“He [Michael Graham] also mentioned my abridgement of First Amendment rights, i.e. talking about campaign finance reform….I know that money corrupts….I would rather have a clean government than one where quote First Amendment rights are being respected, that has become corrupt. If I had my choice, I’d rather have the clean government.”

Your humble pundit respectfully disagrees with this assessment.

As I have made mention time and time again, full disclosure is the proper way to reform campaign financing. As this statements illustrates, the McCain-Feingold legislation shreds the document our founders put together at the inception of this republic.

With statements such as this, it is quite difficult to fathom how individuals within the Republican Party could embrace his prospective ‘08 presidential nomination run.

Tapscotts Copy Desk,

Is there any remaining doubt that McCain thinks your core rights are less important than his idea of “clean government”?
I will NEVER vote for this guy for anything … except the title “retired Arizona senator.”

The Missing Link  / Leather Penguin / Media Lies / A Blog for All

Hat Tip - StoptheACLU 

Technorati: John McCain / McCain / First Amendment / Politics / Campaign Finance / Freedom of Speech / McCain-Feingold / Free Speech / Censorship

RightWinged.com has a video montage from yesterday evening’s White House Correspondents Dinner. I must agree, the impersonator, Steve Bridges was entertaining. However, President Bush was not so bad himself. My personal favorite was:

…Republicans, Democrats, and John McCain…

See, for yourself, here, and be sure to let us know what your favorite lines were.

It has been quite some time, if ever, that a motion picture has effected me in the way United 93 did this past evening. From the beginning sequence, hearing the futile utterances of Islamic prayers as the terrorists begin preparations for their diabolical scheme, adrenaline began to flow.

But, what struck me the most, was the surreal nature of the passengers and crew as they prepared for their normal, everyday routines. Having now lived in a post-9/11 world for nearly five years, I remember my own naivety to the evil that finds a way of permeating this world in which we live. That was what was powerful about the movie: the stark contrast of the evil that is Islamofascism against the peaceful nature of the unassuming, American lives that were taken. This contrast is that much more gripping when one realizes the goal these  inhuman animals is to eradicate western civilization from the face of this planet. Any of these Americans whose lives were tragically ended too soon could have been replaced with you or I, it matters not to those who are bent on our destruction.

Without going into the specificity of the plot and how it directly transpired, I will refrain from discussing these specifics in depth at this time. But, I must say, this piece of cinema-photography will make you feel as you did on that September day, but in a somewhat novel way. Indeed, it resurrects all of the raw emotions from 9/11 when you see the pictures and images that were shown on CNN and FoxNEWS, but it stirs new emotions as you see your fellow Americans tremble and fearful of what was to actually occur. Seeing the images of desperate souls, and hearing their pleas and torments rips the emotion from within you, and, for your humble pundit, causes the rage to once again flow as it did that September morning.

It has completely raised a new level of awareness of what transpired, for it is one thing to read the 9/11 commission or to hear accounts from family members; however, the imagery will now forever seared into your mind. And, knowing the inevitable makes it that much more difficult to sit and watch.

It was intense.

It was draining. 

I have never walked out of a theatre where everyone was so silenced by a film.

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Blogs on Topic - The Buzz Blog / Dan Dickinson / The Cranky Insomniac / Ace of Spades HQ / Ms. Underestimated,

During the entire nearly 100 or so minutes that the movie played, nobody said a word. Rapt attention was the feeling I got from everyone in attendance. The film starts out in a hotel room where four Islamofascist thugs are praying, one shaving, but all preparing to go to Allah and their 72 virgins once their “mission” is completed.

Pssst! Over Here! / Hot Air / Riehl Word View / The Smoothing Plane

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Technorati: United 93 / Movies / Let’s Roll / 9/11 / Terrorism / Current Affairs

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Open TBs - Cigar Intelligence Agency / StoptheACLU / Blue Star Chronicles / Stuck on Stupid / Blue Star Chronicles / The Right Nation

In honor (ahem) of the California State Senate endorsing the May-Day protests and walkout, your humble pundit has kindly borrowed the photograph brought to you via The Drudge Report for this week’s caption contest. Provide your caption in the “comments” section and I will choose the winner by next week’s caption contest.

Further, if you have any posts or stories you feel warrant a larger audience, please feel free to ‘trackback’ to this post. Consider this an open forum for any and all of your posts that you feel has not gotten the attention it deserves over the course of the last week. If you prefer, please utilize the ‘trackback’ function, or, you could always do it the old-fashioned way via the ‘comments’ section. All I ask is that you mention this post in the post that you are TB’ing from.

Please enjoy, I have “captioned” last week’s photograph here! Enjoy your weekend!

Stuck on Stupid / Voteswagon / Cao’s Blog / Right Wing Nation / TMH’s Bacon Bits / Blue Star Chronicles / third world county / StoptheACLU

Technorati: Open Trackbacks / Caption Contest / Open Trackback / Linkfest

I plan on seeing this movie sometime over the course of this weekend (in spite of my first final being Monday morning).

Personally, I do not feel as though this movie is being produced and shown “too soon,” in fact, I believe that we have become complacent and have all but forgotten about what transpired on September 11, 2001. I do not think by any stretch of imagination that this movie is “too late,” but the same complacency America currently wrestles with was the same complacency that led to that great tragedy.

Please let me know what you think of the timing of this movie, and, if, you, too, plan to see this movie.

David Beamer, father of United 93 passenger Todd Beamer (who uttered the famous “Let’s Roll!”, has a review of United 93 today at the Opinion Journal. (Hat Tip - Blogs for Bush)

There are those who question the timing of this project and the painful memories it evokes. Clearly, the film portrays the reality of the attack on our homeland and its terrible consequences. Often we attend movies to escape reality and fantasize a bit. In this case and at this time, it is appropriate to get a dose of reality about this war and the real enemy we face. It is not too soon for this story to be told, seen and heard. But it is too soon for us to become complacent. It is too soon for us to think of this war in only national terms. We need to be mindful that this enemy, who made those holes in our landscape and caused the deaths of some 3,000 of our fellow free people, has a vision to personally kill or convert each and every one of us. This film reminds us that this war is personal. This enemy is on a fanatical mission to take away our lives and liberty–the liberty that has been secured for us by those whose names are on those walls in Battery Park and so many other walls and stones throughout this nation. This enemy seeks to take away the free will that our Creator has endowed in us. Patrick Henry got it right some 231 years ago. Living without liberty is not living at all.

Technorati: September 11th / 911 / United 93 

The revelations of this story come as no surprise to your humble pundit. For quite some time, I have speculated and pondered that this country would embrace a candidate who whose convictions would reflect the concerns of most Americans, those concerns being National Security and its progeny, which encompasses the issue of illegal immigration.

The debates within our Senate pertaining to illegal immigration do nothing but illustrate what many have ascertained for quite some time, our Senators know how we feel on this issue, but have blatantly ignored our concerns. What has been glossed over by our “thorough” MSM is that Congress’ approval ratings are worse than President Bush’s. And, I assert that their utter disregard for our sentiments and directly correlates with such.

I am a proud conservative, and have voted Republican consistently for the Republican Party usually reflects my ideals and core tenets; however, in the ebbs and flows of politics, we have gone through a considerable quarter wherein I have been quite troubled by the party I have grown accustomed to embracing.

via WorldNetDaily, 

A generic third-party presidential candidate emphasizing border security would tie a Democratic candidate and defeat a Republican, according to a new poll.

The Rasmussen Reports national survey asked respondents how they would vote if “a third party candidate ran in 2008 and promised to build a barrier along the Mexican border and make enforcement of immigration law his top priority.”

In that scenario, Democrats, with 31 percent, would be in a virtual tie with the third-party candidate, with 30 percent of the vote. The Republican candidate would be favored by only 21 percent.

Rasmussen comments that the result “probably reflects unhappiness with both parties on the immigration issue rather than a true opportunity for a third party.”

Historically, the pollster points out, issues that drive third-party candidates are co-opted by one of the major parties as they prove popular.

Rasmussen surveys have indicated most Americans favor a barrier along the border and enforcement of existing laws prior to other reforms.

Without the third-party candidate, according to the new poll, Democrats hold a 12-point advantage over Republicans on a generic 2008 presidential ballot, 44 percent to 32 percent.

Rasmussen said these figures likely are a reflection of unhappiness with the Bush administration rather than a commentary on prospective candidates from either party.

The latest poll found that with the immigration-issue candidate as an option, 36 percent of voters who identified as conservatives chose the Republican candidate while 35 percent picked the third-party option.

Among political moderates, 34 percent chose the Democrat while 32 percent preferred the third-party candidate.

Such sickening displays of protests illustrate the “tolerance” of our friends and colleagues on the left side of the aisle. Whether or not more “mainstream” liberals and Democrats condone such perverted antics matters not for their passive encouragement of this sect within their base does nothing but foment such vitriolic asininity.

That’s unfortunate.  And I didn’t know that patchouli-smelling Hippies knew how to spell…

Vandals staged attacks early Wednesday on the buildings used by the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps at N.C. State University and UNC-Chapel Hill, echoing similar assaults on three Triangle recruiting stations last month.

As before, vandals sprayed anti-war slogans and profanity, splashed red paint and claimed responsibility with a mass e-mail message to area media outlets.

Lt. Col. Carol Ann Redfield of the Army ROTC program at N.C. State was caught off guard. “This is the first time I know of that anything like this has happened here,” she said. “I certainly appreciate that people have different opinions, and they should be able to express them, but I have a problem when they damage property.”

The e-mail, from someone calling himself “celest ialbeing” said, “Stop these recruitment centers that target poor people and people of color to fight to maintain the power structure that (literally and figuratively) imprisons us daily.”

The vandals sprayed slogans at the base of an entrance to Reynolds Coliseum, which holds the Department of Military Science, and tossed paint onto an ROTC sign above the entrance.

[…]

At UNC, the vandals used spray paint for slogans but chose a 5-gallon bucket of water-soluble red paint to splash the landing, columns and steps. A cleanup crew blasted it off with a pressure washer.

“Thank goodness they used water-based paint,” said Angelo Baldwin, a crew member. The slogans — including “we won’t fight your wars!” — also were removed quickly, but the doors must be repainted.

At N.C. State, the slogan “Army ROTC trains murderers resist acts of war” was sprayed in a place all but invisible to passers-by. The vandals’ arsenal also included another puzzling choice: Christmas tree ornaments, which were apparently tossed at the ROTC sign.

Hat Tip - Michelle Malkin & Sister Toldjah

Technorati: N. C. State / ROTC / Moonbat / Peace Protest / Iraq / War on Terror  

With as much as our friends and colleagues on the left side of the aisle adore Fidel Castro, the hypocrisy of this revelation would be amusing but for our rising energy prices. Liberals, led by their ultra-environmentalists sect, have squelched and impeded every novel idea to confront our energy concerns since President Bush has taken office.

From ANWR to the Gulf of Mexico (even though Jeb resisted here, too), President Bush and the Republicans have met fierce resistance, and now it seems as though Castro will be moving forward with a plan in lieu of our concerns to keep the Gulf of Mexico “pristine” and “virgin.”

U.S. lawmakers aren’t the only ones who, because of spiraling oil and gas prices and an unstable commodities market, have been studying the possibility of producing more domestic energy. Fidel Castro has also taken an interest, and his ambitions will, in a surprisingly short period of time, bring the Cuban drilling program much closer to the Florida coast.

Who can blame him? Castro has for years looked for new opportunities to develop his economy in the face of our trade embargo. He could only expect to rely on Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez’s oil and gas giveaway for so long. So, with the intention of claiming billions of dollars in new revenues and reducing his country’s dependence on foreign energy, Castro has taken to the high seas in an effort to acquire and produce as much oil and gas as he can.

But there’s a rub: Cuba has neither the capacity nor the technical capability to produce this energy by itself. Castro has called in contractors from Canada, Spain, Norway — even China — to do it for him.

And not only has Cuba convened its own little United Nations to help get at vital and abundant supplies of offshore energy, it has chosen tracts of real estate in the Gulf of Mexico as close as 45 miles from Florida. Forty-five miles is just a bit farther than the distance between the University of Miami and Fort Lauderdale.

Imagine what Castro is thinking as we spend our time quarreling over whether we should produce American energy 100, 150 or 250 miles from the Florida coast while he makes arrangements to set up shop hundreds of miles closer. He must love that we’ve allowed emotion to win out over reason, facts to be dwarfed by fear and our nation’s energy policy to be driven by unreasonable environmental concerns.

Hat Tip - Wizbang!

“Every new sweeping tax law Congress enacts -— always called a ‘reform’ —- makes the job even more complicated and, if possible, more confusing. And the tax code longer. But we’re all supposed to swear, on penalty of perjury, that we’ve done our best to find it… Is tax reform the answer? It’s more like the problem, since every reform tends to complicate tax law only more. And the longer and worse the tax code gets, the less chance there is of really reforming the thing. What to do? Don’t mend it, end it. Abolish the tax code and start all over. Think about it: Would anybody starting from scratch come up with a system as indecipherable and counterproductive as the one we’ve got? So why not opt for a clean break with the past? Abolish the Internal Revenue Code and begin anew.” —Paul Greenberg

“[The tax code] is a monstrosity and there’s only one thing to do with it. Scrap it, kill it, drive a stake through its heart, bury it and hope it never rises again to terrorize the American people.” -Steve Forbes

I can think of not one single person who thinks that the income tax is not broken. As Paul Greenberg asks above, “Would anyone starting from scratch come up with a system as indecipherable and counterproductive as the one we’ve got?” Not hardly. The only question is, what do we replace it with? This week we’re going to keep it short and simple, because you have a homework assignment.

We can argue till the cows come home about the relative benefits of the Fair Tax, the Flat Tax, and the Income Tax (are there benefits to the Income Tax?), but “the proof is in the pudding”, as they say.

Please take the time you might spend reading a longer post, and visit The FairTax Calculator. There are eight (8) fields to complete, you’ll probably need your income tax return and a current paycheck for yourself and your spouse (if you’re married). After doing that, click “Submit” to get your results. Don’t forget to read the note at the bottom of the screen regarding your FICA (Social Security) taxes!

Then comment on this blog regarding the results. Would you like to see the FairTax implemented? I’m betting the answer will be a resounding Yes!

Most of my readers know exactly what time of year this is for a burgeoning young lawyer-to-be, next week, I begin my final set of finals, which means this week I will be studying for these finals (or, at least, that is the story that I am dispersing so that you all will think I am a great student). They cannot fail me at this point, right? I have invested too much in tuition and books!

What this means for my readers is that I will be on a “working vacation” from blogging. I am not going to cessate my writing entirely, but posts will be sparse over the course of the next couple of weeks. My apologies, but I am trying to graduate!

Wish Me Luck!

Cao’s Blog