TAX PANEL REPORT -- IS ANYONE SURPRISED?

What about the FairTax?  No way, folks.  The FairTax simply takes too much power away from politicians.  Job number one for these elected "leaders" is to protect their power base.  They can't protect their power base by giving up their ability to manipulate our tax code for the benefit of certain voting demographics and specific support groups.

I'll have much more to say about this on a future Nuze .. and plenty to say today.  Bottom line --- this fight is just beginning.

THE BIRD FLU

Unless your television set is broken, you've no doubt heard about the spread of the Avian flu in Asia and other parts around the world.  It's transmitted from birds to humans and at the moment, is confined to those who handle the animals.  The fear is that there could be a widespread outbreak-- a pandemic.  The 1918 pandemic killed over a half a million Americans, to give you an idea.

So the president thinks we need a plan.  He took to the podium yesterday to announce a $7 billion initiative to get ready, just in case.  The plan calls for stockpiling 20 million doses of vaccine, as well as passing laws to limit the liability of vaccine manufacturers.  Because of lawsuits, the number of companies making the vaccine is way down.  Given the performance of the federal government following Hurricane Katrina, it would seem prudent to do a little planning.

Naturally, the Democrats are opposed.  Immediately after the president's speech, Barrack Obama and Teddy Kennedy were on TV complaining about it. Of course, Mr. Chappaquiddick played up the class warfare angle.  Who would get the shots?  Only the rich?  What about the poor?  And on and on.  Obama whined about who would be in charge.

So .. there's a possibility that millions could die in a flu epidemic?  For the Democrats this is just another issue they can politicize.  When are they going to share their agenda with us?

SO .. WHAT IF WE DO HAVE THAT BIRD FLU PANDEMIC?

OK, my friends, watch me stir up the puddin' with this one.  Note carefully that in the following paragraph I am not going to express an opinion. I'm merely going to set the stage for a crisis and ask a question.  By the the end of this week leftist websites and newspapers are going to be writing that "Right-wing talk show host said so-and-so-and-so." 

Here's the scenario.  The avian flu virus finally mutates into a form that can be transmitted from human to human.  The mutation first appears in Asia, and we learn that tens of thousands of people are dying very quickly from the disease.  Immediately the American drug companies that are still operating start the research for an effective vaccine.  Ten days later we read that the death toll in Asia is in the hundreds of thousands, and some cases are showing up in Europe.  The work on the vaccine continues.  The flu is spreading - now in South America.  Over a million have died.  A drug company announces that it has developed a vaccine and is starting production.  The bird flu is reported in Canada.  Finally the drug company has enough vaccine to start delivering to the public for inoculations.  The first bird flu case is reported in the United States.  Given the fact that supplies of the vaccine are limited, it is a certainty that over one million Americans will die.  Now, the question.  Who gets the vaccine?  Do we let the free market prevail?  Is the vaccine made available to those who can afford the shot? Or does the federal government intervene and ration the vaccine?  Edmund Contoski wrote a book in 1997 titled "Makers and Takers."  The book was called a "classic case against government interventionism."  You can guess who the "Makers" are, and you can probably identify the "Takers" in your community.  So, when the vaccines have been administered, and the avian flu has run its course, just who do you want to be around to pick up the pieces and begin the work to prevent another such disaster?  Who do you want to survive to help our economy to get back on its feet and to get the American free enterprise machine running again?  Do you think the "Takers" would be up to the task?  What if the government intervenes and mandates that the "Takers" get the vaccine first?  What will be the impact on our economy when a few million of our older "Makers" are no longer there to run their businesses and pay their taxes? 

Ugly question, isn't it?  Nobody dares to speak the correct answer.

LAST NIGHT'S JUNK FAX

I've decided that one of the ways to combat these middle-of-the-night faxes that have been waking me up for months is to let you wonderful folks know just who is paying to have these faxes sent.  Do with the information what you will.  Last night's fax was promoting investments in something called AuctionCities.com.  The current price for this wonderful stock is 17 cents.  You can get more information, or share your thoughts with AuctionCities.com at mediainfo@auctioncities.com.  Their phone number is 866-587-8921.  My thanks to AuctionCities.com for their support of these unsolicited and illegal faxes.

DEMOCRATS THROW A TANTRUM

Faced with their own political irrelevancy and unable to capitalize on the perceived troubles of the Bush administration, the Democrats in the Senate decided yesterday to throw a temper tantrum.

Like a 5-year-old in need of attention, Harry Reid invoked Rule 21 and closed down the Senate, forcing it into closed session.  The reason given for their manufactured outrage?  They were supposedly upset about an investigation into pre-Iraq war intelligence not being started.  Yep....another one of those.  How many more 'Bush lied, people died' commissions do we need?  Evidently if you're Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer and Dick Durbin, that's all you care about.  What's the limit?  5? 10? Who knows.

What possible useful outcome could be realized from another investigation?  Not a thing we haven't heard many times before.  The 911 Commission already investigated this issue and found that intelligence information was NOT manipulated by the Bush Administration.  So .. when one study doesn't develop the results you want - or demand - just shut down the Senate and demand another study!  What this is really about is the Democrats running completely out of ideas.  The war in Iraq is all they have.  With gas prices headed downward across the country, the left has to demonize something....and Iraq is it.

But we've heard it all before.  This was rehashed for a year during the presidential campaign, and they lost.  The fact of the matter is most reasonable people believe Saddam Hussein should have been removed from power.  Democrats,  however, despite voting to give George Bush the power to wage the war, want Saddam back.  They wrongly say he had no weapons of mass destruction.

So here we are in the year 2005, one year before the mid-term elections.  A senior White House official has just been indicted and George Bush's presidency is supposedly at a low point.  And just what do Democrats do to capitalize?  Shut down the Senate and demand yet another Iraq WMD probe.  What a strategy!

With the sheer incompetence of their leadership, Democrats increasingly have no chance of retaining power.  All they have to do is keep talking.

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REDNECK SCRAP BOOK

Is there any problem duct tape can't solve? More in the Redneck Scrap Book.

Join Neal and his proud beast Coco at The Bobby Cox "Paws Cause" Barbeque and Entertainment Fund Raiser November 5th.

The Humane Society of the United States calls on the Bush administration to take immediate steps to reduce bird flu risk.

Student dies after being hurled by a trebuchet catapult.

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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