Today's Nuze: January 12, 2005 

CROSS YOUR LEGS AND HOLD YOUR BREATH  FOR HIGHER GRADES!

Another story from the wonderful world of government education.  We take you to South Cobb High School in the suburbs of Atlanta.  Incoming high school freshmen (freshpersons?) will take World Geography.  The syllabus for World Geography contains the following entry:

Amazing.  You are in that class to learn geography.  You might not know where Sri Lanka is, but that won't matter if you can just refrain from going to the bathroom.  A student tells me that not going to the bathroom can be worth as much as a letter grade in that class!  That kid over there in the corner with his legs and eyes crossed?  He's trying to boost his GPA so he can get into a good college.  New bumper stickers are being handed out:  "My child is a constipated honor student at South Cobb High." 

I thought we were trying to teach our children how to cope and survive as adults?  Can't you just see some South Cobb High School grad pleading for his job after a poor job performance review? "But Mr. Johnson, I didn't go to the bathroom that much!"

WHY AREN'T PEOPLE MORE INTERESTED IN THIS?

Yesterday Nealz Nuze featured a poll asking your opinion as to whether or not Bush would be successful in reforming Social Security.  Only 10% said it would very likely.  Ninety percent said that it was either somewhat or not likely. 

What will it take to make people understand what is being done to them here?  Why are younger Americans so bored with this subject?

Here's your reality.  You graduate from college.  You begin your first real job.  During the orientation process with your new employer someone steps in front of the group of new employees wearing a little smiley-face button with FICA printed on it.  This person tells you that he is going to be in the payroll office every single payday, and before you get your paycheck he is going to take about 14% right off the top.  That's 14 cents from every dollar you earn.  Mr. FICA then tells you that the government might, though it is not obligated to do so, let you have some of that money back if you live long enough.  If you die before the government starts paying you this money back the government will keep it.  You cannot leave it to relatives or charities through your will.  Mr. FICA also tells you that politicians are going to spend that money ... all of it ... as soon as they get their hands on it.  If things get so bad that there isn't enough money coming in as FICA "contributions" to pay the people who managed to live long enough to get some back, they will simply pass a regulation saying that you have to be older still before you start getting checks. 

You raise your hand to ask a question.  "Why can't I put that money in some retirement account that I own and manage?   After all, I did work for it.  I did earn it." 

Mr. FICA is very unhappy with you.  What's your problem?  Don't you know that there are politicians in Washington, both Democrat and Republican, who are sitting there waiting for that money?  They need that money to spend on projects in their home districts so they can tell the voters what a great job they're doing!  They need that money to make more and more people dependent on them and dependent on government for their lifestyles!  How are these politicians going to get their hands on that money if they allow you to put it into an investment account that you own and control?  You're young, you're idealistic.  You'll learn.

Politicians are telling us that we just can't privatize our Social Security accounts because, they say, it would cost too much.  Cost?  How?  You just heard it.  That money that you earned sitting in your private investment account is money that the politicians can't spend to buy votes.  You say that they should just cut spending?  What are you, nuts?  Cut spending?  When have you ever known politicians to cut spending? 

Here ... let me just give you one example.  They recently had a bit of an audit of the nearly $600 million in homeland security funding in Texas.  This is money given to the State of Texas to be spent on homeland security matters.  The audit disclosed that homeland security funds were used by buy a trailer that was used to haul souped-up lawn mowers to lawn mower drag races.  I guess these lawn mowers were going to be used to mow down the terrorists.  A Dallas Morning News investigation found that some other homeland security funds were used in Texas to buy equipment for traffic stops, conduct drug investigations, and some of the money was even spent for community festivals, whatever they are.

Now if you were to propose that spending on homeland security in Texas be cut by an amount equal to that amount spent on festivals, drug investigations and trailers to haul drag-racing lawn mowers, there would be pure hell to pay.  You would be accused of engaging in a partisan attempt to cripple our homeland security efforts just to enrich Wall Street brokers.

Oh yeah.  The Wall Street brokers.  These people are viewed, perhaps accurately, as rich.  To the left that means that they're evil.  If people are allowed to invest their own money that they worked for and earned into their own privately owned retirement accounts then they will turn to brokers to invest those funds in our capitalistic marketplace.  Brokers generally charge for these services.  The left can't stand this.  How dare investment brokers make anything investing money that should be in the pockets of politicians being spent to buy votes.

The real pity here is not so much that politicians are fighting so hard to keep the flow of vote-buying funds strong, but that the people of this country, especially the younger people, are so complacent about it.  How can you be optimistic about the future of our Republic when our population allows an atrocity like this to continue!

But .. what am I thinking? How can I realistically expect younger people to be paying attention to this wholesale thievery when Jenn and Brad are splitting!

Please don't show your ignorance by telling me that you're only paying a little over 7% and your employer "matches" your "contribution" with the same amount.  Uttering those words only proves that you're just as stupid as the politicians believe you to be.

CNN SPECIAL ON EXTREME WEATHER

We've all been glued to the screens for the past few weeks watching the amazing weather stories that began with the Indonesian earthquake and ensuing tsunamis .. and worked right through rain, snow and mud slides in California.  Tonight CNN is going to run a one-hour special on these extreme weather events.  The bad news is that the special is going to be hosted by Aaron Brown, the only television newscaster who comes close to Bill Moyers in terms of arrogance. 

Now .. a little wager.  What do you want to bet that there's going to be something in this program that will suggest that global warming might have something to do with these extremes in weather?  And do you think that Aaron Brown will realize that an earthquake is not weather?

BOORTZ ARCHIVED!

My friend Tarun at Vision Computers sent me this link.  It's the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.  They have some editions of boortz.com archived back to 1997!.  You know ... as I look back some of those web pages actually looked a bit better than today!

RATHER RESPONDS

After taking Monday off so CBS could report its results of the investigations into his Bush-bashing National Guard story, Dan Rather emerged yesterday to give his side of the story.  His verdict: Golly!  What a shame that so many people were fired.  How nice.  Interestingly, 'The Dan' took no responsibility for what happened, nor did he apologize:

"CBS News is a great institution with a distinct and precious legacy.  I have been here through good times, and not so good times. I have seen us overcome adversity before.  I am convinced we can do so again. That must be our focus and priority.  And we can fulfill that objective by getting back to business and doing our jobs better than ever. "

Talk about self-centered.  Not only is he the one who should have been given the heave-ho, (he is, after all, the managing editor of the CBS Evening News),  but he seems to not have the least bit of guilt about a story that he peddled causing all of the controversy and firings.  Looks like Dan is passing the buck.  But rest assured, he informs us that he's read the report:

"Lest anyone have any doubt, I have read the report, I take it seriously, and I shall keep its lessons well in mind."

Too bad what should have been the real lesson of the report will never be taken seriously: the fact that CBS' institutional political bias led to the attempt to bring down a sitting president with forged documents.

DEAN MAKES IT OFFICIAL

Deanie Babies unite! A year after your candidate self-destructed in Iowa (remember the Dean/Gore Shout remix? mp3) and gave rise to The Poodle, former Vermont Governor Howard Dean has announced  he's running for Chairman of the Democratic National Committee.  In other words, he wants to run the entire Democratic Party.  Sounds like just the candidate for the job...after the great Iowa scream and the ensuing slide into electoral oblivion. 

But wait...we're supposed to believe Dean is a moderate centrist.  Doesn't sound like it, according to his statement:  "That word - 'values' - has lately become a codeword for appeasement of the right-wing fringe.  But when the political calculations make us soften our opposition to bigotry, or sign on to policies that add to the burden of ordinary Americans, we have abandoned our true values.''

Oh well...Democrats should look on the bright side.  If he takes this gig, he probably won't run for president again.  Not that he ever had much of a chance anyway.

BUSH SPEAKS ABOUT RELIGION

President Bush has given an interview to the Washington Times in which he discusses his faith.  This is one thing that has always gotten the left all worked up.  You see, Bill Clinton and Congressional Democrats can talk about their religion - and even give political speeches from the pulpit - but not Republicans.  And especially not George Bush.  Even Al Gore got away with raising money at a Buddhist Temple!

Expect controversy to ensue over a single quote.  In discussing the role his faith plays in his role as president, Bush had this to say:  "On the other hand, I don't see how you can be president at least from my perspective, how you can be president, without a relationship with the Lord."  Oh boy...a conservative that says you have to be a Christian to be president...stop the presses!  There's going to be hell to pay for this one.

What will be consistently left out will be this statement: "I fully understand that the job of the president is and must always be protecting the great right of people to worship or not worship as they see fit."  Well, at least you read it here.

READING ASSIGNMENTS

In the wake of the Armstrong Williams controversy, many are wondering what other conservative commentators are for sale.  Michelle Malkin answers that one clearly for herself.

None other than 60 Minutes' own Andy Rooney says that CBS scapegoated lower-level people in the Rathergate scandal.  He says the big fish got away.  Very interesting.

Even though the media is intensely skeptical about whether or not elections are possible in Iraq, one leader in the area wants to see them go forward: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.  By the way, did you know that 14 of the 18 provinces in Iraq are violence-free?

The race is on to destroy Bush's nominee for the Department of Homeland Security: Michael Chertoff.  He is the architect of the administration's war on terror.  Get ready for some most interesting confirmation hearings.

Doom and gloom is about to prevail over whether elections can be held in Iraq by the January 30th deadline, but Mort Kondracke says President Bush is right to keep things on schedule.

Ralph Peters points out something that people should consider: Democracy doesn't always work.  He points out one high-profile failure in recent years.

Did Hillary Clinton not know that her campaign finance director was committing illegal acts?  Fat chance, says Dick Morris, who says that The Hildabeast always manages every last detail.

CBS' report concluded that there was no political bias at the network, and the rest of the media ate it up.  The Media Research Center reports.

Is it really true that uninsured individuals don't have access to health care?  Walter Williams shoots that one down with some facts and figures, along with a few other myths.

The Democratic party is at a crossroads, and they have to decide if they're going to be mainstream, or the party of Michael Moore.  David Limbaugh says it's time for them to choose.

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