Independent [UK] "The University of California's Los Angeles campus is in turmoil after a Republican graduate offered students money to record classes of professors they suspect of left-wing bias and 'indoctrination.' Andrew Jones has drawn up a hitlist of professors he refers to as the 'dirty 30' at UCLA. He has devoted many pages of his website to denouncing their supposed malfeasance. ... So far, only one student has signed up to record his professor, leading many targeted faculty members to believe their best strategy might be to lie low and let the right-wing ideologues tear each other apart." (01/19/06) http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article339839.ece ----- 15) In Goth we trust ... Ananova [UK] "A goth vicar is running services at his church featuring music from the likes of the Sisters of Mercy instead of hymns. Rev Marcus Ramshaw, 34, who is a Goth himself, is behind the special services at St Edward King and Martyr Church in Cambridge. The candlelit Goth Eucharist services feature a specially written liturgy and music from bands like Depeche Mode, Joy Division and the Sisters of Mercy." (01/19/06) http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1689421.html ----- 16) Army raises max enlistment age Reuters "The U.S. Army, which missed its fiscal 2005 recruiting goal, said on Wednesday it has raised the maximum enlistment age for new soldiers by five years to 39, greatly expanding its pool of potential recruits. Army officials said the move did not reflect desperation to reverse recruiting shortfalls, noting the Army had achieved seven straight monthly recruiting goals despite coming up 7,000 short of last year's target of 80,000 recruits. The Army has blamed recruiting shortfalls in part on reluctance by some potential recruits to serve in the Iraq war. Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty, an Army spokesman, said older recruits must meet the same physical standards as the younger ones and attend the same basic training. The new age ceiling applies to recruits without prior military service." (01/19/06) http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N18239519.htm ----- 17) Disney to buy Pixar? San Francisco Chronicle "Steve Jobs is in serious talks to sell his Pixar Animation Studios to Walt Disney Co., according to a Wall Street Journal story that quotes unnamed sources. However, a deal is not certain, and a new distribution arrangement could also be reached instead of a sale, the sources said. For years, Pixar has partnered with Disney to distribute its films, although that arrangement is coming to an end, and speculation has been rampant about whether the two firms would extend their collaboration. If the deal were to go through at Pixar's current market value of $6.7 billion, the stock transaction would make Jobs Disney's largest shareholder and probably give him a seat on the media giant's board of directors, the Journal reported." (01/19/06) http://tinyurl.com/7nvdy ----- 18) Border crossing cards could become official ID NBC San Diego "One card would serve as a border pass, a driver's license and a security ID for entering federal buildings. It would include not just your name and picture, but your fingerprints and DNA. Just don't call it a national ID card. The Homeland Security Department is planning border crossing cards for Americans re-entering the country from Canada and Mexico. Officials hope to start issuing the PASS (for People Access Security Service) cards by the end of 2006, but will not require them for an additional year. A PASS card may also one day carry driver's license and other identification information, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Wednesday. But he told reporters, 'I don't think it's a national ID card.'" (01/19/06) http://www.nbcsandiego.com/travelgetaways/6244928/detail.html ----- 19) AZ: Senator can't even give it away Arizona Republic "Sen. Conrad Burns is redirecting a $111,000 donation he had given to the Montana-Wyoming Tribal Leaders Council after members said the money was tainted because it originally came from lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his clients. James Steele Jr., the council's vice chairman, said the organization voted not to accept the donation, which was made up of contributions from Abramoff, his associates and his tribal clients. Julia Doney, president of the Fort Belknap Indian Community Council and a member of the tribal leaders council, said Wednesday that some of the tribes are 'tired of being used' and do not want to appear as if they are helping Burns, R-Mont., with his political troubles. Burns' campaign chairman, Mark Baker, said Wednesday that the decision was 'disappointing' and that the senator would attempt to give most of the money to the tribes that originally donated it." (01/19/06) http://tinyurl.com/bf4ev ----- 20) "Plantation" remarks echo on Hill Washington Times "Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's fiery political remark Monday that the Republican House is like a 'plantation' has triggered charges of playing the race card and a sharp rebuke from first lady Laura Bush, who called her comment ridiculous. The New York Democrat's racial broadside during a Martin Luther King Day appearance at a Baptist church in Harlem continued to spark debate yesterday on both sides of the political aisle. Black Democratic leaders such as Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois defended and attempted to explain Mrs. Clinton's remarks, saying she was referring to a 'further consolidation of power' by Republicans in Washington. But Mrs. Bush, en route home from a trip to West Africa, said, 'I think it's ridiculous -- it's a ridiculous comment.'" (01/19/06) http://www.washtimes.com/national/20060118-101328-1304r.htm ----- 21) US plans to shift diplomats to developing countries Boston Globe "Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced yesterday that she plans to dramatically restructure the US diplomatic presence around the world, redeploying hundreds of diplomats from Europe and Washington to developing countries including China, India, Lebanon, and Nigeria over the next five years. Rice said the State Department would make a 'down payment' on the new strategy by moving 100 diplomats this year to Africa, Asia, and the Middle East as a first step toward achieving her larger vision of a State Department that is able to meet the needs of the 21st century. Rice's speech was part of an effort this week to unveil her strategy for 'transformational diplomacy,' creating a new kind of diplomatic corps that can do hands-on work with foreign citizens -- as they are doing now in Iraq and Afghanistan -- to help transform developing countries into democracies and to fight terrorism. Rice portrayed the changes as a move away from the outdated vestiges of the Cold War." (01/19/06) http://tinyurl.com/8bufb ----- 22) DoJ to declare illegal spying legal (again) Raw Story "In a detailed 42-page legal memorandum set for release this evening the Bush Justice Department will defend the President's warrantless wiretap program as legal. A copy of the document was leaked to RAW STORY. 'The NSA activities are supported by the President's well-recognized inherent constitutional authority as Commander in Chief and sole organ for the Nation in foreign affairs to conduct warrantless surveillance of enemy forces for intelligence purposes to detect and disrupt armed attacks on the United States,' Justice Department lawyers write, referring to the President's order to wiretap Americans' calls overseas. It adds, 'The President has the chief responsibility under the Constitution to protect America from attack, and the Constitution gives the President the authority necessary to fulfill that solemn responsibility.'" (01/19/06) http://tinyurl.com/ba9wd ----- 23) Illinois: Student expelled for "doodle" UPI "A 16-year-old boy who doodled an alleged gang symbol in his notebook has been expelled from high school in McHenry, Ill. Derek Kelly was expelled for the remainder of the school year Tuesday night during a closed session of the McHenry Community High School District 156 board. The Hispanic teen attended the meeting with his parents, who said he was not a gang member. The Chicago Tribune reported board officials said a doodle of a crown, a cross and a spider web with the initials 'D.L.K.' in the middle was a symbol of a street gang. The youth's full name is Derek Leon Kelly. " (01/18/06) http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20060118-061216-1348r ----- 24) FL: Fatal shooting ruled justifiable News4Jax "Charges are being dropped against a man arrested last Thursday night after a fatal shooting in Brentwood. Deounce Harden, 27, was arrested after calling police to report he'd shot someone and an officer arrived to find him standing over the body of Stevon Mitchell, holding a gun. After further investigation, police said Harden was acting in self-defense and ruled the shooting justifiable under a new state law that allows the use of deadly force when a person is being threatened." (01/19/06) http://www.news4jax.com/news/6252858/detail.html ----- 25) NC: Man dies after alleged car theft attempt Sanford Herald "Ashley Demetrius Gilliam, 21, of 805 Rose St., Sanford, died around 4:40 a.m. Tuesday after being shot outside 3415 U.S. 421, Lillington. According to the report, Gilliam was allegedly trying to steal a car from that address, which is the home of Gary Nolan and Raquel Patterson Jackson. Gilliam was approached by Gary Jackson and his father-in-law Derrick Allen Byrd, who lived next door. An altercation started and shots were fired. Gilliam was shot and killed. By Wednesday, deputies had not filed any charges, although they said the investigation was still ongoing. Deputies have not said whether they believe whether Gary Nolan Jackson or Derrick Allen Byrd was responsible for shooting Gilliam, or whether Gilliam was armed and if he fired any shots." (01/19/06) http://www.sanfordherald.com/articles/2006/01/19/news/news04.txt ----- RRND MEDIASHELF -------------------------------------------- Books, CDs and other tchotchkes from today's edition: Note: Affiliate links generate commissions for RRND's editors. -------------------------------------------- RRND MEDIASHELF ----- Commentary 26) Bin Laden returns AntiWar.Com by Justin Raimondo "They said he was dead, or so debilitated and 'on the run' that we would never hear from him again: they said he was cowering in a cave somewhere, without operational control of al-Qaeda and with no hope of ever affecting the world in the way he did on 9/11 and its immediate aftermath. All of this, however, turned out to be wishful thinking -- the main content of U.S. policymakers' pronouncements, these days -- in view of Osama bin Laden's latest audiotape, released by al-Jazeera on Tuesday. ... the big news is that bin Laden is offering the West a truce -- and if you think that is good news, then think again. For this can only mean he is preparing a new blow against us -- and is close to delivering it." (01/20/06) http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=8419 ----- 27) Mountains, Moles and Movers Hammer of Truth by Thomas L. Knapp "If I had to sum up the history of the Libertarian Party -- or, for that matter, the libertarian movement -- in one sentence, it would read as follows: 'It's not as simple as that.' Apropos of the subject, several writers ... have recently been addressing issues of ideological purity versus realpolitik versus plain good manners, versus ... well, you know. It always seems to come down to a couple of hypothetical groups, which I'll refer to (before exploding the notion that they actually exist) by the labels 'The Girondin' and 'Archimedes' give them in a recent thread on a Yahoo! mailing list: 'The Old Guard' and 'The LiberCops.'" (01/19/06) http://hammeroftruth.com/2006/01/19/mountains-moles-and-movers/ ----- 28) Hiding behind the troops AlterNet by David Corn "Hunting mass-murdering terrorists who live among civilians is indeed hard and nasty work, which most people find morally justifiable. ('We have to do what we think is necessary,' John McCain declared on Sunday.) Then let's be frank. Those who are willing to target a neighborhood in a far-away village -- hoping to kill a terrorist but knowing that innocent human beings may also be smashed to bits -- do not really believe in the dignity of every human life. They are willing to trade certain lives (of nameless people who happen to be villagers in a remote spot) for the results they seek. The cost-benefit analysis may be defensible; in all wars, noncombatants are killed. But please, let's not kid ourselves. Bush and his commanders in the war on terrorism are willing to waste nonterrorists to kill terrorists. Right or wrong, that is not caring about the dignity of every life." (01/20/06) http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/31007/ ----- 29) US oil dependency due to refinery shortage International Society for Individual Liberty by Jarret Wollstein "Mainstream media outlets have made it quite clear that they feel the U.S. is too dependent on foreign oil. Our oil dependency is a topic that finds it way into most articles about Iraq or Israel and is usually discussed in any reports about prices at the pump reaching new highs. But what you don't hear is that the lack of new American refineries may be the largest impediment to U.S. energy independence. And bureaucratic bungling has made the situation worse." (01/19/06) http://www.isil.org/towards-liberty/us-refinery-shortage.html ----- 30) Going out of business The Onion by staff "In an address broadcast on late-night television Tuesday, President Bush announced that the federal government will liquidate its holdings in a going-out-of-business sale scheduled to begin Friday. 'The U.S. government, America's place for law and order since 1776, has lost its lease, and everything must go, go, go,' Bush said. 'But our loss is your gain, and make no mistake: You, the people, would be crazy to miss out on these amazing closeout bargains.' The Washington-based government, which hasn't shown a profit in five years and carries the highest debt in its history, was ultimately driven out of business by costly overhead and cheap foreign competitors. As a result, Bush said, everything -- from flag stands and Capitol cafeteria flatware to legislation dating from the early days of the republic -- will be marked down 30 to 90 percent." [satire, or a beautiful dream?] (01/17/06) http://www.theonion.com/content/node/44455 ----- 31) Uppity in Central Park LewRockwell.Com by Butler Shaffer "There is no better example of the fraudulent nature of political systems than is to be found in the concept of 'eminent domain.' The lies that have long been taught to gullible people about how government exists in order to protect the lives and property of individuals, are revealed in the practice that allows the state to forcibly take property from its owners. If one bothers to examine the literal meaning of eminent domain, one discovers -- as one dictionary informs us -- the underlying premise of 'the superior dominion of the sovereign power over all lands within its jurisdiction.' The stark contradiction between the idea that the state was created to protect private property rights, and that the state has 'superior dominion' over all such property, has been conflated into the common belief that individual rights come from the state; that 'property' is a state-created concept." (01/20/06) http://www.lewrockwell.com/shaffer/shaffer128.html ----- 32) You can be too careful Reason by Brian Doherty "America did indeed suffer a wave of corporate scandals that ended in the loss of hundreds of billions of dollars in market value. And the scandals did involve accounting fraud, part of a desperate attempt to cover up the companies' grim realities. But the underlying problem was not crooked accounting; it was bad business practices. A reform aimed mostly at accounting is not likely to solve the problem of stocks that lose value because the people running the company have bad strategies and make stupid decisions and are losing money. In fact, better accounting will speed up the collapse in market value. Nor is it clear that CEO-certified financial information, SarbOx's main gift to the average investor, will make a noticeable difference." (01/06) http://www.reason.com/0601/fe.bd.you.shtml ----- 33) The who and why of big-bucks politics Cato Institute by David Boaz "Special-interest contributions to Congress are up sevenfold in the last nine years, but the new giving has just raised the price of influence. Prominent lobbyist J.D. Williams laments, 'The edge you get from raising money has been diluted. A few years ago, when fund raising as we now know it was in its infancy, it was vitally important. ... Now ... there is such an availability of funds that it's not as important as it used to be.' But fund raising goes on. Pity the poor lobbyists. Every time they learn a new technique -- PAC contributions, direct mail, grass-roots campaigns, junkets to Las Vegas -- everyone else learns it, too, and soon there's no profit in it. But they can't stop doing it as long as their competitors are doing it. Should any of this surprise us?" (originally published 11/15/1983; reposted 01/20/06) http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=5411 ----- 34) An incentive to give Opinion Journal by staff "The right to die was in the news this week after the Supreme Court upheld Oregon's assisted-suicide law. Yet we can't help thinking also about the issue of what might be called 'assisted life.' Some 90,000 Americans are on the waiting list for organ transplants, and many of them will die waiting. Despite years of publicity about the virtues of organ donation, the number of people who need transplants has been growing about five times faster than the rate of donations. Most new suggestions for closing this gap are controversial, particularly among professionals who administer or advise the national listing and matching program of the United Network for Organ Sharing, or UNOS. But nobody denies that there is a tragic shortage of organs." (01/20/06) http://www.opinionjournal.com/taste/?id=110007838 ----- 35) The looming fiat currency train wreck Free Market News Network by Rob Kirby "While the bulk of the Western World's main stream media continues to make pronouncements about the price of both crude oil and gold continuing to rise as a result of Iran's nuclear aspirations -- they have completely and utterly ignored the stark, dark reality of the currency train wreck [that is empirically only beginning to unfold] right in front of our eyes." (01/19/06) http://www.fmnn.com/Analysis/106/3489/2006-01-19.asp?nid=3489&wid=106 ----- 36) Israel's folly WorldNetDaily by Ilana Mercer "Boobus Bush's premise: He believes a stake in the Palestinian government will transform Hamas from a terror group into a political party (namely, a legalized band of terrorists). Sharon harbored no such illusions. He was cognizant of history -- and of the region's peculiarities. Did a stake in the Lebanese government do anything to change Hezbollah's vocation? Hardly. The shrewd Sharon simply surmised that a Hamas victory would prove conclusively that Israel has no genuine partner in peace. What else? There's the agreement between the PA, Israel and Egypt concerning the policing of the crossings between the three. Rammed through by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, it has further eroded what remains of Israeli sovereignty, national security and the war on terror. (Blame lies with Israel's leaders, of course, for acquiescing to all of Rice's requirements.)" (01/20/06) http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48426 ----- 37) Fear of spying Salon by Walter Shapiro "The larger question hovering over the Democrats, like any other out-of-power party, is how to strike the right balance between conviction and expediency. Rich Galen, a Republican strategist, expressed the consultants-know-best argument in the most bipartisan tone he could muster: 'As we Republicans learned with Ralph Reed and the Christian Coalition, those on the ideological edges are willing to lose an election on the grounds of doctrinal purity. Consultants don't do that. Consultants are in the business of winning elections.' But Time magazine columnist Joe Klein ('Primary Colors') will argue in a new book coming out this spring, 'Paradise Lost,' that misjudgments by Democratic consultants have played a major role in leaving the party without a power base more influential than the state of Illinois. And from my own vantage point, the Democrats' positioning on the eavesdropping issue invites comparisons to their fetal crouch in the run-up to the Iraqi War. A majority of Senate Democrats voted for Bush's go-to-war resolution -- including John Kerry, John Edwards and Hillary Clinton -- at least partly because the pollsters insisted that it was the only politically safe position, a ludicrous and self-destructive notion in hindsight." [subscription or ad view required] [editor's note: No, I don't know what the hell a "fetal crouch" is either - TLK] (01/20/06) http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/01/20/spying/ ----- 38) Modern liberalism's central flaw Rebirth of Reason by Tibor R. Machan "Modern liberals sadly cling to their most grievous flaw and that is what makes them, even if at times only inadvertently, fundamentally misanthropic. They believe that advancing their objectives, even those that are perfectly valid, ought to be done by using coercion against those whose cooperation they seek. This major, colossal error on their part makes it even difficult to join them in their various campaigns to help those they wish to help, to argue against those whom they rightly oppose. As a recent example, consider the war in Iraq. Most modern liberals oppose this war but do so on grounds that are frankly blatantly hypocritical." (01/20/06) http://tinyurl.com/0 ----- 39) Crashing the House party The Weekly Standard by Duncan Currie "Forget magazines and editorial pages. The only endorsements that really matter in the GOP House leadership contest are those from the members themselves, especially the members with clout. Two such Republicans are Jim Sensenbrenner, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and Mike Pence, head of the conservative Republican Study Committee (RSC), both of whom endorsed Arizona congressman John Shadegg this week. Shadegg, an erstwhile chief of both the RSC and (more recently) the Republican Policy Committee, remains a dark horse -- but he's gaining steam. 'The 'Big Mo' is on our side,' says one pro-Shadegg Republican." (01/19/06) http://tinyurl.com/0 ----- 40) This is your county on meth Slate by Jack Shafer "The dukes of deception who run the National Association of Counties are insulting your intelligence once again with a half-cocked 'survey' about the methamphetamine menace. ... Why does NACo conduct and distribute these sham surveys? Because when reporters write stories based on them, it helps NACo shake the federal dollar tree for its 2,000-plus member counties, which is one of its main missions." (01/19/06) http://www.slate.com/id/2134392/ ----- 41) Evidence of a stolen election Human Events by Paul Craig Roberts "As coincidence would have it, Mark Crispin Miller's new book, 'Fooled Again' (Basic Books), documenting the Republican theft of the 2004 presidential election, arrived in the same mail delivery with the Jan. 12 edition of the Defuniak Springs Herald, the locally owned weekly newspaper in a Florida panhandle county seat. ... two Florida counties have banned any further use of Diebold voting machines after witnessing a professional demonstration that the machines, contrary to Diebold's claim, are easily hacked to record votes differently from the way in which they are cast by voters. The pre-election statement by Diebold's CEO that he would work to deliver the election to Bush was apparently no idle boast. In five states where the new 'foolproof' electronic voting machines were used, the vote tallies differed substantially from the exit polls. Such a disparity is unusual. The chances of exit polls in five states being wrong are no more than one in a million." (01/20/06) http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=11728 ----- 42) Drug addled Slate by Jacob Weisberg "[I]n fact, there's an even more basic problem with the Medicare prescription-drug plan that cannot be laid solely at the doorstep of Republicans. Over the past quarter-century, governments the world over have evolved away from statist solutions and toward programs that rely to a greater degree on markets and incentives. This has been, by and large, a positive evolution. In much of the public sector, privatization and regulated markets work well. But the mixed public-private programs now in vogue have a big disadvantage. They are inherently more complex, sometimes so much so that they simply won't take. Whatever the advantages of Medicare D in theory, it has an overwhelming drawback common to all recent presidential proposals for health-care reform: It's too damn complicated." [editor's note: A shrewd evaluation of the larger problem -- neither RepublicanT nor DemEAUcrat, but endemic to the overall 'government as solution' mindset! - SAT] (01/18/06) http://www.slate.com/id/2134456/ ----- 43) Taking on the hotels The American Prospect by Harold Meyerson "Company by company, in quickening succession, the social contract in America implodes. Verizon and IBM scrap their pensions; Delphi floats a tidy two-thirds cut in pay; profits surge while wages sag and benefits vanish in broad daylight. City by city, in a now-steady drumbeat, labor and other working-class advocates fight back, with living-wage ordinances, health care mandates on employers and, now coming at the state level, universal health coverage for children. With the federal government supremely uninterested in such minutiae, the battle for a life of middle-class dreams and security is fought region by region, even town by town. Time was, of course, when it was fought contract by contract, but that was in an America where unions mattered, where they represented one-third of the private-sector workforce rather than today's anemic 8 percent. In a global economy, the conventional wisdom would have it, the bargaining power of unions is the ultimate spent force." (01/19/06) http://www.prospect.org/web/view-web.ww?id=10853 ----- 44) Sidelining human rights Tom Paine by Jim Lobe "The Bush administration's 'global war on terrorism' continued to set back the cause of human rights in 2005, according to a major U.S. rights group, which said that U.S. and European hypocrisy in carrying out that war led to a 'global leadership void' that had been taken advantage of by more opportunistic powers, particularly Russia and China. In the latest in its annual series of 'World Reports,' New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) singled out the Bush administration's multiple defenses of its abusive treatment of detainees as both counterproductive to its efforts to defeat Islamist extremism and particularly destructive to its credibility as a global human rights champion. 'The U.S. government's use and defense of torture and inhumane treatment played the largest role in undermining Washington's ability to promote human rights,' the 532-page report argued." (01/19/06) http://tinyurl.com/aan8o ----- 45) Where's the sleaze? (Hint: Not at clubs) Arizona Republic by Laurie Roberts "It's all the rage in Scottsdale these days: lap dances and sleazy behavior and people who have no shame. And that's just at City Hall. Already this month, we've witnessed deception and a cover-up, courtesy of three city councilmen up for re-election. Already, we've gotten a glimpse, finally, of what many have always suspected: That someone or a group of someones outside of City Hall -- someone/s who like things as they are -- are pulling the strings. Why else would the shadowy someone/s shroud themselves in secrecy while mounting a perfectly legitimate effort to bounce challenger Nan Nesvig off the ballot? Why else would the three incumbents, Wayne Ecton, Kevin Osterman and Bob Littlefield, refuse to identify those someone/s who are so privately interested in getting them re-elected and preserving the status quo? It's enough to make you wonder who's really running this city." (01/19/06) http://tinyurl.com/c6c3a ----- 46) Lobbying scandal ambush Washington Times by Donald Lambro "Local news media ambushed Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid last week during his 'culture of corruption' tour of five Republican red states in the West and Midwest. Attempting to exploit the lobbying scandal in the Republican Congress, which Democrats believe will help them make gains in next year's midterm elections, Reid rode into the West with both guns blazing, charging the GOP was solely to blame for the influence-peddling practices now target of a Justice Department grand jury investigation. Reid's campaign tour to raise money for Democratic candidates was one of a series of trips the Nevada Democrat plans this year in a bid to make political inroads in Republican-held territory. But instead of focusing on the GOP's troubles, Reid was surprised by hostile questions from local reporters about money he received from Indian tribes and their ties to wheeler-dealer Jack Abramoff who lobbied for them." (01/19/06) http://www.washtimes.com/commentary/20060118-090826-9420r.htm ----- 47) Assisted suicide ruling supports states' rights Tennessean by staff "Former Attorney General John Ashcroft had no business punishing doctors for helping terminally ill Oregon residents die, the Supreme Court ruled this week. The 6-3 decision, with new Chief Justice John Roberts voting his first dissent, was both a victory for Oregon's unique law and for physicians who had the federal government intruding into their practices. As Judge Anthony Kennedy wrote, Ashcroft claimed powers 'beyond his expertise and incongruous with the statutory purposes and design.' The then-attorney general injected the federal government into Oregon's assisted-suicide law in 2001 proclaiming the measure was not a legitimate medical practice. He used the federal drug laws to essentially make doctors who assisted a suicide into criminals. Yet, Oregon's law applies only to the sickest of its citizens. Two physicians must agree that a person has less than six months to live and is of sound mind before prescribing any drug. The doctors who write the prescriptions cannot administer the drugs." (01/19/06) http://tinyurl.com/c8ree ----- 48) Bring back the Golden Fleece Fox News by John P. Avlon "The death of former Sen. William Proxmire last month inspired a round of tributes to this maverick Wisconsin senator, the last of the Democratic budget hawks. Proxmire made a national name for himself by mocking excessive spending in Congress -- publicly pronouncing a 'Golden Fleece' award each month to commemorate the most absurd example of taxpayer waste. ... The novelty of the designation ensured widespread coverage but the real purpose was to pull back the lid on the sausage-making factory that is Congress by chronicling the pork-barreling waste of hard-earned taxpayer dollars. Proxmire's actions did not win him many friends in a Democratic-dominated Congress, but it did win him the respect of his constituents, who returned him to the Senate five times." (01/19/06) http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,182100,00.html ----- 49) Treating the pain by ending a life Boston Globe by Dr. Mark Siegel "The US Supreme court ruled this week that doctors in Oregon should not be charged with a crime for overdosing patients in the name of treating pain and hastening death. This decision should be applauded and must not be circumvented by new laws. Ten years ago I assumed the care of a woman with advanced pancreatic cancer that had spread to her spine. ... At first her cancer wasn't causing her pain, though it paralyzed her below the waist and bound her to her bed and wheelchair. Still, she enjoyed the visits, mine and everyone else's, until the fateful day when the cancer spread to her bones and began what was clearly an escalating pain. I dialed up the morphine to compensate, until the day came when the amount of morphine necessary clearly hastened her death. ... I used morphine in the name of relieving suffering, not as a murder weapon. No one who knew her seemed upset by the trade-off, a tortured life for a peaceful death, and all thanked me for my care at the end." (01/19/06) http://tinyurl.com/djr97 ----- 50) Al Gore is right, for once WolfesBlog by Silver "I don't like Al Gore. I refuse to associate with anyone who uses fraud, theft, and violence to achieve their goals.But even a liar and a thief can sometimes speak the truth. Al Gore gave a speech on Monday, one that the estimable Paul Craig Roberts describes as 'the most important political speech in my lifetime.' ... Gore calls upon the American people, whose tacit consent enables Bush's outrages, to put a stop to the madness. I like to hope, but I doubt that will happen. If history is any guide, things will get much worse before they get any better. Eventually someone with powerful weapons and the willingness to use them will depose the tyrant. But America as we like to think of it will be long gone, most likely never to return." (01/19/06) http://www.clairewolfe.com/wolfesblog/00001919.html ----- 51) Are you ready to be bugged and tortured by George W. Bush? Free Press by Harvey Wasserman "It's not really terrorists George W. Bush wants to bug and torture. It's YOU. It's not really terrorism he wants to fight. It's opposition from people he can't control. It's not really US security he wants to protect. It's the power of his regime. The Constitutional debate about whether these executive privileges are allowable in war is a smoke screen. This isn't about war: It's about dictatorship. It's about making power permanent by using private information against you, and by terrifying you with torture. " (01/19/06) http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/7/2006/1303 ----- 52) Dare to make a stand CounterPunch by Monica Benderman "Americans are deserting their duty to their country, and their Constitution, every time a member of government, a member of the military or a member of our community uses fear-based threats to cause them to run away rather than stand for what they believe. Americans desert their country and the foundations upon which it was built every time they believe it is another's responsibility to bring about the changes necessary to keep our country strong; every time they run and hide to keep from facing the challenge of standing against a corrupt policy or law." (01/19/06) http://www.counterpunch.org/benderman01192006.html ----- 53) A colony again Fred On Everything by Fred Reed "There's this thing called the National Assessment of Adult Literacy, which just came out and said that Americans not only can't read but are vigorously getting worse. Here it is, from the Washington ever-loving Post, December 25 in the Year of Our Decline 2005: 'Only 41 percent of graduate students tested in 2003 could be classified as 'proficient' in prose -- reading and understanding information in short texts -- down 10 percentage points since 1992. Of college graduates, only 31 percent were classified as proficient -- compared with 40 percent in 1992.' That's college graduates, brethren and sistern! They can't read simple stuff. 'See Spot run. Run, Spot ...' What you think them other scoundrels can't do that ain't graduates? Halleluja, dearly beloved, idiots are us. Am us, I mean. Now, sure, you can make excuses, and say, well, this dismal revelation counts all the Permanently Disadvantaged Minorities and affirmative-action nonstudents and all the other people who shouldn't be anyway in what ought to be colleges but mostly aren't. But you're supposed to be able to read when you get out of freaking high school, aren't you?" (01/18/06) http://www.fredoneverything.net/Indians.shtml ----- 54) Snowflakes and the Second Law Strike the Root by Jim Davies "If you need more examples of how government's order-mandating laws in practice create chaos, open today's newspaper and read the headlines. Government preaches that it is urgently needed to preserve law and order; the plain fact is that the more law, the less order; the result is the inverse of the promise." (01/19/06) http://www.strike-the-root.com/61/davies/davies1.html ----- 55) New study confirms Kyoto's impotency National Center for Policy Analysis by staff "A new study published in the British journal Nature suggests that the biggest climate offender may literally be in our own backyard-trees. NCPA Senior Fellow H. Sterling Burnett states that the study proves the ineffectiveness of the Kyoto Protocol. 'The Kyoto Protocol rewards countries that plant trees because up until now, science believed that plants absorbed carbon dioxide, offsetting the effect of human carbon emissions,' said Dr. Burnett." (01/18/06) http://tinyurl.com/7rgfa ----- 56) Bohm-Bawerk speaks again Ludwig von Mises Institute by Ludwig van den Hauwe "The book under review contains the Hans F. Sennholz translation of Bohm-Bawerk's essay Grundzuge der Theorie des Wirtschaftlichen Guterwerts which was originally published, in 1886, in the most important economic journal of its time, Conrad's Jahrbucher fur Nationalokonomie und Statistik, and later, in 1932, reprinted in German, in the London School of Economics Series of Scarce Tracts in Economic and Political Science. It presents Bohm-Bawerk's basic thesis that all economic knowledge must build on a thorough inquiry into the nature of subjective value." (01/19/06) http://www.mises.org/story/2009 ----- 57) Nothing new in tax reform report Heartland Institute by Dan Pilla "While there certainly are some desirable aspects to the panel's proposals as they relate to businesses, I imagine we'll continue to see Congress picking away at various aspects of the current code, tinkering and tweaking the law for mostly the wrong reasons. It will make fundamental changes only when it's forced to. It will be forced to only when the current system becomes unenforceable. After all, Prohibition was not repealed because highbrow policy analysts showed Congress the error of its ways through hundreds of pages of charts and graphs produced after months of intensive study. Prohibition was repealed because it became unenforceable." (01/06) http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=18305 ----- 58) Big brother by stealth Foundation for Economic Education by Claire Wolfe "Since 1996 the United States has had a mandate for a de facto national ID card. It takes effect October 1, 2000. Public Law 104-208 (Division C, Title VI, Subtitle D, Section 656) says that for identification, federal agencies may only accept state drivers' licenses or other documents that display or are linked to Social Security numbers and that have security features supposedly to discourage tampering or counterfeiting. Any time you wish to receive a service from the federal government, you will be required to produce this license or a similar nondriver ID. No alternates will be accepted. It is important to note that PL 104-208 contains 468,937 words -- about four times the size of an average novel." (written 05/98; posted 01/19/06) http://tinyurl.com/88scj ----- 59) The war of Bush against the American people Liberty For All by Ed Lewis "People, there is a war going on, a war that we must not ignore any further or we are going to find we live in a military dictatorship led by such traitors as Bush the Incompetent and Deceitful. To live in a land led by a demented incompetent may be your cup of tea but it is not the America created to guarantee human rights. People make jokes, which are often based on truth." (01/20/06) http://www.libertyforall.net/2006/jan21/Masses.html Movement News and Events 60) National Patriol Act Call-In Day Library Journal 01/25/06 "With the February 3 deadline looming for the reauthorization of the USA PATRIOT Act, this is a crucial time to lobby Congress. That's why the American Library Association has designated Wednesday, January 25 as National Patriot Act Call-In Day. Library advocates are asked to call both their Senators and their Representative and ask them to support the language in the Senate version of the Patriot Act reauthorization." (01/19/06) http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6300505.html ----- 61) Petition: Mary Ruwart for President Petition Online ongoing Online petition asking Dr. Mary Ruwart to seek the Libertarian Party's 2008 presidential nomination. http://www.petitiononline.com/ruwart08/petition.html ----- 62) Eminent Domain: Abuse of Government Power? Independent Institute 01/31/06 Featuring Steven Greenhut, author of Abuse of Power: How the Government Misuses Eminent Domain; and Timothy Sandefur of Pacific Legal Foundation. Reception 6:30 p.m., program 7 p.m. The Independent Institute Conference Center, Oakland, CA. Admission $15, $10 for members; or $30 and $25 w/copy of the book. RSVP -- limited seating. Online registration available. http://www.independent.org/events/detail.asp?eventID=114 ----- 63) The Drug Czar's coming to a town near you Students for Sensible Drug Policy 01/19/06-04/25/06 "The Drug Czar is going on the road to convince schools to take advantage of millions of dollars in federal grant money made available for the express purpose of testing teens' urine. Parents everywhere should be 'pissed off' that their hard-earned tax dollars are being flushed down the toilet -- literally -- on programs that usurp family decision making and do nothing to stop young people from using drugs. .... If you live in or around any of these cities, please get in touch with SSDP as soon as possible to find out how you can counteract the Drug Czar's propaganda machine when it comes to town. Students, parents, and activists had a great time raining on the Drug Czar's parade last year. Let's make sure he and his cronies know that we'll continue to be there providing the truth wherever and whenever they proliferate lies." [editor's note: The cities are Orlando, San Diego, Falls Church, VA and Milwaukee, WI., the first stop is Orlando Jan.19 - MLS] (01/11/06) http://tinyurl.com/dorh2 ----- 64) Austrian Scholars Conference 2006 Ludwig von Mises Institute 03/16/06-03/18/06 "The Austrian Scholars Conference is the international, interdisciplinary meeting of the Austrian School, and for scholars interested or working in this intellectual tradition, it is the event of the year. Over the course of three full days, the Austrian Scholars Conference offers eighty plus presentations on economics, history, philosophy, and the humanities, in addition to named lectures by the leaders in the field." Mises Institute campus, Auburn, AL. Free for students (application required), $200 for others. Online registration available. Group rate available at local hotel. http://www.mises.org/upcomingstory.aspx?control=77 Today in Political History 65) Faulkner's folly Details, and the "quote of the day," from Leon's Political Almanac at: http://perspicuity.net/cgi/hypercal.cgi ---------------------------------------------------------------------- RRND is published every weekday except on holidays. Forward freely. To subscribe, unsubscribe, or financially support RRND, visit: http://www.rationalreview.com/news To support ISIL's Free-Market.Net Project (tax deductible) http://www.isil.org/store/membership.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Thomas L. Knapp ..... Publisher Mary Lou Seymour .... Editor Steve Trinward ...... Editor R. Lee Wrights ...... Editor ForumWebSiteAt http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Libertarian Yahoo! 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