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9/15/03

THE NINTH CIRCUIT STRIKES AGAIN!

The infamous 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in California is trying to put a stop to the recall election.  This is the same court that ruled the law mandating the pledge of allegiance in California government schools because of the words "under God" in that pledge. 

In this case the court has ruled that the voters in six urban California counties would be disenfranchised by the use of punch-card voting machines. 

OK .. let's set aside the partisan emotionalism for a second a look at this court's ruling.  I know, it's hard.  On the one hand you want to side with the voters who signed that recall petition and get on with the process of kicking that incredibly incompetent Gray Davis out of office.  On the other hand you might believe that this whole recall is nothing but a bunch of Republicans trying to undo an election.  Fine ... you feel what you feel.  Set it aside and look at this ruling with a modicum of reason.

Again .. the court found that the old punch-card ballot machines would disenfranchise poor and minority voters.  It is unfortunate that the court had to make a specific reference to "poor and minority" voters.  The Voting Rights Act notwithstanding, poor and minority voters are not entitled to one single protection at the polls that rich and white voters are entitled to.  It's not about poor minority voters, and it's not about rich majority voters.  It's all about everybody's vote being counted according to the same standards.  By focusing on poor and minority voters the 9th Circuit seems to be saying that poor people and minorities just aren't bright enough to use a punch-card voting system.  Now that may or may not be so, but it's rather odd that a court would recognize that, isn't it?

Simply put, the 9th Circuit Court (or at least the particular three-judge panel that issued this ruling) believes that it is more likely that a ballot cast on a punch-card machine will have a greater chance of being thrown out than would a ballot cast on, say, a touch-screen.  You know what?  They're probably exactly right on that.  Think about it.  Which would you rather have at the end of your voting process; a punch-card with little holes punched next to numbers, or a computer screen telling you how you voted on the recall and which candidate you chose to replace Gray Davis?  Me?  I'd take the touch-screen.

Let's go back to the U.S. Supreme Court decision that stopped the endless recounting process in Florida in 2000.  Just what were the Supremes saying?  The court merely said that if you are going to recount votes, you are going to recount ALL the votes, not just the votes in those areas dominated by Democrats.  In other words, you are going to treat every single voter and every single vote the same.

This brings us back to California.  If there is, as I believe there is, a greater chance that punch-card ballots are going to be thrown out, then that would mean that there is a greater chance that people who vote in these six urban California counties are not going to have their vote thrown out.  It boils down to equal protection ... equal treatment under the law.  A voter using a punch-card ballot has every right to expect their vote to count as much as someone using a touch-screen.  The blunt truth is that this does not seem to be the way things will work out.

So ... though my sympathies lie with the people who signed the recall petition, my initial reaction is that the 9th Circuit was right.  Just as the same standards should apply to recounting votes, so the same standards should apply to casting votes.  California has been dragging its feed in reforming the voting process.  Time to pay the piper.

By the way .. there are tough times ahead for the Governor of California, whoever he is.  A balanced budget has to be submitted shortly after the new year.  Gray Davis has contributed to this mess, let's see how this marvelous Democrat will solve it.

I don't know, maybe you're just bored, but if you really want to read the full text of the 9th Circuit's ruling on this recall election go right ahead.  Just click here.

WELCOME LAKE COUNTY!

1220-WKRS in Waukegan, Illinois, The Voice of Lake County, has recently added The Neal Boortz Show to its weekday lineup!  We'll be heard from 9:00 to 11:00, just before Bill O'Reilly, along beautiful Lake Michigan just north of Chicago!  Spread the word!

THE PHILOSOPHY OF LIBERTY IS BASED ON ......

OK, finish the sentence.  Just what is the basis of liberty?  I was cruisin' the 'net last night when I stumbled on this animated bit.  I wish every government school student out there could take a look at this.  Set aside about four minutes, gather your children around the computer, turn up the sound and then click here.  Then send the link to any children you may have off at college somewhere ... God knows they could use some positive influences right now.  What you will see here is a great basic primer in Libertarianism. 

CODE RED IDIOT ALERTS

Hatred for the United States in Europe seems to know no bounds.  The bestseller lists in Europe are full of books which make the case that the United States government was behind the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington on 9/11.  A group of these nut cases recently got together in Berlin.  There they heard one speaker say that the jets which hit the Trade Towers were really remotely controlled from propeller airplanes that were flying nearby.

By the way ... my Georgia listeners might be interested in the identification of the keynote speaker for this "America attacked itself" conference.  The keynote speaker was none other that Jihad Cindy, Georgia's former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney.  Jihad Cindy is rumored to be after the Green (Socialist) Party nomination for president.  Cynthia and her father have been keeping us entertained here in Atlanta for years, now she's overseas entertaining people who wish to blame America for attacking itself on 9/11. 

HERE'S A QUOTE FROM JAMES MADISON .....

..... but most people still won't get it.

"A pure democracy can admit no cure for the mischief's of faction.  A common passion or interest will be felt by a majority, and there is nothing to check the inducements to sacrifice the weaker party.  Hence it is, that democracies have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have, in general, been as short in their lives as they have been violent in thier deaths."  James Madison.

Isn't it somewhat remarkable that we can go back a a few hundred years and find no shortage of quotations from our founding fathers warning us against the dangers of democracy, yet today teachers and politicians use the word as if it were an offering of gold.

WHAT DOES THIS SAY ABOUT WORK ETHIC?

We have two women engaged in this saga.  Bridget Jones and Beverly Terry.  Bridget is black.  Beverly is white.  Both Bridget and Beverly sought and were given jobs in the customer service area of a company.  So far, so good.

In 1999 the company that Bridget and Beverly worked for was acquired by a larger company.  The customer service center where both Bridget and Beverly worked was closed.  Bridget applied for and received training for another job with the larger company.  She is still working there today.  Soon after the closure of the customer service department of the smaller company Beverly was fired.  She received a lump sum severance package.

Now ... get this.  Bridget found out that Beverly was fired and got severance pay, and she wasn't pleased.  She marched herself off to federal court and filed a discrimination lawsuit.  Bridget Jones claimed that she was discriminated against because of her race because the company offered her another job (which she still has) instead of firing her and giving her a severance package like they did the white lady.

Unbelievable.

Now .. the good news.  The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals virtually laughed Bridget Jones out of court.  The court said that the company was under no obligation to fire Bridget.  The court said "Any other holding would lead to the absurd result that Jones suffered an adverse employment action because she was not fired." 

Can you believe it?  Some woman files a racial discrimination lawsuit because she wasn't fired, and the white girl was.  She was essentially saying that she would rather be fired, get the severance pay and not work than to actually keep her job.  And just where do you find an attorney to file an absurdity like this?

For you legal types, here's our cite:  Jones v. Reliant Energy-ARKLA, ____F.3rd _____, 2003 U.S.App. LEXIS 14172 (8th Cir. July 15, 2003)

DRIVER'S LICENSES FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS

You do realize that about one year ago California Governor Gray Davis vetoed a bill calling for driver's licenses for illegal aliens, don't you?  I ask you this because Davis just signed a bill approving that very same thing.  The difference between then and now?  Now Gray Davis is facing a recall election, and illegal aliens vote in large numbers in California.  Now is not the time to wee wee in their salsa.

Voting.  There's the key.  The principal proponents of driver's licenses for illegal aliens are ..... all together now .... DEMOCRATS!  It's clear that when illegal aliens do get the chance to vote, they vote for Democrats.  Democrats block every effort to require some kind of identification from voters.  Why?  Because if you require IDs of voters it will be harder for illegal aliens to get in there and vote and that will mean less votes for Democrats!

Now ... about these driver's licenses for illegal aliens.  Principal proponents?  Democrats!  And why?  Because the driver's license is a de facto national ID card and it will, in time, make it easier for illegal aliens to register and vote.  After all, they have ID, don't they?  So they must be eligible, right?

SCARE TACTICS

I understand that Alabama Governor Bill Riley is mightily ticked off that the good citizens of Alabama didn't go for his "God told me to raise your taxes" tax hike.  Now he's said to be warning the people of Alabama to go out and buy guns to protect themselves from the criminals he's fixin' to turn lose out of Alabama prisons.

What a cheap scare tactic to pull on a population just because they wouldn't go along with a tax hike.  The people of Alabama should let Riley know what they think about his cheap, childish tantrum.

Truth is, if Riley wants to turn some prisoners loose then go issue a pardon to every single non-violent drug offender currently serving time.  These people are only a threat to themselves ... and the people of Alabama shouldn't be paying for their room and board.

By the way ... there's only one big county in Alabama where the tax increase passed, Montgomery County, seat of Alabama political power.  No mystery here.  The tax increase passed in Montgomery County because that's where most state employees live.  Government employees love high taxes .. on the rest of the population .. because that's where job guarantees, pay raises and fat pension benefits come from.

AND JUST HOW IMPORTANT IS THIS?

We learn over the weekend that Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez have broken up.  It's Ben's idea, so say the trades, but he's not yet sure if he wants to stay broken up.  What drama!

Why in the hell do we care about nonsense like this?  What does it say about us that we get so gunched up over nonsense like Affleck and J-Lo.  Whether or not these two celebrities get married, break up, go bowling, take yoga lessons or drive their sports cars into brick walls ... it will have absolutely no effect on our lives.  It doesn't matter!

What is going on here?  We have Islamic fanatics just begging for a chance to kill as many of us as they can.  We have a president who is determined to cut these fanatics off at the legs, and we have a political party that wants to do the same to our president; and we're searching the Internet for the latest news on whether or not Bennifer is going to continue to be a part of our lives?

You know what?  Sometimes we're just pathetic.

AND THIS IS EVEN MORE PATHETIC

The icon of no-talent artistry, Yoko Ono, is going to stand on a stage today in London and allow people to cut off pieces of her clothing.  She's going to stand there until she's naked.  She's 70 years old.  She's calling this "art."  What's worse, some people in the "arts community" are calling it art as well. 

So .. we're left to decide what is more pathetic; obsessing over Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck or using a pair of scissors to contribute to the nakedness of a 70 year old woman who had already reached new levels of hideousness at the age of 30.

BILL CLINTON IS SO WORRIED ABOUT CALIFORNIA

He's afraid California will become a laughing stock if they throw out his pal Gray Davis.  It's oh so very nice that Clinton is worried about California.  That's very nice.  Wouldn't it have been nice is Clinton had been as worried about stopping Osama bin Laden after the attack on the Khobar Towers or the USS Cole? 

MONDAY'S READING ASSIGNMENTS

Just what, exactly, was Osama bin Laden trying to accomplish when he attacked America on 9/11?  Walid Phares is a Professor of Middle East Studies.  Read his analysis of bin Laden's objectives.  You'll come away with a new appreciation of just how America did react.

As a talk show host for over thirty years, I'm literally on pins and needles waiting for the left to go ahead and unveil their left-wing talk radio network.  I'm telling you, it won't work.  While it lasts, though, it's going to be wildly entertaining.  David Boaz of The Cato Institute writes about the left's efforts to "make it" in talk radio.

It was ten years ago that Yasser Arafat signed the Oslo accord.   During that process Arafat signed a letter renouncing the use of terrorism and acts of violence and promising to "assume responsibility over all PLO elements and personnel in order to assure their compliance, prevent violations and discipline violators."  Since that time over 11,000 people have been killed by Arafat's goons.  Jeff Jacoby writes that "the delusion that was Oslo is finally ending."

Some feds from the General Accounting Office had no real problem sneaking box cutters past our "professionalized" federal worker Transportation Security Agency screeners.  The problem here is that we're still looking for weapons instead of terrorists at our airports.  The enemy here is political correctness, and our obsession with PC is going to get someone killed.  That's OK though.  When you "profile" you're affecting the group.  One meaningless individual in some other group getting killed is just the price you have to pay.  Individuals, after all, have no rights.  Only groups have rights.

There are some parents out there who take some sort of a perverse pleasure out of tagging their children with some sort of a behavioral disorder or mental disease.  This is one way to explain the ADD/ADHD craze.  What a sense of belonging you get when you finally have a whacked-out child, just like all the other parents!  The new craze seems to be autism.  The word has been redefined to include an ever increasing number of children.  Thomas Sowell writes about applying this label to a child simply because he or she may be a bit late in speaking.

First we started calling illegal aliens "undocumented workers."  Using the "illegal" word was just too negative.  Now the PC left has decided that "undocumented" isn't good because the "un" part is negative.  The new word?  They're "immigrants," whether they're here legally or not.  Cruz Bustamante says all that should be necessary for U.S. citizenship is to somehow sneak in, and then get a job ... then they automatically qualify for US citizenship.  Now that's one helluva campaign theme for someone running for governor of California, isn't it?

So you want Howard Dean to be our next president?  I wonder what he thinks of the Hamas members who strap bombs to their chests and go out to find Israeli women and children to massacre?  Are those Hamas goons actually terrorists?  Why, no!  It's seems they're not actually terrorists at all!  Why, they're soldiers!  At least that's what Howard Dean says.  The EU recognizes them as terrorists.  Bush recognizes them as terrorists.  Most citizens of the world who don't happen to own goats, and many who do, know Hamas members to be terrorists; but not our Howard Dean!  Nooooo.  To Dean, they're soldiers!  You know, kind of like ours!

Some of you who were fortunate enough not to be educated in government schools may know that the U.S. government is supposed to be a government of laws, not of men; and that the supreme law of our land is supposed to be the Constitution of the United States.  Judge Robert Bork has written a new book, Coercing Virtue, in which he reveals that many U.S. courts are now citing decisions of foreign courts in their rulings.  Stop for just a second and think about this folks.  An appeals court or the supreme court wants to rule a certain way on a certain issue, but can't find the justification for that ruling in our laws and our Constitution. So, what do do?  Easy!  Just find some foreign court that has ruled the way the Supremes want to rule, and cite that foreign court as authority?  Do you realize that if this is allowed to happen that our Constitution essentially becomes meaningless?  Oh, and so do any rights you may think that Constitution protects.

Cruz Bustamante may well end up being the next governor of California.  Now, as for me, I rather like the idea.  California still hasn't been punished enough for Barbara Boxer.  Bustamante wants to raise income taxes on the California rich.  That would include Alec Baldwin and Barbra Streisand ... so I'm all for it, of course.  He also wants to restrict any development within five miles of any site designated by Indians as a sacred burial site.  Bustamante also wants the state to set gasoline prices.  Great!  I would be greatly entertained sitting in front of my TV on the East coast watching Californians lined up at gas stations because they just had to keep a Democrat in the governor's office.  Now THAT'S entertainment.

David Frum asks a perfectly good question here.  Just why is there still a Palestinian Authority?  It was formed in 1993 and has never honored its end of the deal in the peace process.  So ... why is it still around?  And while we're at it; what is the big problem with Israel getting rid of Yasser Arafat?  Isn't that essentially the same thing we did with Saddam Hussein, and for the same reasons?

The end of the year draws close.  Traditionally that is a time when presidents throw a few pardons around.  Debra Saunders makes the case for the pardon of some non-violent drug offenders.  Those of you who are actually dense enough to believe that this idiotic "war on drugs" can work would probably disagree.

Did you know that there is research which shows that the longer a child attends Washington D.C.'s government schools, the worse chance that child has for a successful life.  The House has passed a voucher plan for D.C. schools.  Ted Kennedy vows to stop it in the Senate.  Here's George Will's take.  You already know the story though.  It's the Democratic fear of teacher's unions.  By the way, just to remind you, Arnold is controlled by the teacher's unions on this issue also. School choice for children from poor families is, according to some, today's biggest civil rights struggle.

For over a year now I've been detailing for you the transformation of Jesse Jackson from a marginally respected figure in the civil rights movement to a complete laughing stock.  Shelby Steele says that Jesse Jackson is like a washed-up starlet, a walking anachronism.  Translation.  Jesse Jackson is now officially pathetic.  It sure did take a long time for some of you to figure that out.  In this article Steele makes the convincing case that the entire civil rights movement is out of touch, and that America long ago "absorbed the point the civil rights movement was born to make."

Here's an article from today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution.  It's all about how area government school systems are having to struggle to meet current budget restraints.  They're cutting back on paper clips and text books ... even light bulbs.  I put the story here for one reason.  See if you can find where they're cutting back on administrators.  Oh .. they may cut back on administrative travel.  Big deal.  And they may not fill a few positions of administrators who have gone on to jobs for which they are better qualified; working fast food counters, for instance.  But fire administrators?  Are you kidding?

Speaking of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.  Read today's "Vent."  Read it and then marvel at the stupidity of some of the people who phone in their pithy little comments, and tell me again about how the right wing has captured the nation's media.

What is the primary vote-buying program of the Imperial Federal Government of the United States?  No contest, it's Social Security.  Money is seized from younger workers and then used to buy votes from wizened citizens.  Now that congress is back in session another bill is going to be introduced calling for some younger workers to be allowed to invest instead in privately owned accounts.  The big surprise here is that this bill may actually have some support from a key liberal Democrat.  Imagine that.

NEALZ LINKS FOR NUZE

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
World Net Daily
NewsMax
Wall Street Journal opinions
Washington Times
Washington Post
Real Clear Politics
Media Research Center
The Drudge Report
The Associated Press
SF Gate