************************************************** * RATIONAL REVIEW NEWS DIGEST * * Volume IV, Issue #997 * Wednesday, October 4th, 2006 * Email Circulation 2,052 * * Published every non-holiday weekday * by the staff of Rational Review * * On the Web: http://www.rationalreview.com/news * In cooperation with ISIL: htp://www.isil.org **************************************************
************************************************** * SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS * * MIDDLE AMERICA * The Third Revolution continues! * http://tinyurl.com/gl5od * * BIRD FLU: REAL OR JUST MORE HYPE? * Boost your immune system naturally! * http://www.shopnutronix.com/freetexas * * NEW LIBERTARIAN MANIFESTO -- BACK IN PRINT! * http://kopubco.com/nlm_trade.html * ************************************************** In The News: 1) Online casinos may take ban to WTO 2) Lawyer: Foley blames alcohol, abuse for woes 3) Iraq: String of blasts kills 16 4) Afghan gun battles kill 3 occupation troops 5) Helen Chenoweth-Hage, 1938-2006 6) Rice rattles Iran saber some more 7) Dow reaches record high 8) NY: Pataki nixes power company's land theft plan 9) VA: Clinton endorses Webb 10) Justices hear arguments on deportation 11) Sex scandal, Iraq book take toll on Bush, GOP 12) KY: War resister surrenders 13) $1.5 billion price tag for wildfires 14) WA: Grandmother breaks protest fast 15) Smoking ban in store for France 16) KY: Reporter cited after trying to test school security 17) AL: Elderly man kills attacker 18) TX: Man fights back against would-be thieves 19) GA: State board to hear objections to Harry Potter 20) Housing prices increase faster than income 21) TN: Health costs up despite TennCare cuts 22) Laws pushed by Foley could be used in case 23) It took a comedy to revive Gandhi's ideals in India 24) In Colombia, light shed on the disappeared 25) Tommy Chong: Imprisoned for activism? Everybody Has An Opinion: 26) Condi's conundrum 27) Foley AIMs to please 28) The case for the libertarian Democrat 29) Time not to rally round the GOP 30) Fixed pie or rising tide? 31) Health care: Three fantasies 32) More on the poker ban 33) Jet you 34) Welcome to fascist America! 35) Anti-gunners fabricate studies 36) A newbie in the Bush 37) Our rigged elections 38) Is Olbermann on thin ice? 39) A taxing situation 40) Upsidedown Luddism: The case of immigration 41) Foley experiences Democrat party double standard 42) Real do-gooders 43) Borders and liberty 44) Petronoia 45) Sotto Vox 46) The dream-killer 47) Suppressing the Iraq story 48) Pearce: Mass deportations scare only "sissies" 49) Surely there's a party that can both protect & govern 50) End blame game and start fighting terror 51) Censorship through the ages 52) The death of the first American republic 53) Real Bad ID 54) Cell phones? Hell phones! 55) Can Bloomberg's firearms initiatives hit target? See No Evil, Hear No Evil: 56) Free Talk Live, 10/03/06 57) The booming economy 58) Freedomain Radio #444 59) Silver ETF News Weekly Symposium: 60) Religion and politics What's Up In The Freedom Movement: 61) Today's events WaYbAcK: 62) Look! Up in the sky! *************** * In The News *************** 1) Online casinos may take ban to WTO Guardian [UK] "The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, passed by the US Senate on Friday and due to be signed into law by President Bush within two weeks, makes it illegal for banks and credit card companies to process online gaming payments in the US. ... Two other leading British online gaming companies held out the hope that the World Trade Organisation could come to their rescue and overrule the legislation that wiped an estimated £4bn from the sector's value on Monday. Sportingbet and 888 said they were looking into whether the new US legislation contravened commitments the US has made to the WTO. After a complaint from Antigua, the WTO last year ruled that US laws on internet gambling were in breach of its rules. ... Sportingbet hinted yesterday it was considering continuing operating in the US using offshore banks to make transactions, even though it could lead to executives not just being arrested in the US but also being extradited from the UK." [editor's note: Thanks for having some spine, Sportingbet! Hopefully America's gamblers will, too - TLK] (10/04/06) http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,1886883,00.html ----- 2) Lawyer: Foley blames alcohol, abuse for woes Orlando Sentinel "Disgraced lawmaker Mark Foley's behavior was affected by alcoholism and childhood molestation, but he 'never attempted to have sexual contact with a minor,' his lawyer said Tuesday in the first extensive defense of the Florida Republican's actions, which have rocked Congress and the GOP. ... Attorney David Roth told reporters that Foley was intoxicated when he sent lewd e-mails to former House pages but was sober when conducting official business during his 12 years in Congress. Roth said he could not explain new reports of an exchange in which Foley appeared to be having Internet sex with a youth while participating in a House roll-call vote. ... While Roth was making his claims, federal agents were interviewing former House pages and asking whether Foley crossed state lines to have sex with minors, law-enforcement officials said. The probe comes amid reports of lewd electronic messages in which Foley appeared to refer to past or future meetings with former pages in Washington and other cities." (10/04/06) http://tinyurl.com/m8uh2 ----- 3) Iraq: String of blasts kills 16 Kindred Times "A series of bombs exploded in rapid succession in a shopping district in a mainly Christian neighborhood of Baghdad on Wednesday, killing 16 people and wounding 87, police said. Scattered attacks around Iraq killed five other people, and the U.S. military announced the death of two soldiers -- raising the toll of one of the deadliest periods for American troops this year." (10/04/06) http://tinyurl.com/pepuy ----- 4) Afghan gun battles kill 3 occupation troops Lincoln Journal Star "Gunbattles in Afghanistan left two U.S. troops and at least one NATO soldier dead, officials said Tuesday, as the Western alliance prepared to assume military command over the country from the U.S.-led coalition. One NATO soldier was killed and another was presumed dead when insurgents attacked a patrol in Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, a statement by the alliance said." (10/03/06) http://tinyurl.com/pbech ----- 5) Helen Chenoweth-Hage, 1938-2006 Los Angeles Times "Helen Chenoweth-Hage, a former three-term representative to Congress from Idaho, died Monday in a one-car crash near Tonopah, Nev., her daughter said. She was 68. ... She defeated incumbent Democrat Larry LaRocco in 1994, gaining national attention by holding 'endangered salmon bakes' during fundraisers, serving canned salmon to ridicule the listing of Idaho salmon as an endangered species." (10/03/06) http://tinyurl.com/gp82s ----- 6) Rice rattles Iran saber some more Middle East Online [UK] "US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned [in Cairo] Tuesday that time was running out for the international community if it did not want to lose credibility over the Iranian nuclear problem. 'I hope that there is still room to resolve this,' said Rice who is due to take part in a week-end ministerial meeting of the six countries involved in the discussions on Iran's nuclear threat. 'But the international community is running out of time because soon its own credibility in terms of enforcing its own resolutions will be (...) a matter of question,' said Rice, who is pressing for sanctions." (10/04/06) http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=17706 ----- 7) Dow reaches record high Miami Herald "The Dow Jones industrial average leaped into record territory Tuesday, highlighting Wall Street's long recovery from the popping of the technology bubble, the 2001 terrorist attacks and a wave of corporate scandals. ... The Dow, the nation's oldest stock index, had crossed its highest previous close of 11,722.98 several times over the past week but had repeatedly sagged back after investors sold stocks to lock in profits before closing time. The index closed Tuesday up 56.99. Investors were buoyed Tuesday by falling oil prices -- crude fell to less than $59 a barrel for the first time in more than seven months -- and a growing consensus that interest rates have stopped rising for the near-term, market watchers said." (10/04/06) http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/15672385.htm ----- 8) NY: Pataki nixes power company's land theft plan New York Times "Gov. George E. Pataki signed into law yesterday a bill that would substantially impede a project to build a $1.6 billion transmission line that promised to bring cheap electricity into New York City but raise prices upstate. The new law restricts the use of eminent domain to build certain high-voltage electricity transmission lines, particularly the 190-mile-long proposed line that would run from Utica in upstate New York to the Hudson Valley, and from there into New York City and Long Island. City officials have said such a line is needed if the city is to avoid power breakdowns caused by congestion. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg sent a letter to the governor earlier this year asking him to veto the bill. By limiting the use of eminent domain, the law would make it hard for the private company planning to build the line, the New York Regional Interconnect, to gain control of the land it needs in 37 towns and villages in seven counties throughout the state." (10/04/06) http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/04/nyregion/04power.html ----- 9) VA: Clinton endorses Webb Richmond Times-Dispatch "U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-New York, officialy endorsed Democratic Senate candidate Jim Webb yesterday, addressing a sold-out group at an upscale French restaurant in the Old Town section of Alexandria." [editor's note: Well, that ought to give Allen a bump in the polls - TLK] (10/03/06) http://tinyurl.com/jyuzb ----- 10) Justices hear arguments on deportation Baton Rouge Advocate "Supreme Court justices wrestled Tuesday with the question of whether convictions for minor crimes should force immigrants' deportation, the first case in a term expected to make clearer the court's direction under Chief Justice John Roberts. Thousands of immigrants who have run afoul of the law, some for possessing small amounts of drugs, could be affected by the outcome of Tuesday's arguments." (10/03/06) http://tinyurl.com/l2enj ----- 11) Sex scandal, Iraq book take toll on Bush, GOP MSNBC "After what they have seen and heard over the past few weeks -- events including the news of a Republican congressman's improper correspondence with a teenage page and the recent release of journalist Bob Woodward's unfavorable portrayal of the Bush administration's handling of Iraq -- respondents to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, by more than a 2-to-1 ratio, say they have a less favorable impression of the Republicans maintaining control of Congress." (10/03/06) http://msnbc.msn.com/id/15117698/ ----- 12) KY: War resister surrenders Salem Statesman Journal "An Army soldier who fled to Canada rather than redeploy to Iraq surrendered Tuesday to military officials after asking for leniency. Spc. Darrell Anderson, 24, said he deserted the Army last year because he could no longer fight in what he believes is an illegal war. 'I feel that by resisting I made up for the things I did in Iraq,' Anderson said during a press briefing shortly before he turned himself in at nearby Fort Knox." (10/03/06) http://tinyurl.com/gx46l ----- 13) $1.5 billion price tag for wildfires CNN "Wildfires across the country have burned a record number of acres this year, and with the scorched land comes a record bill, a federal official said Tuesday. The U.S. Forest Service's firefighting efforts for fiscal year 2006, which ended September 30, cost more than $1.5 billion, at least $100 million over budget, said Mark Rey, the Agriculture Department undersecretary for natural resources and the environment." (10/03/06) http://tinyurl.com/mauqn ----- 14) WA: Grandmother breaks protest fast Seattle Times "A Whidbey Island grandmother ended a three-week hunger strike Saturday night after being convinced that she had made her point against the Bush administration and its decision to go to war in Iraq.Patricia Brooks, 68, of Coupeville, Island County, 'feasted' on apple juice and vegetable soup after receiving 200 e-mails a day from people across the country who said they would act on her request to write to their representatives asking to have Bush and his cabinet impeached." (10/03/06) http://tinyurl.com/lxnr8 ----- 15) Smoking ban in store for France Independent Online [Zaire] "French smokers are bracing for a major culture shock in the coming months as the country prepares to follow several of its European neighbours and enact a ban on smoking in public places.On Tuesday -- after five months of deliberations -- a parliamentary committee is expected to recommend a prohibition, and Health Minister Xavier Bertrand has indicated a government decision will be taken later in the month." (10/02/06) http://tinyurl.com/kxtjb ----- 16) KY: Reporter cited after trying to test school security Louisville Courier-Journal "A WHAS-TV employee was cited Tuesday for criminal trespassing after he entered Atherton High School for a story about gaps in school security. Police cited him at the school. Station employee Alex Elder, attempting to see if he could walk into the school unnoticed, was let in through a secured door by a student sometime around 11 a.m., according to the police citation, which said all doors have signs posted warning against unauthorized entry." (10/03/06) http://tinyurl.com/zfrzy ----- 17) AL: Elderly man kills attacker ABC 33/40 "Police say a 34-year-old Montgomery man was shot and killed when he allegedly attacked a 72-year-old man Friday night in west Montgomery. Captain Huey Thornton, a police spokesman, said Jack Sanchez was pronounced dead around 10 p-m. Thornton said the shooting occurred after Sanchez kicked the man's truck as he drove by. He said when the older man got out to inspect his vehicle, Sanchez attacked him." (10/02/06) http://beta.abc3340.com/news/stories/1006/365778.html ----- 18) TX: Man fights back against would-be thieves ABC 13 News "Police say several men went on a violent crime spree overnight, but it came to an abrupt end when their last victim stopped them in the driveway of his southwest Houston home. Several suspects were seen driving around Monday night in a light colored Dodge Durango. Police believe they robbed at least four people beginning around 11pm Monday night. But when they allegedly tried holding up a man on Prudence, the homeowner pulled out his own gun and shot one of the suspects in the leg. That wounded suspect left the scene with the others, but later called police himself and told them he'd been injured." (10/03/06) http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=local&id=4622463 ----- 19) GA: State board to hear objections to Harry Potter Raw Story "In Harry Potter's world, the Ministry of Magic governs things. In Georgia, the state Board of Education rules over public schools. These two worlds come together Tuesday when the state board has a public hearing on a parent's request to remove the popular series from Gwinnett County public school libraries. The hearing officer presiding over the appeal will make a recommendation to the state board, which is scheduled to rule on the case during its December meeting." (10/03/06) http://tinyurl.com/mxj7v ----- 20) Housing prices increase faster than income San Francisco Chronicle "The burden of housing costs on people living in nearly every part of the country grew sharply from 2000 to 2005, according to new Census Bureau data being made public today. The numbers illustrate vividly the impact, often distributed unevenly, of the crushing combination of escalating real estate prices and largely stagnant incomes. While many of the highest home values were on the coasts, in places like Southern California and Manhattan, many of the biggest jumps in the percentage of people paying a burdensome amount of their income for housing occurred in the Midwest and in suburbs nationwide, making it clear that the housing squeeze has reached deep into the middle class." (10/03/06) http://tinyurl.com/mctfy ----- 21) TN: Health costs up despite TennCare cuts Tennessean "State-sponsored health benefits busted the spending goal that Gov. Phil Bredesen an-nounced when he cut 170,000 people from TennCare's rolls and limited benefits to hundreds of thousands more. Bredesen said in 2005 that he wanted to keep TennCare costs at 26 percent of state tax receipts and, with the reforms, he has done that. But after two new programs crafted to care for those cut from TennCare and other uninsured Tennesseans were added into the equation, the total cost in 2005-06 edged over the line at 27.5 percent, or about $152 million, according to budget estimates. In making the cuts, the governor forfeited about $644 million in federal matching money and transferred some health-care costs to local governments." (10/03/06) http://tinyurl.com/ksgwf ----- 22) Laws pushed by Foley could be used in case Arizona Republic "Former Rep. Mark Foley, who resigned from Congress last week amid reports that he sent sexually explicit Internet messages to teenage congressional pages, could be prosecuted under laws he promoted. The Florida Republican, who was co-chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, spent much of his career on Capitol Hill promoting federal laws that would punish sexual predators who use the Internet to locate potential victims. One of the laws that may apply began as a 1998 bill sponsored by Foley and 36 House colleagues that prohibits sending obscene photos or messages to minors over the Internet. Foley also could be prosecuted under other federal laws he sought to toughen. Those laws aim to combat computer-aided luring of children by sexual predators." (10/03/06) http://tinyurl.com/rya36 ----- 23) It took a comedy to revive Gandhi's ideals in India Christian Science Monitor "Monday, India paused to remember the life of Mohandas Gandhi. Like every year on this national holiday commemorating the birth of the Father of India, there were grand words, garlands, and one nagging question: Is this little man, swaddled in homespun cloth and armed only with his own reason, still relevant in an India of Internet millionaires and nuclear weapons? This year, an answer and a revival of sorts has come from a most unexpected source: a Bollywood comedy about a witless Mumbai gangster. Puneet Sood, a smartly dressed software analyst fresh out of college, says he 'could never relate to Gandhi before this movie.' Yet Lage Raho Munnabhai, with its light-hearted take on a gangster's conversion to Gandhian nonviolence, is providing the perfect antidote to decades of solemn ceremonies and austere textbooks, which have increasingly cast Gandhi as a museum piece of impractical ideals." (10/03/06) http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1003/p01s04-wosc.html ----- 24) In Colombia, light shed on the disappeared Boston Globe "In a cramped, hospital-white laboratory in this coastal Caribbean city, 200 neatly numbered boxes of human remains lie stacked to the ceiling, waiting for a lone forensic anthropologist to extract the secrets of their violent deaths. On a recent steamy afternoon, the doctor examined the skull of an 18- to 20-year-old man killed by a machete blow to the forehead. Other skulls bear bullet holes from executions. The killers chopped most of the skeletons to pieces and tossed them like rubbish into clandestine mass graves, intending them never to be found." [editor's note: Good news ... Now if we can just get this happening in America - SAT ] (10/03/06) http://tinyurl.com/nhbxs ----- 25) Tommy Chong: Imprisoned for activism? NORML "Three years ago agents for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency burst into his California home and busted him for selling bongs online, the first time an obscure law dealing with such offences had ever been enforced. In his new book The I Chong: Meditations From The Joint, Chong insists the feds came after him, at the behest of the Bush administration, because he'd frequently spoken out against the war on terror and the erosion of civil liberties after 9-11. 'I was the first one they'd ever charged under that law,' says the 68-year-old Chong, in Toronto promoting his book." (09/27/06) http://www.mapinc.org/norml/v06/n1292/a11.htm?134 ******************************************************************* * HEALTH-OF-THE-STATE-O-METER, 10/04/06 * * Reported Civilian Deaths in Iraq: Min - 43,546 ... Max - 48,343 * (source: www.iraqbodycount.org) * * American Military Deaths in Iraq: 2,727 * (source: www.antiwar.com/casualties/) ******************************************************************* **************************** * Everybody Has An Opinion **************************** 26) Condi's conundrum AntiWar.Com by Justin Raimondo "The revelation in Bob Woodward's new book, State of Denial, that Condoleezza Rice (then national security adviser to the president) brushed off CIA chief George Tenet when he came to her a few months before 9/11 with dire warnings of an imminent terrorist attack, is blasting this administration's credibility out of the water -- and seriously undercutting the 'official' 9/11 narrative. That narrative, as approved by the 9/11 Commission and certified by all the most 'responsible' pundits, goes something like this: for at least five years, 19 al-Qaeda operatives traveled to and fro within the United States, taking flying lessons, and going completely undetected, until, one bright autumn day, they hijacked four airliners and managed to ram two into the World Trade Center and another into the Pentagon. The biggest terrorist attack in our history was carried out -- according to the conspiracy-theory-free version of the event -- with no state support, and no warning. This administration never saw it coming -- that has been the 'defense' proffered by the Bush regime and its few remaining apologists as questions about their competence and culpability are raised. An odd apologia indeed: We're clueless, therefore blameless." (10/04/06) http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=9788 ----- 27) Foley AIMs to please Reason by Kerry Howley "Mark Foley may be Washington's compensation for suffering through Jack Abramoff. For months, a city redeemed only by its scandals had to feed at the thin scraps of junkets, casinos, and K Street. Into this barren landscape burst Rep. Mark Foley, a cornucopia of awkward sexuality, ready hypocrisy, and adolescent vocabulary. If audiences crave sound-bites, Foley proved he could do one better: a story pre-packaged in instant messages. But as it turns out, the Mark Foley pedophilia sex scandal lacks two things: pedophilia and sex." (10/04/06) http://www.reason.com/links/links100306.shtml ----- 28) The case for the libertarian Democrat Cato Unbound by Markos Moulitsas "It was my fealty to the notion of personal liberty that made me a Republican when I came of age in the 1980s. It is my continued fealty to personal liberty that makes me a Democrat today. The case against the libertarian Republican is so easy to make that I almost feel compelled to stipulate it and move on. It is the case for the libertarian Democrat that has created much discussion and not a small amount of controversy when I first introduced the notion in what was, in reality, a throwaway blog post on Daily Kos on a slow news day in early June 2006." (10/02/06) http://tinyurl.com/zkxtc ----- 29) Time not to rally round the GOP Liberty For All by Roderick T. Beaman "I'm 56 years old and first became politically aware as Barry Goldwater arrived on the national scene. Goldwater prepared the way for Ronald Reagan 16 years later but was pilloried for daring to challenge the omnipotent centrists. The first time that I voted, it was for William F. Buckley for Mayor of New York. Ronald Reagan went to Washington vowing to cut taxes, which he did, and to cut back on government spending which he didn't. Every year under Reagan, including six with a Republican senate, government spending increased." (written 02/01/02; posted 10/03/06) http://www.libertyforall.net/?p=130 ----- 30) Fixed pie or rising tide? The Free Liberal by Carl S. Milsted, Jr. "How do we improve the lot of the poor? Listen to the far Left and you hear an answer along the lines of dividing up the national income more evenly. The underlying metaphor is that of a fixed pie. If Bill Gates takes a big slice of pie, then there is less for the rest of us. Listen to the far Right and you hear a different answer: more economic growth is the solution. If you let the rich keep their capital gains, then they will invest it in more tools of production, which will increase worker productivity thereby increasing wages. The underlying metaphor is that of a rising tide lifting all boats. Who is right? The answer is: They are both partially right -- and partially wrong." (10/04/06) http://www.freeliberal.com/archives/002347.html ----- 31) Health care: Three fantasies Liberty Unbound by Ross Overbeek "Health care and the technologies that support it are of growing concern to most Americans. Until recently, I was something of an exception. I lead a fairly sheltered existence; I seldom think about the issues one encounters in the media. I have focused instead on my research: first in the field of computing; then, since 1990, in some of the fundamental issues of biology. During most of that time I've felt that I had nothing of special importance to say about medical issues. Now, however, I strongly believe that the rate of progress in the field of medicine is much slower than it needs to be, and that this lag affects all of us profoundly. Many wonderful advances have been made. Yet I am disturbed by the discoveries that have not happened, or have happened but have not yet been allowed to reach the market. We must discuss the forces that constrain and retard possible breakthroughs in medical treatment, especially at this point in time, when we are on the verge of profound shifts in medicine driven by advances in technology." (for publication 11/06) http://www.libertyunbound.com/archive/2006_11/overbeek-health.html ----- 32) More on the poker ban Free Market News Network by Radley Balko "Late Friday night, the U.S. Senate passed a ban on Internet gambling. The ban now awaits President Bush's signature. Sen. Bill Frist attached the ban to the port security bill at the last minute on Friday, conveniently allowing the ban to go forward without any debate. That also means any Senator who rightly believes that online poker is none of the government's business would also have to vote against a national security bill to vote against the ban -- making that Senator a ripe target for charges of being soft on terrorism. The major gaming sites -- that is, the legitimate companies regulated by British law and traded on the London Stock Exchange -- announced over the weekend that they'll cease offering service to U.S. customers the moment President Bush signs the bill. What does that mean? Well, it means the shady, fly-by-night sites that aren't regulated or publicly traded will now thrive with U.S. customers." (10/03/06) http://www.fmnn.com/Analysis/97/6098/radley.asp?nid=6098&wid=97 ----- 33) Jet you TCS Daily by Glenn Harlan Reynolds "I flew the not-so-friendly skies last week, with flight delays taking such a toll on my trip that I literally could have gotten to Washington, D.C. from Knoxville faster by driving than I did by flying on a nonstop flight that should have taken a bit over an hour. That got me griping, of course. But it also got me thinking." (10/04/06) http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=100406A ----- 34) Welcome to fascist America! LewRockwell.Com by Gene Callahan "We've now gotten to the point where Nazi Germany was, say, in 1934. Remember, at that time, if you had told a typical German what his government would do over the next ten years, he would have looked at you as a madman. After all, his land had been civilized for over a thousand years. His was the nation of Albertus Magnus, Gutenberg, Goethe, Schiller, Beethoven, Bach, Kant, Hegel, Schelling, Fichte, Heisenberg, Reimann, Mann, Lessing, Herder, Handel, Durer, Leibniz, Gauss, Helmholtz -- he could have gone on, but you get the point. His nation could not possibly descend into barbarism! If you tried to tell him he was living in a police state, he would have pointed out that his government had used its vast new powers very judiciously, and only against a few trouble-makers. So far." (10/04/06) http://www.lewrockwell.com/callahan/callahan160.html ----- 35) Anti-gunners fabricate studies Hawaii Reporter by Josepg Tartaro "There is an old saying that 'figures don't lie, but liars can figure.' No better proofs of this saying can be found than the literature conjured up in what purport to be anti-gun think tanks or among academics who share the anti-gunners philosophy. The Brady Campaign and the Violence Policy Center are always touting studies or reports, usually funded by those groups or the same foundations that underwrite most of the anti-gun camp." (10/03/06) http://tinyurl.com/n75zq ----- 36) A newbie in the Bush The Libertarian Enterprise by Vern Trumbly "Yep, that's me. A newbie to Libertarianism, and learning as much as I can as fast as I can about it; lining in 'the bush' so to speak, and growing angrier and more confused by the day. Angry that I was lied to all my life by my parents (who probably didn't know they were lying), by a myriad of teachers up through college level (who should have known they were lying even if they didn't), by the news media (who are supposed to know they are lying), the government official (who truly believes she is there to help, and lies despite himself), and of course our favorite people: the politicians (who know they are lying if they have previously won even one election). I'm confused for the same reasons, more or less. I have always tried to be an honest person and generally assumed most other people were as well; keeping in mind, of course, that all politicians lie to get and/or keep their jobs. (After all it is what's expected in politics, in this country at least, is it not?) So I'm confused why so many people have lied to me for so long. I'm also extremely angry and scared over what has happened in the past five years, and what I see happening in the future." (10/02/06) http://www.ncc-1776.org/tle2006/tle387-20061001-08.html ----- 37) Our rigged elections Washington Spectator by Mark Crispin Miller "Even though this election could go either way, neither way will benefit the Democrats. Either the Republicans will steal their 're-election' on Election Day, just as they did two years ago, or they will slime their way to 'victory' through force and fraud and strident propaganda, as they did after Election Day 2000. Whichever strategy they use, the only way to stop it is to face it, and then shout so long and loud about it that the people finally perceive, at last, that their suspicions are entirely just -- and, this time, just say no." [editor's note: Starts out OK, ends with a plea for a 'massive turnout' in November - MLS] (10/03/06) http://www.washingtonspectator.com/articles/20061001elephant_1.cfm ----- 38) Is Olbermann on thin ice? Common Dreams by Jeff Cohen "Olbermann has been gaining in audience ratings. That provides him some security. But perhaps not enough. When Donahue was terminated three weeks before the Iraq invasion, it was MSNBC's most watched program. Canceling your top-rated show doesn't happen often, but it happened to Donahue. Who knows what will happen to Olbermann? With Donahue, management cared less about building up audience than tamping down dissent. ... I'm pulling for Olbermann; I'm one of the multitudes who find his commentaries online (perhaps more see them on the Web than on TV) -- and forward them far and wide. But with each new broadside against the Bush administration, I fear for his future. His best security is us, an active citizenry. It's media activism, organized heavily on the Net." (10/03/06) http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1003-36.htm ----- 39) A taxing situation Liberty For All by Jonathan David Morris "A couple of months ago, the State of New Jersey decided its taxes just weren't high enough. In order to correct this situation, the state introduced a new 7 percent sales tax, which was recently extended to a number of previously untaxed goods and services, such as: tanning; tattooing; landscaping; self-storage; and music downloads. As if these new fees weren't already reason enough to be outraged, Garden State legislators have secretly approved a number of other new taxes, set to begin within the coming months." (10/03/06) http://www.libertyforall.net/?p=131 ----- 40) Upsidedown Luddism: The case of immigration Ludwig von Mises Institute by Robert P. Murphy "Stephen Cox, editor of Liberty magazine, recently wrote a well-received article opposing the allegedly suicidal policy of open borders ('The Fallacy of Open Immigration'). Cox aimed his article at libertarians who understandably think that the only acceptable position is to insist that the federal government takes no action in hindering the passage of foreigners into the United States. Following the pioneering work of Hans Hoppe, Cox argues on the contrary that it is perfectly consistent for a libertarian to oppose 'open borders.'" (10/03/06) http://www.mises.org/story/2326 ----- 41) Foley experiences Democrat party double standard Frontiers of Freedom by Jim Kouri "While the Democrats are creating political hay out of the sex scandal involving Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL), the Democrats were not as outraged when a member of their own party had a sexual liaison with a House of Representative's page. In fact, the Democrat involved in a homosexual affair with a page actually accused the House of Representatives of invading his privacy. In 1983, Massachusetts Democrat Rep. Gerry Studds admitted to having sexual relations with a 17-year-old male page. Studds was not just communicating with the boy, but involved in a sexual affair." (10/03/06) http://tinyurl.com/fsv6v ----- 42) Real do-gooders FreedomWorks by Richard W. Rahn "If you wanted to become really rich, yet at the same time help your fellow man, what would you do? There is no contradiction. The answer is -- start a business -- where you provide employment to others and also provide a new or improved good or service, or an existing good or service at a lower price. Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, and hundreds of other things that made life far better for his fellow citizens." (10/02/06) http://tinyurl.com/oxxmy ----- 43) Borders and liberty Foundation for Economic Education by Andrew P. Morriss "Borders play a critical role in our lives. Some of the borders that matter to us are ones we establish ourselves: this is my house and property; that is your house and property. By choosing what is mine and using the legal system to mark it off from what is yours, I create a border. While not quite as invulnerable as suggested by the maxim 'A man's home is his castle,' my property gives me a firm border against you. Borders come from property rights and are essential to a free society." (written 07/04; posted 10/03/06) http://tinyurl.com/l25wg ----- 44) Petronoia Competitive Enterprise Institute by Iain Murray "As the price of oil and gas rose to 1970s oil crisis levels over the past year, pundits flew out of the woodwork that this represented a permanent change in the way of the world. Now that the price of gas is tumbling it seems appropriate to revisit those assertions. Perhaps the most influential commentator to address the issue was Thomas Friedman. In an essay in Foreign Policy magazine he drew attention to a strong correlation between the price of oil and the level of freedom worldwide, as measured by various indices of freedom." (10/03/06) http://www.cei.org/gencon/019,05545.cfm ----- 45) Sotto Vox America's Future Foundation by Joanne McNeil "The instantly likable Mena Trott, dressed in a Diane von Furstenberg-style retro-printed frock, looked more like she was about to unveil a collection of fashion accessories than what could be the hottest web application since, well, Moveable Type. But the Six Apart co-founder had a less than cheery reason for starting Vox. To the crowd of about fifty at a downtown Boston nightclub, she stated very plainly, 'I didn't like the people who had come into blogging over the past four or five years.'" (10/01/06) http://tinyurl.com/l9y5b ----- 46) The dream-killer The American Prospect by Matthew Yglesias "Last week, the Princeton Project on National Security -- an ambitious, years-long effort to outline a course for American foreign policy spearheaded by Anne-Marie Slaughter and G. John Ikenberry, and involving a wide range of accomplished figures -- released its final report, Forging a World of Liberty Under Law: U.S. National Security In the 21st Century. As one would expect from any project of this scope, there are various elements in the report with which one might quibble or disagree. Fundamentally, however, it gives the lie to the myth that liberals have no alternative to Bush's futile quest for unilateral hegemony and gunpoint democratization." (10/03/06) http://www.prospect.org/web/view-web.ww?id=12073 ----- 47) Suppressing the Iraq story Tom Paine by Paul McLeary "Three-and-a-half years into the war in Iraq, a cursory look at the nightly news shows, opinion magazines and the blogosphere shows that, at least in some respects, the national debate over the war has become more about the politics of the debate itself, rather than the grim realities of the occupation and how to successfully wage a protracted counterinsurgency. While the debate has come to revolve more around the political posturing of a small group of Washington politicos, there are some D.C. insiders, like Sen. Trent Lott, who apparently don't even want to debate the debate. To hear Lott tell it, there is no debate over Iraq, just obsessive, news-hungry reporters. After a meeting with President Bush and a group of GOP congressional leaders on Thursday, Lott lost his cool when a reporter asked him if they had talked about Iraq in the private conference." (10/03/06) http://tinyurl.com/qboc6 ----- 48) Pearce: Mass deportations scare only "sissies" Arizona Republic by E. J. Montini "[AZ] State Rep. Russell Pearce can't understand all the fuss over his suggestion that the U.S. government embark on a mass-deportation program of undocumented immigrants similar to one called 'Operation Wetback' that was undertaken during the 1950s. 'My critics don't like history,' Pearce told me Monday. 'They want to rewrite history. I didn't use the term (wetback). I quoted a successful program. ... But I never used the term or referred to anyone like that.' Concerning Republicans who question his blunt language, Pearce said, 'These are the same sissies that backed away from Proposition 200. ... (Politicians) don't even know their own constituents. It's about time somebody started stepping forward and recognizing the damage to America. The rule of law has to count for something." (10/03/06) http://tinyurl.com/r4yc3 ----- 49) Surely there's a party that can both protect & govern Tennessean by Saritha Prabhu "Come November, and the American voter is faced with choosing between a 'Daddy' party and a 'Mommy' party; between a hyper-masculine one and a seemingly effete one. The voter is faced with asking himself: Do I vote for a party that governs badly but will keep me alive, or one that governs better but may result in me being killed by terrorists? ... What the Republican Party sounds like: The world is overrun by terrorists and evildoers who are out to kill you fellow Americans, and we will protect you if we have to bludgeon the whole world to do it. ... What the Democratic Party sounds like: ... 'Democrats are united behind the need to work on a bipartisan basis to bring terrorists to justice and to do it in a manner consistent with our laws, our values and our national security.'" [editor's note: The error made by Ms. Prabhu here is in assuming that ANY "party" can function other than in this adversarial context; too bad nobody votes for anyone besides the two BOYN boots! - SAT] (10/03/06) http://tinyurl.com/fnu83 ----- 50) End blame game and start fighting terror Christian Science Monitor by Mansoor Ijaz "The terrorism blame game being played by America's leaders in recent weeks goes beyond political sport. It is polarizing the country in the worst possible way in front of enemies, who revel in our divisiveness. They know better than we that neither side of the political spectrum has gotten it right in combating their extremist march against civilization. While the Clinton administration ignored Osama bin Laden's brand of Islamist terrorism as a national security threat until it was all too evident, the Bush administration has installed policies that are breeding baby bin Ladens at a rate faster than civilization can contain. The former walked on legal eggshells. The latter -- through Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and domestic wiretapping -- has spilled yolks on America's reputation." (10/03/06) http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1003/p09s02-coop.html ----- 51) Censorship through the ages Boston Globe by H.D.S. Greenway "Mozart would not have been surprised by the flap caused by the German Opera's decision to cancel a production of his 'Idomeneo' because of fears that Muslims might be offended by a scene involving the severed head of Mohammed. He knew something of censorship and how to get around it. Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke for many of her countrymen when she said, 'Self-censorship does not help us against people who want to practice violence in the name of Islam. It makes no sense to retreat.' But Mozart might have been more understanding, as scenes were added and cut from operas in his day more frequently than now. And besides, the severed head scene was inserted long after his death. If absorbing Muslim minorities is a complicated task for Europe today, the comparable challenge in Mozart's time was rising revolutionary sentiment." (10/03/06) http://tinyurl.com/jz8jf ----- 52) The death of the first American republic Truthout by Mark A. LeVine "The American Republic died last week. At least the first one. Is there any other way to understand the meaning of the Military Commissions Law passed by the Congress and signed by President Bush? Without any serious opposition from Democrats (twelve of whom actually voted for the bill, while none offered a serious threat to fillibuster it), President Bush has signed into a law a bill that guts the right of habeas corpus, legalizes the use of secret and coerced evidence, 'clarifies' the Geneva Conventions to allow torture on his command, prevents future war crimes prosecutions, and arrogates to himself the right to declare anyone -- including American citizens -- enemy combatants, who can be dragged from their families, thrown in any prison he chooses, anywhere on earth, for however long he chooses." (10/03/06) http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/100306C.shtml ----- 53) Real Bad ID CounterPunch by Stan Cox "All totalitarian dystopias, in life and in art, seem to be obsessed with identifying people. The obligatory scene in which a stern, uniformed man demands 'your papers, please' has evolved into the automatic scanning of various body parts, but the purpose is always the same: to abolish the right to be anonymous.In the coming weeks, we'll learn how much it will cost Americans in the future -- in money, time, and annoyance, as well as personal and political freedom -- to convince government officials that we are who we say we are. Under the REAL ID Act, which was passed as part of a 2005 emergency Iraq war funding bill, the Department of Homeland Security will soon set national standards for state driver's licenses, which are to include 'a common machine-readable technology, with defined data elements.'" (10/03/06) http://www.counterpunch.org/cox10032006.html ----- 54) Cell phones? Hell phones! Wired by Momus "I don't have a cell phone. In fact, I'm here today to tell you that they're the work of the devil. Switch yours off for five minutes and I'll explain why .... A hell phone is a device you carry that, when switched on, tells a satellite exactly where you are every few seconds. It's a device with a microphone in it that can transmit all it hears even when you're not consciously making a call. You don't have to be super-paranoid (or bin Laden) to see how this compromises your privacy, and you don't have to read very far in the newspapers to see how little we can trust governments these days not to use, misuse and hoard whatever information they can get on you. It doesn't even have to be the government. It might be a sleazy tabloid journalist, a stalker or the detective employed by your estranged wife. Hell!" (09/26/06) http://www.wired.com/news/columns/0,71814-0.html?tw=wn_index_11 ----- 55) Can Bloomberg's firearms initiatives hit target? New York Magazine by Geoffrey Gray "Mayor Bloomberg's high-profile campaign to keep illegal guns out of the city is drawing return fire. Earlier this year, he dispatched teams of private eyes to collect evidence against what he called 'the worst of the worst' of small-time gun dealers in states like Georgia, South Carolina, and Ohio. In the process, he has set off a turf war with the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, which normally handles the interstate gun beat. And some criminal charges Bloomberg initiated against New York gun dealers are mired in the courts. Joe Green, a senior special agent and the New York spokesman for the ATF, questions the initiatives' effectiveness. 'It was useless,' he says. 'We didn't even know they were doing this until the day of the press conference' in May, when the mayor announced his sweeping civil lawsuit against fifteen out-of-state gun dealers he claims sold guns that were traced to New York crimes. 'They never told us at all.' Green says that federal authorities subsequently had to sort out whether their own undercover investigations may have been jeopardized. Then again, the ATF might just be angry at Bloomberg for calling it 'asleep at the switch' in a news conference." (for publication 10/09/06) http://www.newyorkmetro.com/news/intelligencer/21997/index.html ******************************************************************* * RRND MEDIA SHELF -- Tchotchkes from today's edition * * The I-Chong: Meditations from the Joint, by Tommy Chong * http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1416915540/rationalrev08-20 * * State of Denial, by Bob Woodward * http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0743272234/rationalrev08-20 * * Turn Neither to the Right Nor to the Left, by Eric D. Schansberg * http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0972975454/rationalrev08-20 * * Note: Affiliate links generate commissions for RRND's editors. ******************************************************************* ***************************** * See No Evil, Hear No Evil ***************************** 56) Free Talk Live, 10/03/06 Free Talk Live "College Outreach / Stupid Bureaucrat Stories / Uninformed Announcement / Homesick Mark / The National Debt / Cops Abuse Paraplegic Man / Disappearance / Monopolies / Kissing / Foley Flashback / Condoms for Prisoners / Super Bacteria Claim / Foley Distraction." [MP3 format] (10/03/06) http://media.libsyn.com/media/ftl/FTL2006-10-03.mp3 ----- 57) The booming economy Cato Institute Cato daily podcast featuring Chris R. Edwards. [MP3] (10/03/06) http://tinyurl.com/f4tr4 ----- 58) Freedomain Radio #444 Freedomain Radio "Anti-Masculinity Part 1: Aren't men just half-retarded, hyper-aggressive, sex-obsessed brutes? Views from the media." With host Stefan Molyneux. [MP3 format] (10/03/06) http://tinyurl.com/gcxpq ----- 59) Silver ETF News Free Market News Network "Silver Analyst David Bond reports a huge event in the world of silver that adds to the shortage. This is a shortage that will create a huge demand. Tune in now!" [MP3 or stream] (10/03/06) http://www.fmnn.com/eRadioLaunch.asp?rid=790 ******************** * Weekly Symposium ******************** 60) Religion and politics Arguments for and against separation of church and state have been playing themselves out since long before Jefferson's religious freedom ordinance for Virginia, the subsequent incorporation of that ordinance in the US Constitution's Bill of Rights, and his letter to the Danbury Baptists explaining what he intended it to mean. Around the world, the issue of "religion in the public square" continues to top a number of agendas and the sides usually aren't shy about using ballots -- or bullets -- to make their arguments. We'll stick to words here, of course. To start things off, I'll point to an article on the subject from last week by Tibor R. Machan, one of my own from 8 years back), and to an excellent book-length take on the issue from a Christian Libertarian perspective: Turn Neither to the Right Nor to the Left by Eric D. Schansberg. Most symposia address themselves to at least one question. This week's implicitly includes several. One that it does not include is the question of whether or not religion in general, or any specific religion, is or might be true. Rather, the main question, starting from the premise that religious belief continues to be a major factor in the lives and beliefs of most humans, is "how should individuals deal with the presence of religious faith in the political arena?" Have at. http://www.rationalreview.com/content/18650 ************************************* * What's Up In The Freedom Movement ************************************* 61) Today's events Freedom Movement Events Check out the Google calendar in our sidebars for events this week including Cato book forums, CEI debates, and the Motho Movement's 23rd Annual Libertarian Seminar. Don't forget to look ahead a bit to events later this month, including Acton's annual dinner, Cato's Tblisi Conference and the Gun Rights Policy Conference. Don't see YOUR event listed? Drop us a line at info at rationalreview.com. http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=info%40rationalreview.com *********** * WaYbAcK *********** 62) Look! Up in the sky! Details, and the "quote of the day," from Leon's Political Almanac at: http://perspicuity.net/cgi/hypercal.cgi ********************************************************************** * RRND is through the valued support of our readers. 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 Brad Spangler ....... Editor --------------------------------- Get your email and more, right on the new Yahoo.com [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ForumWebSiteAt http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Libertarian Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Libertarian/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Libertarian/join (Yahoo! 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