Byron York - When Bush spoke to students, Democrats investigated, held hearings

Unlike the Obama speech, in 1991 most of the controversy came after, not before, the president's school appearance. The day after Bush spoke, the Washington Post published a front-page story suggesting the speech was carefully staged for the president's political benefit. "The White House turned a Northwest Washington junior high classroom into a television studio and its students into props," the Post reported.

With the Post article in hand, Democrats pounced. "The Department of Education should not be producing paid political advertising for the president, it should be helping us to produce smarter students," said Richard Gephardt, then the House Majority Leader. "And the president should be doing more about education than saying, 'Lights, camera, action.'"

Continue reading: Byron York - When Bush spoke to students, Democrats investigated, held hearings

Me: Just thought it was interesting reading...

One word for Atlanta Tea Party: Wow!

One word to describe it in the title, but a lot more in this short post! I'm one tired puppy right now but I had to share as I guzzle my morning caffeine. We had a blast yesterday at the Atlanta Tea Party. I didn't get home until close to midnight, then I had to watch the midnight Hannity repeat to see what I'd missed! Yawn and double yawn

Our small group of three left Fayette County for the Capitol yesterday around 4 p.m. When we arrived the place was already jamming up with fellow tea party-ers.

On our trip downtown and our walk from the Five Points Marta station to the Capitol we ran into a lot of people who, as a testament to the lack of interest by the mainstream media, didn't have a clue what was going on across the nation.

We understand there were over 800 Tax Day Tea Parties across United States. Here in Peachtree City, GA a small one was organized for noon that attracted between 400 to 500 people. Not bad for a tiny county during a work day when most commute outside the county! Ann Eldredge put together a slide show of the event on the front page of http://www.fayettefrontpage.com/ if you'd like to see it.

In Atlanta as the crowds increased the energy level increased. So many great signs, so many great people! It was a well-behaved crowd.

Speaker after speaker rose to share their thoughts. We were directly in front of the podium, right behind the press stand. Unfortunately, a television screen set rather low cut off some of our view of the stage. By the time Sean Hannity arrived we'd moved down enough so that we were almost directly behind him (he faced away from the crowd for his show so we'd all be in the background). If I'd been just a bit taller you might have been able to make me out in the crowd... ah well, no crowd fame for our group.

I won't bore you with all the details. It's one of those "had to be there" type events. Next best is the visual of television. Way down the totem pole of communication is a blog written by a very sleepy gal with a hoarse throat from yelling and chanting. There was a lot of spontaneous eruptions of 'USA, USA', 'fairtax' and other words and phrases.

The mainstream media did a great job of making our local Tea Party appear minuscule yesterday. When we were sitting in crowds two blocks deep, packed like sardines with people still streaming off Marta, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported there were around a thousand people at the event. We had just heard it announced that we had over 10,000 in the area. Quite a discrepancy, hmmm... On the way home I flipped on the news to see what was being reported. I perked up when the announcer said "tens of thousands" but then she ruined it by saying "across the country". Ha. That kind of reporting is what's killing mainstream media.

According to most reports we came close to hitting somewhere between 15 - 20 thousand last night. Normal, everyday, average Americans showed up at the events. Sure there were a few fringe elements. I watched and noted that some of the media zoomed in on the 2 or 3 "kooks" in the crowd. I was told by friends who called that the msm was focusing on interviewing that element in many cases. I'm as fed up with the msm as I am the tax and spend government.

Ah well, I can't fix much of anything alone. But with all the groups forming across the country, with all those who are frustrated and fed up across the country, we might have an impact. The excitement and crowd last night energized me and gave me hope.

I hope the enthusiasm and momentum from last night continues. I expect it will.

I hope that those who didn't find a tea party yesterday will get involved and help the movement spread to the front steps of the White House. I think that's going to happen, too.

How Cheap the Price of a Vote

The $700 billion bailout is now up to around $850 billion depending on how you calculate the various additions that were tacked on to buy votes.

These so-called principled politicians were dead set against the bill... until... they added provisions for wooden arrows... gave a tax credit to businesses for employees who bought a bike to ride to work... The list of seemingly mundane and frivolous additions is ridiculous. Yet that is all it took to get some to switch their no vote to a yes vote.

How cheap the price of a vote.

How cheap the price of principles.

We are supposedly in crisis mode yet these silly things (with a high price tag) were needed to get the bill passed to save us from the end of the world???

I listened as the very people who caused the problem stood there and patted themselves on the back for getting the bill through. Apple pie, love and harmony, and everyone is beautiful. We played nice, threw in some icing on top of the icing and we deserve your vote and praise.

Bull.

The three page bill is now something like 650 pages? We'll be sorting through the fine print for decades to come and I believe we are going to regret the passage of this bill. I've been listening as economists and other "experts" discuss what this bill will do and I'm convinced at this point that at best it'll stop things were they are now.

What's next? Once we set the precedent how do we say no to another sector? What happens once we've partially nationalized this segment of our free market? How many agencies are we going to need to create to oversee the enactment and subsequent oversight of / from the bill?

Here's a few things included in the bill:

--- “The Secretary of the Treasury shall enter into an agreement with the National Academy of Sciences to undertake a comprehensive review of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to identify the types of and specific tax provisions that have the largest effects on carbon and other greenhouse gas emissions and to estimate the magnitude of those effects.”

--- The subsidy for biodiesel production doubles, going from 50 cents per gallon to $1.00 per gallon.

--- The “Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008,” (Bill number S.558) for companies with more than 50 employees, requires group insurance plans to have deductibles, copayments, coinsurance, and annual and lifetime limits for mental health and drug addition/abuse coverage which are no more restrictive or expensive for the policy holder than those same items for other medical and surgical coverage.

--- Tax breaks for rum producers in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands ($192 million)

--- Tax breaks for motorsports racing track facilities ($128 million)

--- Tax breaks for Alaskan fishermen ($223 million)

--- The extension of the “exemption of undercover operations (by the IRS) from certain laws”

Sources:
'Sweetened' bailout plan stuffed with pork
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Politics/Default.aspx?id=273634

Tax Earmarks, Pork and Other Bailout Bill Horrors
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=28851

Florida's Sen. Nelson Votes Against Bailout Plan
http://cbs4.com/local/senator.bill.nelson.2.831240.html

Plus a whole host of other articles, discussions and a very tiny, tiny bit of talk radio.