Today's Nuze: March 08, 2005 

WHITE HOUSE TAKES ON GIULIANA SGRENA

The Bush administration has finally had enough of Communist "journalist" Giuliana Sgrena's little shenanigans. As you know, this is the communist propagandist whose freedom was bought from Islamic terrorists by the Italian government, and whose car was shot at by a U.S. Army checkpoint. Since the incident, she has said a number of things, including:

* She has accused the United States of directly targeting her
* She has sided with her captors, who told her that the Americans would not want her to escape alive
* She has said the United States does not value human life
* She has repeatedly changed her story as to what happened, at one point saying her car was shot at 400 times and another time saying it was shot at by a tank

Finally, the White House had enough of the so-called reporter who writes for the Communist "Il Manifesto."  White House Spokesman Scott McClellan yesterday said "It's absurd to make any such suggestion, that our men and women in uniform would target individual citizens." Nice to see the administration has a limit for this nonsense.

Some other facts are coming out, and things don't look so good for the Italians. According to a report in the Washington Times, the Italian security forces didn't tell anyone what they were doing, failed to request American security and just, in general, screwed up as much as possible. An internal Pentagon memo states that 500 American troops have been killed on the roads in Iraq. Another official points out that of all the cars that passed through the checkpoint that night, only the Italians were shot at, so they must have been doing something out of the ordinary.

Yesterday the Italians were saying that their car wasn't speeding.  Just a few hours later the story was that the driver floored it when he saw the soldiers.  

There is only one real truth in this whole mess ... and that is the truth that America's enemies will manipulate and exploit this story as much as they possibly can to further their anti-American aims and goals.  

It's good to see our president fighting back on this one. 

HAS ANYONE SEEN MAX CLELAND?

Just wondering.  I heard something about Max Cleland on Fox News last night, and immediately wondered what became of him.  You know, I still have a lot of fondness for the guy. I can't say for sure what snake crawled into his head and caused him to become a dog washer and water carrier for powerful Democrats.  Was it his eagerness to please Tom Daschle?  Did Daschle hypnotize Max ... lure him into supporting government unions over the formation of a Department of Homeland Security?  Are you reading this Max?  Come on, tell me.  What was it Daschle offered you to die on that hill defending government employee unions?  Surely you knew that the voters back in Georgia weren't going to think too highly of this move.  Unions aren't really all that popular in Georgia, Max.  Surely you knew that.  That goes double for government employee unions.  Why did you do it?  Did you think you were bulletproof?  Did you believe that once you became a member of that Most Exclusive Club in the World that the job would be yours for life?  A lot of us back her in Georgia saw it coming, Max.  Why didn't you?  At a time when Republicans were making strong advances in taking elective offices away from Democrats across the South, you somehow forgot to dance with who brung you ... and they took back the rental tux and sent you home.

Did I hear yesterday that you were slamming some reporter for The Boston Globe, Max?  What did he do?  Oh, that's right.  This reporter had some sort of a website that was unfriendly to your buddy John Kerry.  How dare him!  There you were, wondering why he even was allowed to keep his job!  Well, I guess you know something about people who weren't allowed to keep their jobs.  Please tell me, Max, that you're not still shining Kerry's shoes for him.  Damn, Max .. you're better than that.

Anyway .. just wondering where you are.  There're a lot of people here in Georgia who miss the old Max .. the happy Max .. the joking and caring Max.  Man, it's just a damn shame what Daschle did to you.

NO INCREASE IN THE MINIMUM WAGE 

And that's a good thing.  

Look, my friends; you can come up with as many reasons why people earning the minimum wage deserve a raise as you want, but one truth remains.  The government should have no role in setting the wages that an employer will pay to an employee.  That's a matter to be settled in the private sector, not by politicians trolling for votes.  If you want to earn more than the minimum wage, or if you want a raise, you earn it.  You do something to become more valuable to your employer and then negotiate for the wage you believe you deserve.

And please,  people!  Let's stop with this crybaby nonsense about raising a family on the minimum wage!  I've said this 1000 times, and I'll say it again ... largely because it irritates so many people:  If you can't earn more than the minimum wage, you have no business having children.   Develop some job skills first, then work on developing an embryo.

BUSH NOMINATES "HARD-LINER"

The media is all aflutter about the nomination of Undersecretary of State John R. Bolton to be the next ambassador to the United Nations. They're using words like "hard-liner" to describe him, as if he were some sort of radical extremist. So what's he guilty of? The high crime and misdemeanor of criticizing the almighty United Nations. Oh, the humanity!  Headlines are springing forth bemoaning the disappointment of Democrats and Euro-Weenies everywhere. Too bad. 

So what makes Bolton such a hard-liner?  

He led the charge against the International Criminal Court, referring to the day he withdrew the U.S. signature on the treaty as "the happiest moment of my government service." So far, so good. Next, he is being criticized for traveling to South Korea and calling the communist gargoyle of the north, Kim Jong-Il a "tyrannical dictator" who made North Korea a "hellish nightmare." That sounds about right to me!  I wonder why it upsets the Euro-wimps so much.  

Then there's this quote, another zinger about the UN: "If the U.N. Secretariat Building in New York lost 10 stories, it wouldn't make a bit of difference." Truer words have never been spoken. Sounds like just the man the United States needs representing us at the United Nations.

JOHN MCCAIN UNDER FIRE

If you listen closely, you just might hear the sound of John McCain's 2008 presidential hopes slipping into the ether. Maybe not entirely...after all, many other Senators have done worse, including The Poodle. At any rate, this bit of scandal seems to involve an area where the saintly John McCain was thought to be untouchable: dirty campaign contributions. Here's the deal:

Cablevision is a large cable company that wants the federal government to require cable operators to offer channels on an a la carte basis. For those of you educated in government schools, that means being able to buy individual channels, as opposed to an entire package. So, for instance, if you have no interest in sports or cooking or whatever, you wouldn't have to buy those channels. Most cable operators are opposed to the idea, except Cablevision. Enter John McCain.

Cablevision made a $200,000 donation to a tax-exempt group that McCain co-founded.  A bit odd, isn't it, that at that very same time McCain was pushing Cablevision's cause with federal regulators. McCain says he was in favor of a la carte channel pricing before Cablevision donated the money, and he says he wasn't directly involved in the group that took the money. Draw your own conclusions.  

Is it influence peddling? Maybe. Time will tell. There will no doubt be an investigation. By the way...that's not a bad idea...being able to buy individual channels. After all, why should you be forced to pay for Animal Planet if you don't watch it?  And while we're at it .. they ought to pay US to watch all of those government access channels.

THE WONDERS OF GOVERNMENT REGULATIONS -- AND NAUTICAL MILES AND KILOMETERS

Just a few curious and interesting notes about Steve Fossett's around the world flight last week.  

Fossett flew almost 20,000 nautical miles.  He did so as a private pilot in a private civilian aircraft operating under rules and regulations promulgated by the Federal Aviation Administration.  Now I can make a flight of 500 nautical miles from my home in Atlanta to my home in Naples, Florida and log that flight in my records as a cross country flight.  Could Steve Fossett  log his flight as cross country?  Nope, sorry.  He cannot.  He crossed the United States, Europe, Asia and a few oceans, but he can't log his flight as a cross country flight.  Why?  Because he only made one landing, and that landing was at the airport where he took off.  To make it a cross country flight you have to land at an airport at least 50 nautical miles away from the airport you departed.  Sorry, Steve.  No cross country for you.  Another note on this cross country stuff.  A flight from my home base of DeKalb Peachtree Airport in Atlanta to the airport in Athens, Georgia (home of the University of Georgia) is 49.9 nautical miles.  Student pilots, who need to log cross country miles for their license, can't use this flight between two great airports as a cross country flight.  Government regulators.  Gotta love 'em.

By the way, just what is a nautical mile?  Glad you asked.   A line drawn around the Earth at the equator would be a circle.  Divide that circle into 360 degrees.  Then divide every one of those degrees into 60 minutes. One of those minutes -- one sixtieth of one degree at the equator -- would be one nautical mile.  Now you know.  If it takes you one hour to walk that distance you will be traveling at a sped of one knot.  

Wow!  Would I make a good teacher, or what?

Now, of course, the more curious among you want to know just how the metric wizards came up with a measurement for a kilometer.  Here goes:  Draw a line from the North Pole to the equator following the curvature of the Earth.  Measure that line.  Got it?  Good.  Now divide that figure by 10,000.  That's your kilometer. 

To finish out Neal's science lesson for the day ... a nautical mile is equal to 1.852 kilometers and 1.1508 miles.

Got that all straight now?  OK, moving on to something more important. 

HOW THE NEAL BOORTZ SHOW COULD DOUBLE ITS NUMBER OF STATIONS

Not that we're doing all that badly, but I would always like to have more affiliate stations for the Neal Boortz Show.  There are several reasons why I don't have 500 radio stations out there. First, there is stiff competition with a number of other talk show hosts for my particular time spot.  I have to beat all of that competition for each and every precious affiliate.  If I was on the air during a different day part, with no competing hosts out there, things would be different.  One of the most exasperating excuses we get from some stations who decline to carry the show is that we're "too Southern."  Being based in Atlanta seems to be a negative with some station managers.  It's part of that anti-Southern, "Southerners talk funny therefore they're stupid" bias that exists throughout the country.  Not much you can do about that one I guess ... except move, and I happen to like it right where I am.  

There are, however, some things that I could do that would mean an immediate (if not sooner) increase in Boortz affiliates.  We toyed with these on one of the shows last week .. but I'm listing them here for your comments.  Here's all I have to do:

• Make strident diatribes at least three times a week against a woman's right to choose.  Call doctors who perform abortions "murderers."
• Promote prayer for other people's children in government schools led by government agents.
• Advocate symbols of the Christian religion, and only the Christian religion,  in all government buildings and courthouse lawns.
• Preach hatred of homosexuals no less than twice a week, worry incessantly about the "homosexual agenda."
• Teach Belinda to talk like she's from Newark.
• Move the home base for the show out of Atlanta and to either the West Coast or New York City.  
• Slam evolution as false science and promote the teaching of the biblical theory of creation in government schools by government agents.

Sorry, folks.  I just don't see much of that happening.  I guess I'm just going to remain your "boutique" talk show host.  

Two great guests on the Neal Boortz Show today...
Ari Fleischer	Vice President Dick Cheney

SO WHICH ONE IS THE EVIL TWIN?

Richard had this to say about Ari Fleischer:

Neal, you nailed it! Ari looks just like Irving Metzman, the actor who played the doorman in Crocodile Dundee.

Images of Ari Fleischer

Images of Irving Metzman

YE OLDE READING ASSIGNMENTS

I'm a libertarian.  I guess that makes me a Marxist .. a right wing Marxist?  Why, I don't really know!  But here we have Robert Locke writing a column for The American Conservative saying that Libertarians are the "Marxists of the Right."  Dare I say I'm offended?  

Now this is a bold move by George Bush.  John R. Bolton, a critic of the United Nations, has been named the new the new U.S. Ambassador to the UN.  People who love, adore and admire this dysfunctional institution will be howling.

Here's an account from LA Times reporter Alissa Rubin of what the seven-mile road between Baghdad and the airport is like. She has the first-person details and even was on the road the day the Italians were shot at.

Walter Cronkite has weighed in on Dan Rather's retirement this week from the CBS Evening News anchor chair. Cronkite says he should have left a long time ago. Not exactly a ringing endorsement from your predecessor, there Dan.

The editor-in-chief of Playgirl magazine has admitted to being a Republican. There's a joke in there somewhere.

Is the entire American population obese, as the Centers for Disease Control would have you believe? Not so fast, says another group. They say the government is overstating the problem.

In an upcoming issue of GQ magazine, actor Russell Crowe says he was targeted by Al-Qaeda for kidnapping and even had FBI protection for a time. Wonder what other thwarted plots we haven't heard about? Apparently Osama didn't much care for 'Gladiator.'

Bill Clinton's remarks praising Iran are starting to get some attention. Jim Geraghty explores the former president's startling remarks.

Should the United States adopt a flat tax or the Fair Tax? John Wasik says we've already got a flat tax, and it isn't pretty. It's called the Alternative Minimum Tax.

Even some of those most hard-left liberals are starting to eat their words over the spread of democracy in the Middle East. The Media Research Center reports.

The NAACP is towing the Democratic line on Social Security, opposing all reform. Star Parker wants to know why.

As democracy spreads abroad, it continues to shrink here at home, thanks to activist judges who are trying to legislate from the bench. Thomas Sowell has more.

David Limbaugh continues his thoughts from yesterday about the Supreme Court decision banning juvenile executions. The list is a mile long of reasons to oppose the decision.

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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NEAL'S FANS GET TOGETHER
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• Talkmaster Yahoo Group
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• alt.fan.neal.boortz newsgroup (note, you're going to have to figure out newsgroups all on your own)

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 Naples Daily News The Drudge Report The Associated Press SF Gate townhall.com

NEALZ AUDIO ARCHIVES Interview with Peter Jennings 1/26 Howard Dean Alarm System Neal talks with Ludacris Boo Got Shot LISTENER PARTICIPATION Your embarassing gas passing stories The House episode dealing with abortion CARTOON INDEX Check here for a list of cartoons that have appeared on Nealz Nuze.

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