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***************************************** Vouchers President Bush threw additional support behind the idea of school vouchers on Tuesday. Not surprisingly, the teachers union said responded with a loud burp, claiming vouchers would drain money from the public schools. Well...OK. Let's pretend this is true (it's not). If you wish to get rid of stinky things like mosquitoes, snakes and alligators, you drain the swamp. So what should you do to get rid of all the stinky things - such as lousy test scores, politically correct curriculums, self-esteem courses, etc. - in the government school system? Drain baby, drain. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. If it's busted beyond all repair, replace it. Time to drain the government school swamp and replace it. ***************************************** The Union Label The teacher was giving her class of seven-year-olds a natural-history lesson. "Worker ants," she told them, "can carry pieces of food five times their own weight. What do you conclude from that?" One child was ready with the answer: "They don't have a union." - Joke of the Day ***************************************** Next on CSPAN: Chair-Throwing in the Senate "I could be an incredible voice in the Senate. Why? Because the media will cover me every single day." - Talk-show host Jerry Springer, who is mulling a run for the U.S. Senate seat in Ohio ***************************************** What's Wrong With This Picture? According to a New York Times story, some "50 tons of letters and packages every day" from Americans to American GI's fighting in Iraq - to soldiers who did the dirty job of ousting Saddam Hussein over the adamant objections of the German government - are being delivered by Deutche Post, a company owned by...the German government. Now, this is just sad. The American military has such little faith in the U.S. post office's ability to deliver mail that it has to rely on an unreliable ally to do the job for them. Only in America. ***************************************** Fox Caves to Political Correctness "The Fox Movie Channel abruptly cancelled its planned Charlie Chan film festival last week after complaints from an Asian American group that the character was 'one of the most offensive Asian caricatures of America's cinematic past. . . . The pressure to cancel the movie broadcasts came from the National Asian American Telecommunications Association (NAATA), which called Chan 'a hoary stereotype that has dogged Asian Americans for decades. ' . . . The decision is not sitting well with Charlie Chan fans." - CNSNews.com, 7/1/03 ***************************************** Reaping What They Sowed Sure, Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, led the fight for last year's campaign finance reform bill. But few of his fellow Republicans joined the effort. Instead, McCain teamed up with Democrats to pass the sweeping (unconstitutional) bill to limit campaign contributions. Those Democrats should have heeded the ancient warning about being careful what you wish for. It seems McCain/Feingold has come back to bite them in the butt. In the just-completed filing of quarterly campaign reports, the Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee is reporting $514,677 in the bank. Meanwhile, their counterparts over at the National Republican Congressional Committee is reporting a whopping $5.43 MILLION in the kitty. Go figure. Looking at these figures you'd swear it was the Democrats who relied on big money, fat-cat donors and not the GOP. It appears the donkey's embrace of Sen. McCain's legislation has resulted in slitting their own throats. If we didn't know better, we'd suspect this was some secret, diabolical, Machiavellian plot by the Arizona Republican to destroy the Democrat party. Ah, the law of unintended consequences strikes again. Gotta love it. ***************************************** Hopping On the Bandwagon Democrats can be so pathetic sometimes. OK, quite often these days. Last week, Colorado Republican Rep. Bob Beauprez determined that he'd had enough of those LONG security checkpoint lines at Denver's airport. So he called a "summit" of airport officials and business leaders to figure out a way to take the pain out of air travel for the average person (not just U.S. senators from Iowa named Harkin; they don't need the help). Well, this bold show of leadership caused his colleague, Colorado Democrat Rep. Diana DeGette, to throw a hissy fit. Despite the fact that Beauprez is on the House aviation subcommittee, DeGette whined that the freshman was treading on "her" turf, since the airport is located within her congressional district boundaries. Trying to hop on the Beauprez bandwagon while puncturing his tires in the process, DeGette's staff quickly arranged a meeting in Washington yesterday with the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) to discuss the problem. The question is, what took this Diana-come-lately so long? Seems all it takes is a Republican taking leadership on an issue to light a fire under a Democrat's posterior. ************************************ 4.75 cents-per-minute Long Distance * All state-to-state calls in the continental U.S. * Residential or commercial * 6-second billing increments * 24 hours/day * 7 days/week * No access codes * No minimums * No activation fees * Calling Card Rate is 10 cents per minute * No monthly service charge unless your bill is less than $20.00 a month (then a $1.99 service charge will apply) * No need to change your local phone company * No hassles * Easy sign-up. * And a small portion of each bill goes to help continue publishing our FREE Chuck Muth's News & Views e-newsletter. Just go to: <http://www.GOPLongDistance.com> today. ***************************************** Reagan's Supreme Mistake "Ronald Reagan was determined to name a woman as his first Supreme Court nominee, and the Justice Department recommended (Sandra Day) O'Connor -then an Arizona Court of Appeals judge. The White House was bombarded with documentary evidence of her social liberalism in the Arizona legislature. A young Justice Department lawyer named Kenneth W. Starr investigated, and wrote a two and one-half page memo clearing O'Connor. President Reagan told social conservatives: 'She's alright.' Reagan and Starr were wrong." - Columnist Robert Novak ***************************************** Queer Amendment "This quote from the (Nashville) Tennessean almost seems too good to be true. Asked what he thought of a constitutional amendment to deny federal recognition to same-sex marriage, state Sen. Steve Cohen, a Memphis Democrat, said: 'I think the whole issue does not rise to the level of the U.S. Constitution. I say it's a queer amendment to be included in the Constitution.'" - James Taranto, Best of the Web, 7/1/03 ***************************************** Breaking That Which Is Already Broken "The fact of the matter is that gays and lesbians themselves do not threaten the institution of marriage. They should not be blamed or made scapegoats for the weakening of the fundamental institution of marriage. Men and women, husbands and wives by the millions, who care more for Mercedes-Benzes and four-car garages than for teaching their children values and helping with their homework, have done a fine job of that, thank you. "Live-in heterosexual lovers who want the benefits of marriage without the responsibility or the costs, and who have no more regard for the well-being of children of a former marriage than they do for their boyfriend or girlfriend's Weimaraner, have done more to destroy this vital institution than all the gays and lesbians could ever hope to do even if they tried." - Former Rep. Bob Barr, Georgia Republican, Creative Loafing Atlanta, 6/26/03 ***************************************** Remember the 9th In striking down the Texas sodomy law, the Supreme Court cited the "due process" clause in the 14th Amendment. That's a stretch. What this really came down to was a right to privacy and being secure in one's home. Now, many people complain that there is no right to privacy enumerated in the Constitution which protects gays and lesbian adults from having consensual sex in the privacy of their own homes. Maybe, maybe not. However, just because a right isn't specifically spelled out in the Constitution does NOT mean it doesn't exist...something the Constitution DOES specifically say. The seldom invoked Ninth Amendment of the Constitution reads: "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." Do a free people have the right to engage in private sexual activities in the privacy of their own homes without fear of having the police bust down their door and drag their butts off to jail even if such a right isn't specifically listed in the Constitution? I think any fair-minded person would have to say "yes," even if they don't endorse or approve of the sexual activity for religious reasons. The Supremes got this one right...for the wrong reason. ***************************************** Moving On "Historians will mark the administration of George W. Bush as the point at which the so-called social issues, long a galvanizing feature of American partisan politics, finally lost their sting. The Supreme Court's rulings upholding diversity as a compelling government interest and striking down the remaining state anti-sodomy laws join the early Bush administration decision allowing stem-cell research to go forward. The trinity (as it were) of decisions leave those whose top priority has been the preservation of a certain traditional public morality now essentially voiceless in electoral politics. The Republican Party has moved on." - Columnist Tod Lindberg ***************************************** Tax War in the Silver State SPECIAL: For my friends in my former state... "Nevada is currently facing a record $5 billion budget. (Gov. Kenny) Guinn, a Republican, is firmly supporting an $860 million-plus Democrat-led tax increase to pass the budget," reports Talon News. However, "Republicans in the Assembly are deeply concerned about endorsing the largest tax increase in the history of Nevada. They are utilizing a measure passed by Nevada voters in 1991 that requires all votes on tax increases to be approved by a two-thirds majority." Guinn and the Democrats are one Republican vote short of getting their 2/3 majority to pass the tax hike. This has tax-happy Democrat Minority Leader Dina Titus' panty hose all up in a bunch. She's busy running around the halls of the Legislature doing her Chicken Little imitation, cackling at the top of her lungs, "Tyranny of the minority! Tyranny of the minority!" Actually, it's more like "protection of the majority." Let's be clear here about exactly what's happening. Back in 1991, Jim Gibbons - a former GOP state assemblyman and now congressman - sponsored a ballot measure, "The Gibbons Tax Restraint Initiative," which would force any future tax hikes to be approved by a 2/3 majority of elected officials in both houses of the Legislature. But that's not all. Even if the Legislature can't muster the 2/3 majority to raise taxes themselves, they can pass a tax hike by a simple majority. HOWEVER, such a tax hike would automatically be sent to a vote of the people in the next election. If a simple majority of the PEOPLE themselves approved the tax hike, it would remain in place. On the other hand, if the tax hike is rejected by the MAJORITY of voters, the hike would be spiked. Some tyranny. Methinks Frau Titus doth protest too much. The MAJORITY of the people of Nevada voted to restrict their elected leaders ' ability to raise their taxes. Overwhelmingly. Not once, but twice. So important was it to them to leash the taxing ability of their elected leaders that Nevadans put the 2/3 requirement, not into law, but in their CONSTITUTION. So the Republican objections to the tax hike aren't "tyranny by the minority" by any stretch of the imagination. This is EXACTLY what the PEOPLE said they wanted when they passed Gibbons' tax restraint initiative. The MAJORITY of Nevadans have spoken loud and clear. And what they said was they didn't want their taxes raised unless 2/3 of the Legislature could agree it was necessary or if the people themselves were allowed to vote directly on any tax hike. They WANTED to set a high bar for tax hikes. Guess they just didn't trust their elected officials. Go figure. I listened to some of the floor debate over the Internet last week. Democrats kept demanding that Republicans "compromise" on this issue. Of course, "compromise" in their minds means passing the largest tax increase in the state's history with NO cuts in any government programs whatsoever. Some "compromise." The impasse means the dispute is now being dropped in the lap of the state's Supreme Court. Justices there would do well to chuck that hot potato right back into the Legislature's court where it belongs. If political leaders can't get a 2/3 majority to pass the largest tax increase in the state's history, that's the way the people wanted it. Get over it. Cut spending. Move on. Oh, and by the way. If your state doesn't have a super-majority requirement for tax hikes, you might want to work on getting it. It obviously works rather well. I wonder when Jim Gibbons Appreciation Day is this year? ****************************************** Affordable Campaign Websites! Now you can get professional-looking campaign web sites for as little as $10 a month. That's right...just ten smackeroos a month. Here's what's included in this fantastic new program from Campaign Secrets, Inc. (available ONLY to Republican candidates): * Free Hosting * Unique Domain Name * Personal Email Accounts * Credit Card Processing * Unlimited Edits * Event Calendar * Volunteer Sign-up Page * Built-in Bulk Emailer Campaign Site Builder can be used for political organizations and non-profits, as well. For more information, just go to: http://www.campaignsecrets.com/websites.asp *********************************** How to Subscribe If you know someone who might like to receive News & Views, you can sign 'em up at: http://www.chuckmuth.com. Also, occasionally, the automatic listserve we use will "bump" subscribers off the list if your mailbox is full or experiences some other technical glitch. If you suddenly stop receiving News & Views, the first thing you should do is try to re-subscribe using the link above. 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