Small Government Blog

This past weekend FOX “News” presented a biographical special, “American Commander: Gen. David Petraeus”. The introduction on it’s website reads: “Today’s conflicts require that a modern American general be a student of history. Join us for this special look at the life and times of General David Petraeus from his childhood in Cornwall, New York to his historic mission in Iraq”

The slant is clear and as one would expect from this source. It can be taken as the latest shot in the controversy ignited by Moveon.org’s now famous NY Times ad of September 10th.

On Thursday, the good general received some defense from an unexpected source.

Keith Olbermann, in his closing remarks directed, as they often are, to the current White House resident on his MSNBC show “Countdown” suggested that bush had “… inappropriately interjected General Petraeus into the political dialogue of this nation in the first place, deliberately, premeditatedly and virtually without precedent. You Shanghaied a military man as your personal spokesman…

The man does not understand that serving officers cannot double as serving political ops is not so much his fault as it is your good exploitable fortune.”

Perhaps in his zeal to attack bush, Olbermann’s defense of Petraeus was inadvertent. His enmity towards bush is palpable, especially to those of us who share the feeling.

Be that as it may, is that defense appropriate, or ill-placed? (more…)

By the summer of 2005, I’d gotten a little tired of the sort of e-mails I’d been getting from Moveon.org. I signed on as a “member” only to get alerts on anti-war associated matters.

I realized I’d have to put up with a lot of “progressive agenda” advocacy nonsense from the onset; those advocates were in the forefront of opposition to the war in Iraq.

But the alerts seemed to drift further and further away from war opposition and more towards the internal politics of the Democratic party.

So I canceled my “membership” (sic).

A few months later, I felt vindicated as Joshua Frank, who I expect has little aversion to the “progressive” agenda wrote a scathing criticism of Moveon.org.

“It’s a good thing for MoveOn.org that George W. Bush was reelected. If he hadn’t been, the liberal troupe would have nothing to contest. Even if the bloody occupation had continued under a John Kerry presidency (it most certainly would have), the cowering office-chair activists would have ducked behind their computer screens awaiting the return of another brutal Republican administration. Activism should never be partisan, but Moveon.org isn’t about to hold the Democrats accountable for supporting Bush’s war agenda.

MoveOn is nothing more than a cover for the Democratic Party. Issues are no matter. Partisan politics are…”

Read the complete article here.

But wait. Recently, Moveon has come roaring back to redeem itself as bona fide anti-war organization. (more…)

September 11th is only a few days away. Ominously, as I noted in my last post, falling for the first time since 2001, on a Tuesday.

I’m not a fan of conspiracy theories. They are generally based on the flawed logic of mass cooperation. The further along their narrative runs, the more people must agree to play their part. It becomes too improbable.

Still, if not taken too seriously, they can be a useful vehicle for pertinent questions.

When it comes to 9-11, there are still myriad unanswered questions. Or questions inadequately answered, at least.

For example, why did Tom Kenney, a spokesman for FEMA tell Dan Rather that FEMA was deployed in Manhatten on Monday, September 10th?

This is explained as simple confusion on his part. A result of the understandably severe stress of circumstance.

And yet as you listen, his tone is matter-of-fact, as though it were a matter of course to have been prepared for what transpired. (more…)

Most years I go to a local FEDEX office and pick up one of their really neat one-page calenders.

But this year, I was too late, they ran out. No matter. I had saved a previous year’s calender; one which dates happened to fall on the same days of the week as this year.

As in 2001, September 11th falls on a Tuesday. And so today is Friday, September the seventh.

But wait. That calender seems a bit off; according to the admonitions passed down to us from our all-knowing masters in Washington it should be Monday, September 10th.

It’s always, much in the manner of the movie “Ground Hog Day”, Monday, September 10th. Tommorrow, of course, will be doomsday. At least for a few of us innocents. (more…)

A Japanese doctor says, ‘Medicine in my country is so advanced that we can take a kidney out of one man, put it in another, and have him out looking for work in six weeks.’

A German doctor says, ‘That is nothing. We can take a lung out of one person, put it in another, and have him out looking for work in four weeks.’

A British doctor says, ‘In my country medicine is so advanced that we can take half a heart out of one person, put it in another, and have both of them out looking for work in two weeks.’

The Canadian doctor, not to be outdone, interjected, ‘You guys are way behind. We took a woman with no brains, sent her to Michigan where she became Governor, and now half the state is out looking for work.’

The above is a joke that I received in my email recently. It is a sorry state of affairs but speaks volumes about the incompetence of Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm. For those who don’t know, Granholm comes from Canada.

Bravo to Carla Howell and Michael Cloud for their renewed attempt to repeal the income tax. For more details, visit their web site: http://www.smallgovernmentact.org/sgn20070830.html.

The folks at the Boston Globe don’t get it. An article in the Boston Globe, titled, Activists again propose vote to end income tax notes, “Michael Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, a business-backed budget watchdog group, said the proposal is ‘absolutely unreasonable’ and would dry up state funding for education and healthcare.”

But a more important question is, how does somebody like Michael Widmer get to be president of something like the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation and still be so ignorant of the facts. Nine states do NOT have an income tax: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming (details at: http://www.taxadmin.org/FTA/rate/ind_inc.html). And somehow they manage to fund education and healthcare. Note that some of these states are among the fastest growing states in the country, i.e. Florida, Texas, and Nevada.

Although Massachusetts was an early adopter of the state income tax, many states did not adopt the income tax until years later. For example, Wisconsin was the first state to adopt an income tax in 1911, but neighboring Michigan did not adopt an income tax until 1967.

Carla Howell and Michael Cloud are doing a wonderful job with this and I will be showing my support with a donation to their effort.