MONDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2003

This is what happens when people let their ill-behaved brats run loose at airports.

YOUR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN GET THE SHAFT AT 9:15 THIS MORNING

Now here's an interesting little factoid I'll bet you didn't know.  I learned this reading a Bruce Bartlett column this morning.  All of our nation's major entitlement programs were enacted into law when one party controlled the Presidency, the House and the Senate.  We got the hideous Social Security problem when FDR was in the White House and Democrats controlled the House and Senate.  Medicare came to us when LBJ was in office with Democrats controlling congress.  Now it's the prescription drug benefit.  We have a Republican president and Republicans in control of the House and Senate .. and what do we get for Christmas?  a boondoggle that will cost us over $2 trillion over the next 20 years.

Here's something else you don't know.  Every single penny that is to be spent on the drug benefit package is going to have to be borrowed.  There is no surplus in the federal treasury with which to pay the tab.  The money has to be borrowed.  And just who will pay the money back?  I can tell you who won't pay the money back:  Seniors who will benefit from this program over the next decade and the supporters and politicians who put it in place today:  The seniors will get taxpayer funded subsidies to buy their drugs.  This means that they will be able to spend their own money on something else.  Remember ... the people who will benefit are the wealthiest segment of our society, and less than 5% of them have reported any serious difficulties in getting their prescription drugs.

The politicians, of course, will get the votes of the seniors in 2004.  That's what drove this whole bill in the first place ... vote buying.  That's the way it goes, though.  Seniors vote.  Young people don't.  That's why young Americans and their children will be making the payments on this vote buying scheme for years to come.

Pundits are calling this a huge political win for the White House.  Maybe so ... if reelection is all you're considering.  George Bush says "we're keeping our promise to America's seniors."  Yeah ... we're keeping our promise to loot future generations of Americans so that the Gimme Generation can free up some of its money for more bingo cards instead of having to spend it on their prescription drugs.   It's a huge financial loss for future generations of Americans.  Too bad they aren't paying attention.

REPUBLICANS ... THE NEW PARTY OF BIG GOVERNMENT

We just touched on the prescription drug bill above.  There's still the energy bill to consider and an omnibus spending bill.  There has been absolutely no effort whatsoever on the part of Republicans in the Senate or the House to limit spending, and George Bush has raised not one complaint, let alone veto one bill, to bring things under control.

There's a Bruce Bartlett article in the reading assignments suggesting that we need gridlock again ... we need a Democrat in the White House with Republicans in control of the congress.  Right now that sounds like a pretty good idea.

THERE WERE CAMERAS ON MICHAEL JACKSON'S AIRPLANE?

Did you hear that the charter company that flew Michael Jackson from Las Vegas to Santa Barbara is now trying to hawk a video tape of Jackson on that flight?  Now the charter company is quick to say that they had no idea how in the world those cameras came to be installed in the front and back of the passenger cabin of that airplane ... but they're trying to sell the video tape to the highest bidder nonetheless.  Yup .. they don't know how the cameras got there, but how much would you like to pay us for the tape?  By the way, the tape shows Michael Jackson to be completely calm on that flight.  He's not in a panic, and it doesn't look like he was trying to get the pilots to fly to South America. 

Pretty sleazy stuff here.  Tell me, would you want to fly on a jet owned by a charter company that couldn't even detect someone installing cameras in the fore and aft bulkheads?  What else could someone install on that airplane?  Get me the name of this charter company.  I'll avoid them.

READING ASSIGNMENTS

The Wall Street Journal asks "Aren't Republicans supposed to be the party of small government?"

The fact is that the Democrats are obstructing Bush's war on terror.  No wonder they get so angry when Bush points it out in a TV advertisement.

Britain might just well veto the new EU Constitution.  That would be a good thing.

Speaking of Europe ... now we have the president of the Czech Republic saying that Europeans are living in a dream world of welfare and long vacations. 

Aw ... a bullet fell out of the sky and hit him in the head.  It couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

Bruce Bartlett:  "The era of big government is back with a vengeance."

Give me a break.  Now we have the United Steelworkers asking for a congressional investigation of what they call a "police state" in Miami during the recent trade talks.  Yeah, right.  We'll do that investigation as soon as we finish with the congressional investigation into union corruption and union sponsored violence.

This couple would be dead today if they hadn't hidden a gun in their minivan.

There is a rumor out there that Los Angeles County has requested that all equipment vendors doing business with the county avoid using the common industry terms "Master/Slave" in the descriptions of their products.  Is this rumor true or not?  For the answer we go to snopes.com.

Washington Times Editorial:  Justice Janice Rogers Brown a victim of vicious selective prosecution ... by Democrats.

Abercrombie & Fitch ... once a proud, now a vile retailer.  Are they selling sex, even group sex to your kids?

James Godwin reviews my speech at The University of Missouri - Columbia in the Columbia Daily Tribune.  Not a bad job?  There was not one inaccuracy in the entire story!  Some major newspaper needs to snap this Godwin guy up!

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