YOUR MANDATORY READING ASSIGNMENT

Before we even get into the program notes for today, here's a mandatory reading assignment.  Well, it's as mandatory as I can make it by putting it at the head of Nealz Nuze.  This is a roundup of just the past two week's good news from Iraq.  For instance, did you know that many of Iraq's cities and villages are now being governed by elected, not appointed officials?  Read this article and you will see that some Iraqis think that the negative media coverage they're getting from the mainstream press is actually encouraging terrorists.  Well, far be it from the media to ever report anything that could make our efforts in Iraq look like they're actually succeeding. Here's your link

IT USED TO BE "THEY'RE GOING TO TAKE AWAY YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY."

In elections past the Democrats could be be counted on -- with 100% certainty -- to wait until just before the election to warn senior citizens that evil, nasty Republicans were going to take their Social Security away. 

Well ... Ted Kennedy, the hero of Chappaquiddick, is going to up the ante today.  He's decided it's time to make a splash in the news media.  Apparently retaliating for Dick Cheney's (correct) assertion that voting for Kerry would make a terror attack more likely against the U.S., Kennedy is going to say that President Bush makes the United States more vulnerable to a nuclear attack.

Remember right after George Bush took office, he invited Ted up to the White House to watch movies, make nice and work with him on the education bill?  So much for  bipartisanship...it lasted about as long as Mary Jo Kopechne did when she plunged into the pond with Teddy at the wheel. 

In a speech he is set to deliver at George Washington University today, Kennedy says that ''The war in Iraq has made the mushroom cloud more likely, not less likely."  He also is going to say that the United States is bogged down in a quagmire in Iraq, with no end in sight.  Unbelievable.

Sadly,  Kennedy, Kerry and the rest of the left are  hoping for the failure of the United States in Iraq.  They would like to see Iraq slip into anarchy .. even if it means the death of more US troops.  Such is the intensity of their desire to return to the glory days of unfettered power in Washington.   Good news for America is bad news for Democrats.  Bad news for America is good news for Democrats.  Are these the people you want running the show? 

And Ted Kennedy?  What would he do?  Pull out, no doubt.  That, of course, would embolden those who want to kill us.  I'm sure Kennedy has an appeasement plan ready.

After awhile, you really do wonder just whose side these guys are on...because it's not ours.

SOME INSENSITIVE THOUGHTS

So, the Pope is concerned about the imbalance of wealth?  It would be interesting to ask the Pope if he thinks wealth is distributed or earned.  Also, I wonder how many people live in poverty in third world countries in the shadow of a Catholic Church dripping in gold and other expensive trappings. 

TV reporters love to stand in the middle of hurricane force winds and floods to show you how bad the hurricanes are.  Why don't traffic reporters adopt the same tactic?

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is running a week-long series of articles on 25 Years of Hip Hop!  Wow!  I was up this morning at 3:00 sitting in front of a convenience store just so I could be one of the first to read today's installment!  Maybe I'll learn some fascinating new things about Jermaine Dupri!

Why does Dan Rather still have his job?  Has CBS just decided that trust in its news operation just isn't necessary anymore?

For that matter, why does CNN allow James Carville to continue to host "Crossfire" while he's working as a paid advisor to John Kerry.  If you think for one nanosecond that the media would allow any Republican commentator to get away with this type of double-dipping, you've been smoking left-handed.

The first of the so-called presidential "debates" is scheduled for later this week.  They're not debates.  They're joint press conferences.

HITTING THAT NERVE ...... AGAIN

In last Friday's column for Townhall.comI once again broached the subject of limiting just who can and cannot vote.  There is, after all, no guarantee whatsoever in our Constitution that every citizen can cast a vote in a federal election. 

Just think what's happening across the country today.  Instead of talking about limiting voting to people who actually have a clue what's going on in our country, we're talking about allowing non-citizens, even illegal aliens, to vote!  There's also quite a bit of discussion about getting convicted felons back to the voting booths. 

Are we nuts?  Do we really think that we are inviting anything other than disaster when we open our voting booths to convicted felons, non-citizens, illegal aliens and people who can't even name their own elected officials?  Why would you treat your country any different than you would treat the business that you rely on for your livelihood?   There are too many people out there who vote for a living.  All they want to do is vote for the person who will transfer the most money into their pockets.  They use our system of voting as a means of legalized plunder.  And we don't want to do something to stop this?

Here are some reactions to my Friday column:

• Your column regarding the restriction of voting was offensive, blatant, prejudicial, and ridiculously and bluntly elitist...and I loved it. I have long thought that people who are playing a lottery with other people's money should stay the hell home. Thank you.
• I loved "Asleep at the Wheel."  In the last four years you do not know how many discussions I have had with people regarding presidential elections and the fact that the popular vote is a sham.  It was just devised to give us a level of participation, but the Constitution does not have to afford it to us. 
• You're a wonderful dreamer! We can't even can't the idiots out there to agree to the simple idea that voters should produce personal identification! How in the world could we get anyone to even think about what you are proposing.  But I'm with you...the voting machines could be programmed to ask the questions and not allow an un-qualified person to continue if the answers were incorrect. Oh well, dream on.  I'm also with you on your tax ideas. Keep it up.
• One of the complaints from conservatives against liberals is that they're elitists.  I must confess, however, that I share your disdain for the dumb-as-rocks members of the electorate.  Does that make us elitists?  Is that so wrong?

NOW IS THE TIME TO IMPLEMENT MY IDEA

What idea?  My idea for moving the United Nations out of New York and giving that miserable failure of an international body a chance to reform, dig in and prove itself.

Haiti is in absolute chaos.  Tens of millions of dollars spent by the taxpayers of the United States, and the "government" of that country has shown itself to be completely unable to even cope with a hurricane.  People are shooting each other for food.

Let's give Haiti to the UN.  The Roman Catholic Church has the Vatican.  Give the United Nations Haiti.  Let Kofi move his headquarters to Haiti.  There the UN could prove to the entire world once and for all that it has all the right ideas, methods and concepts on how to run a nation, how to care for people after disasters, and how to ensure human rights.

The UN is quite fond of telling us how things should be done.  Give them Haiti.  Let them show us instead of tell us.

POODLE'S KEEPER: LISTEN TO TERRORISTS

Tereeeza Heinz-Kerry is back out in the campaign...presumably in an attempt to appeal to the women voters since her husband doesn't.   On Friday she gave a speech in Colorado.  The big story was about her confrontation with a heckler, but something else she said was much more chilling.

The Poodle's Keeper pretty much tows the company line when she's on the stump.  Presumably, she is told what to say, or at least given the basic talking points.  She launched into the bit about how the United States needs a different approach to the war on terror.

"The way we live in peace in a family, in a marriage, in the world, is not by threatening people, is not by showing off your muscles. It's by listening, by giving a hand sometimes, by being intelligent, by being open and by setting high standards."  My friends, this is frightening.  She is essentially saying that the United States should not threaten anyone.

Should we have not threatened the Taliban if they didn't give up Osama Bin Laden?  Were we supposed to treat Al-Qaeda like family?  Give them a hand?  Listen to their grievances?  Should we give Islamic terrorists a helping hand, in an attempt to set high standards?  This woman lives in a dangerous fantasy land.

Just like her husband, Heinz-Kerry is an appeaser.  Electing The Poodle would not only be a Democratic victory in November, but one for Islamic terrorists as well.  It would also serve the interests of Euro-weenies who want to see the United States weakened.

HOW A POLITICIAN THINKS

Mark Taylor, the Democratic Lt. Governor of Georgia, sees tuition hikes as a way to battle the evil Republicans.  He's blaming the recent 10% tuition tax increases in Georgia on the Republican governor.   Taylor thinks that the tuition hikes are wrong because car payments and house payments never go up.  Well ... leaving aside the obvious example of an adjustable rate mortgage, let's just say this:  Education is a pay-as-you go situation.  With a car or a house you pay --- then you go.

These people have power?  Can you believe it?  Aren't you scared?

WHY DON'T YOU STUDY THE PLAN BEFORE YOU COMMENT ON IT?

This past Saturday the Atlanta Journal-Constitution had two people write articles about the Fair Tax Plan.  James Warren, a local CPA, wrote that the Fair Tax was a terrible idea.  Here's your link to Warren's column.  A quick read makes it apparent that Warren spent all of about 30 seconds studying HR 25 before he started writing.  Simply stated, he doesn't know what the hell he's talking about.

Warren's principle gripe with the national retail sales tax is that evil rich people will get a big break.  Fully the first two-thirds of his piece decried the fact that rich people might actually get to keep more of the money they earn.  Warren must be one hell of an accountant.  He's worried that rich people will invest their money instead of spending it and paying sales tax. Maybe someday Mr. Warren will figure out what happens when people invest.  Businesses expand, jobs are created.  There's more money available for home loans -- car loans.   What a tragedy.

Our expert accountant is also concerned about the impact on the poor.  Yet more proof that he didn't read the bill, or lacks the ability to comprehend what he's written. 

The truth about the Fair Tax is that it is an absolute boon to the poor.  Not only do they not have to pay the sales tax on the basic necessities of life (nobody does), but they don't pay any payroll taxes and the price of the goods and services they buy goes down!

Come on, James Warren.  There's really nothing wrong with studying a piece of legislation before you comment on it.  For your client's sake I hope you pay more attention to the tax code then you did to this particular piece of research.

OH!  You want to read the "pro" piece on the Fair Tax Plan? Herman Cain gets some basic facts wrong also.  For instance, you don't pay a $23 tax on every $77 you spend on goods and services.  If the sales tax is 23% (it probably would be three to four percentage points lower) you would pay $23 on a $100 purchase.  The tax on a $77 purchase would be $17.71.  Someone needs to teach Mr. Cain how to figure percentages.    Here's the link to Herman Cain's column.

Now ... for those of you who want to truly understand how the national retail sales tax would affect the poor, here's a link to a column I wrote for Townhall.com on August 27th.  Perhaps someone could forward this to Mr. Warren.  He needs educating.

THE PEACEFUL RELIGION OF ISLAM

There is a woman named Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who is a Dutch Member of Parliament.  She has been moved to a safe house because of death threats.  And what did she do to require such security measures?  She dared to criticize the Islamic religion.

She is a former Muslim...and she made a movie about it.  In her movie, she criticized Islam's treatment of women.  As a result, her private address has been published on an Islamic extremist's website, and she has received threats on her life.  All because she dared to speak out. 

A public figure criticizes Islam...as a result, they threaten to kill her.  Such a tolerant religion, isn't it?  By the way, did you know nearly all of the terrorists in the last 20 years have been Muslims?

READING ASSIGNMENTS

Ahhh ... the wonderful and peaceful religion of Islam.  Peaceful, that is, so long as you don't dare to criticize Islam's treatment of women.

Can you put down your sports page and your People Magazine long enough to gin up some concern over the thought of Iran with nuclear weapons?  Are you going to depend on the United Nations to stand in the way?

Idiots with pit bulls.  Here we have a situation where complaints had already been filed about two pit bulls that apparently freely roamed a neighborhood threatening people.  Finally the pit bulls attacked a 12-year-old girl.  While the pit bulls had a grip on the girl's mouth the owner of the dogs was trying to protect them screaming "Don't shoot my dogs!"  Where do these people come from?  Do they vote?  If so, God help us.

Somebody has been stealing The Poodle's yard signs.  That's not nice, now is it?  Maybe they're just being environmentally responsible, in advance of the projected November 2nd loss.

Presidential Halloween mask sales predict election result?

The first line of this column says it all: John Kerry is running the dumbest presidential campaign in modern history.  Zev Chafets has more.

Given the controversy over the forged documents, CBS is going to salvage its reputation the only way it knows how: shuffle Dan Rather out the door.

Despite supporting the ban on assault weapons, The Poodle owns one himself.  Apparently laws against owning guns are only for the little people.

Conspiracy theories are now coming these days from the left instead of the right, and Doug MacEachern rattles off a few of the more popular ones.

The former head of Saddam Hussein's nuclear weapons program (yes, he had one) explains how it was very legitimate for the west to  believe Saddam still had nukes.  He also says the nuclear program could have been reconstituted at the snap of Saddam's ringers.

The Dan Rather/60 Minutes document forgery scandal is part of a wider shift in the news media.  Thomas Bray explains how talk radio, cable TV and the Internet have changed everything.

The Souffle is continuing his lie about the draft, but as Jack Kelly explains, the draft is not coming back.  It's just another vast, left-wing conspiracy.

Why was CBS so motivated to run a story slandering President Bush with forged documents when the story hadn't been fully checked out?  John Leo examines the question.

Whenever there are weird things happening around the college campus,  you can count on Professor Mike Adams to be there with a full report.

Remember the 9/11 fund?  That was the government fund set up to pay benefits to the families and spouses of those who died in the terrorist attacks.  Jeff Jacoby says it was a mistake, and explains why.

The French have done everything they can to undermine the war on terrorism.  Why then, wonders Paul Greenberg, are the terrorists holding French journalists? 

Iraq is in chaos, or so says The Poodle...or is the chaos all in his mind?  Diana West tries to figure out sKerry's position on Iraq.

86 acre mushroom found in Europe but doesn't hold a candle to the world's largest found in Oregon -- 2,200 acres.

WHAT THE HECK ARE THOSE POINTY HAND THINGS?
These are links to each individual story on the Nuze, p-links for the geeks out there. Plus, they work today and they'll work tomorrow. Now you can easily discuss/debate/rip apart the Nuze without worrying about the links going bad. Enjoy!

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