FAIRTAX NEWS ... SOFT-COVER WITH NEW MATERIAL ON THE WAY!

We've received word from Regan Books that there will be a soft-cover edition of The FairTax Book published in May! Not only will there be a soft-cover edition, but John Linder and myself will be given the opportunity to make various edits and to add an "afterword" to the book.

It was just about this time last year when we were busy compiling the research and putting together what was to be The FairTax Book. Nobody; not John Linder, not myself, and certainly not the publisher, thought that the book was going to turn out to be such a huge success. We wrote in the book that much opposition to The FairTax would come from the K Street lobbyists. Over the past few weeks of the Abramoff scandal you have learned just how influential these lobbyists are, and how closely connected they are to the men and women on Capitol Hill who actually make the rules. Well, we were only half-right. The lobbyists did, indeed, step forward to fight the idea of The FairTax. There are tens of thousands of these people in Washington, and most of them owe their incredible incomes to their ability to influence legislators to manipulate our current tax code for the benefit of their clients. The lobbyists are fighting The FairTax, and they're having an affect.

But, as I said, we were only half-right. I can't speak for Congressman Linder here, but I was frankly surprised at the level of opposition to The FairTax that has been expressed by many members of Congress. Thanks to the efforts of my listeners, I have been collecting letters from Congressmen to constituents explaining opposition to The FairTax. Amazingly, most of these letters illustrate a complete misunderstanding of The FairTax proposal, or, worse, a willingness to lie about the proposal to excuse their opposition. Many elected officials, Georgia Senator Johnny Isakson, for instance, just do all they can to avoid the subject. Why the opposition? It's clear now that these elected officials are just frightened about the possibility of losing so much power. The adoption of The FairTax would be the largest transfer of power from the Congress to the people since this country was founded, and these politicians know it. They simply are not going to endorse an idea that would take so much power away from them unless their very political survival depends on it. That, of course, is where you come in.

Perhaps the biggest surprise about the opposition to The FairTax is that, for the most part, critics and opponents found it necessary to either change the terms of The FairTax, or to lie about it outright in order to come up with a reason for not supporting the proposal. By now you're aware of many of these distortions and lies:

The FairTax rate is 30%, not 23%

The FairTax would place a horrible burden on the poor.

The FairTax would increase the tax burden on the middle class.

The FairTax isn't progressive enough.

The real rate would have to be 60%.

The IRS wouldn't be eliminated.

We'll have the retail sales tax plus an income tax.

It can't be done.

So, when the soft-cover edition of The FairTax Book hits the bookstores it will have a great deal of additional information detailing the criticisms and answering them. We'll use some of the letters from elected officials to their constituents to show that the opposition is either base in a lack of understanding, or on lies. We'll answer the objections set forth in papers developed by such institutions as the Ludwig von Mises Institute and the Brookings Institute. We'll also show how The FairTax is the answer to our current trade difficulties with China and other emerging economic giants.

So ... something to look forward to!

THE ALITO CIRCUS BEGINS

Supreme Court Nominee Judge Samuel Alito heads for the Hill today to begin his confirmation hearings in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Expect a lot of grandstanding and hot air with the opening statements, especially since Teddy Kennedy is on the committee. So far, the conventional wisdom seems to be that he'll be confirmed, although not by the wide margin that John Roberts was.

Will the Democrats turn this hearing into a referendum on what Alito thinks about the Constitution and how he would interpret the law? Well, it should be that way, but it won't. Instead, the left will try and make the Alito nomination about George Bush. The judge will be asked questions about things such as the warrantless wiretapping, secret prisons, abortion and the rest. Try this: set your watches at the start of the hearings ... then see just how long will it take the Democrats to bring up Abu Ghraib. Abu Ghraib worked. Abu Ghraib was great material for Bush-bashers. It's guaranteed to come up. The left loves to bring up anything and everything that would embarrass the United States and to make us look evil to the rest of the world ... evil so long as a Republican is in the White House.

You may have noticed the commercials on TV concerning Alito. There will be many more in the coming weeks. The commercials that are in favor of Alito talk about how much everybody loves him and praises him, including liberals. The anti-Alito spots focus on abortion and strip-searching little girls. Know this ... abortion is never going to be illegal in all 50 States. Even if Roe vs. Wade were overturned, abortion would still be legal. Oh ... and there is nothing whatsoever in the record to show that Samuel Alito is in favor of strip-searching 10-year-old girls.

In the end, unless he's hiding an illegal alien on his housekeeping staff, he'll probably sail to confirmation.

MORE PROTECTIVE BODY ARMOR

You may have heard recently about the Pentagon study that came out that showed at least 74 Marines died in Iraq because of insufficient armor plating. The media has been trumpeting this report and insinuating that the soldiers died only because they were denied armor. The left is running with it, blaming Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. You can see Howard Dean saying it now: the Bush administration killed those people because they were trying to fight the war in Iraq on the cheap.

Well, not really. As is the case with the mainstream media these days, you only get one side of the story. How could anyone disagree with the results of the study? We should get the troops more body armor to save lives! There are two sides to this story. Many of our troops have made it clear they don't want to wear body armor. Soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division's 3rd Brigade are already required to wear Kevlar drapes, knee pads and fire-resistant uniforms. Many troops say they already feel weighed down by it all and are happy to take it all off at the end of the day. One Second Lieutenant even says wearing more body armor would restrict his mobility and actually increase his chances of getting killed.

War is a dangerous business. People kill and get killed. Maybe the Pentagon should redo that study. Let's see how many Marines would have been saved if they had been carrying manhole lids to deflect the bullets.

HARRY BELAFONTE AGAIN

Leftist activist and 'Day-O' singer Harry Belafonte is in the news again. Speaking in Venezuela on Saturday, the UNICEF goodwill ambassador had this to say about President Bush, speaking to Venezuelan President Chavez: "No matter what the greatest tyrant in the world, the greatest terrorist in the world, George W. Bush, says, we're here to tell you: Not hundreds, not thousands, but millions of the American people . . . support your revolution." How nice. I guess that's a requirement for being a "UNICEF goodwill ambassador." You have to really, really hate George Bush.

Liberals love Hugo Chavez. Why? Because he is a hardcore leftist who is in bed with Communist tyrant Fidel Castro and other assorted dictators. But we have to tolerate Chavez because of the oil that Venezuela provides...our fifth-largest source of imported oil.

You won't hear much about Belafonte's comments in the press. But imagine if Pat Robertson had said it...now that would be breaking news!

JUST CAN'T HELP STIRRIN' THE PUDDIN'

I enjoy a good argument ... especially when one side tries to hide their true agenda behind a transparent screen of lies and nonsense. Such is the current debate and controversy over teaching something called "intelligent design" in our nation's government schools. Behind this debate is the desire for some (certainly not all) devout Christians to have the Biblical theory of creation taught either instead of or alongside evolution in schools. When the Supreme Court made it clear that our government schools could not be used to teach religious dogma it was back to the drawing boards! The attempt to teach creation in our schools is now embedded in the teaching of intelligent design. ID backers deny any religious connotations in their quest. They'll sit right there with a perfectly straight face and tell you that it's really all about science, not religion. Be careful not be be drinking coffee when engaging in this discussion. The sight of all of that coffee squirting out of your nose when they pull that "it's about science" line can have an affect on your credibility.

This ID vs. evolution argument is providing good fodder for the letter-writing crowd to the Naples Daily News. On Saturday morning one writer referenced the case of Maine v. Mockus, 14 ALR 880 (Maine Supreme Court 1921) Things were quite a bit different in 1921 than they are today. Back then even engaging in this discussion about ID vs. evolution might well be considered to be a crime. In its opinion the Main Supreme Court wrote: "It is a willful and malicious attempt to lessen men's reverence of God by denying His existence or His attributes as an intelligent creator, governor and judge of men." There you go. Did you see that reference to "intelligent creator?" That, my friends, is an early reference to intelligence design, and it leaves no doubt whatsoever as to just who the ID crowd thinks that the intelligent designer, intelligent creator, or whatever you want to call Him, may be.

The debate over whether or not the Biblical theory of creation is just fine. At the heart of this debate is just what the founders meant when they wrote that our Congress should make no law effecting the establishment of religion. Does it mean that all mentions of the Christian religion should be completely eliminated from all government institutions, including schools? I think not. Does it mean that theories of the origin of mankind founded in religious writings, but not in science, should be taught in those schools? No. But let the debate go forward! Just don't try to insult the intelligence of those who oppose the teaching of religious dogma as science by insisting that ID is not just a substitute for Genesis.

REDNECK SCRAP BOOK

If you're going to have a final resting place for rednecks, you need to lay down some rules. More in the Redneck Scrap Book.

READING ASSIGNMENTS

When you want to see where America is heading, look to the social welfare states of Europe. Norway is our basket-case of the day. The Norwegian government is getting ready to shut down about 500 companies because they don't have enough women on their boards of directors.

Harry Belafonte .. what a guy! Now he's calling President Bush "the greatest terrorist in the world." I'm sure those words warmed the hearts of many liberals and almost all of the Hollywood crowd, Danny Glover, for instance. By the way, Belafonte works for the UN too ... as a UNICEF "goodwill" ambassador. Donated any money to UNICEF lately?

The Democrats are loading their guns to go after Samuel Alito. Why? Because he's not qualified? Nope. Because they honestly fear he would be a bad Supreme Court Justice? Nope again. On reason, and one reason only. He was appointed by Bush ... the hated Bush ... and his nomination must be defeated.

Fine...Howard Stern is switching to satellite radio today.  Now will the media please talk about something else?  Enough already. 

Al-Qaeda is trying to recruit Islamic terrorists to give our troops the AIDS virus.  Sounds like "freedom fighters" (as Cindy Sheehan put it) to me.

The Jack Abramoff scandal is a metaphor for the way the entire Federal government operates, says Pat Buchanan.  Don't expect as many Congressman to go down over this one because bribery can be hard to prove.

Eight House Democrats are backing the impeachment of George W. Bush.  Looks like they're running just a little bit short of the votes they'll need, but don't expect that to stop the left from trying.

Some in the Bush administration are finally admitting the Medicare prescription drug program is a big screw-up. Who do they blame? Karl Rove, says Robert Novak.  Whoever is to blame, our children are going to be paying for it for the rest of our lives.

In the interest of including both sides of the story, some actually say that most lobbyists aren't crooks and most members of Congress are honest.  Donald Lambro weighs in.

Congress will soon pass a bunch of laws to try and address the corruption of the Jack Abramoff scandal.  But as Star Parker explains, that really won't fix the problem.

You've heard of Attention Deficit Disorder, or A.D.D.....Professor Mike Adams has a new one: Attention Surplus Syndrome.  He tells us more in a letter to his students.

The rebuilding in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina that is going on down at the Gulf has created an interesting side effect: massive corporate welfare.  Did you know you're paying to rebuild casinos?  George Will reports.

The New York Times is only upset about the NSA wiretapping that's going on because George Bush was directing the program.  David Tell of The Weekly Standard weighs in.

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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