Today's Nuze: March 17, 2006

Friday -- March 17, 2006

BOORTZ HITS THE SLOPES

Neal is out enjoying one of his favorite pastimes ... terrorizing snowboarders. He'll be back Monday. In the meantime, the staff has pulled together a few notes so your boss won't be suspicious about your increase in productivity and send you out for a drug test.

$9,000,000,000,000 IN THE HOLE

The United States is now in a sad state of fiscal affairs. To mark this sorry achievement, the Senate voted yesterday to raise the debt ceiling to $9 trillion dollars. That's $30,000 for every man, woman and child in this country. $3 trillion of that debt has been added since George W. Bush took office. Pathetic doesn't even begin to describe it.

But our fearless representatives didn't stop there. They then proceeded to pass a $2.7 trillion dollar budget for 2007, again, much of it borrowed. So what's the real problem here? The Democrats would have you believe the problem is that not enough taxes are being collected. They would have all of the budget "paid for" with more and more tax dollars. That's not the answer either.

When it comes to philosophies in government spending, you have two choices at the ballot box: Republicans, who like to borrow and spend and Democrats, who like to tax and spend. One you get to pay for now, the other you get to pay for later. How nice! In other words, damned if you do and damned if you don't.

No...the real problem is the spending...and it shows no sign of slowing down. Sure, we can blame the politicians that hand out money in one vote-buying scheme or another...but really, it all comes back to the American public. Do you expect the federal government to take care of your health care? Pay for your prescriptions? Is it the federal government's responsibility to pay to rebuild houses of people who didn't buy homeowner's insurance?

As long as the public believes in the federal government providing endless goods and services for free, we will continue to live in a de facto socialist state. What's the limit of federal spending, anyway? Will next year's budget be over $3 trillion, and the national debt rise to $10 trillion? You bet.

KATRINA WASTE ABOUNDS

Speaking of wasteful federal spending, we're just now getting the facts of just how FEMA and the federal government spent our precious tax dollars following the Hurricane Katrina disaster. The Government Accountability Office is conducting a review [pdf] ...and it's not pretty.

Waste and mismanagement were the order of the day. Out of 700 contracts over a half a million dollars, over 50% were awarded with no bidding or were non-specific, endless contracts. Lining up at the trough to ring up the American taxpayer were the usual suspects...well-connected contractors like Halliburton and so forth.

So with that in mind, let's review some of the wasteful spending:

$3 million for 4,000 beds that were never used. Wonder what happened to those.

$10 million to renovate and furnish 240 rooms in Alabama that only had 6 tenants before they were closed.

Poor coordination regarding the delivery of ice from vendors. Much of it was never delivered...so who knows how much money was wasted.

And the list goes on. All of this proves one thing: the federal government cannot be relied upon to manage taxpayer dollars as well as you would do it yourself. But then we knew that. Of course, the solution to FEMA's bungling of the situation seems to be to throw more money at the problem. What a great idea!

SADDAM AND AL-QAEDA

To this day, liberals like to tell us that there was no connection between Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden, and thus no reason for the Bush administration to invade Iraq. But as time goes on, there is more evidence to the contrary. More proof came yesterday of a relationship between Saddam and Al-Qaeda.

The Pentagon posted a document [pdf] online that was a letter from somebody at Saddam's intelligence agency indicating not only Al-Qaeda was cozy with Saddam, but also the Taliban. But it gets better.

The letter says Osama Bin Laden was in contact with Baghdad, and even mentions he may have visited. The documents also make mention and show a picture of our good buddy Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leading Al-Qaeda terrorist in Baghdad.

So what does all of this prove? What some have said all along: there was an active link between Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein. Oh, and Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, too. Of course, Osama Bin Laden could be captured in Iraq and Democrats still would never concede Bush was right to invade.

TIMEWASTERS

Learn the anatomy of facial expressions with this nifty online tool [flash]
Video of chicks in bathing suits covering themselves with paint for no apparent reason, safe for work but you'll get labeled a freak if you're caught watching
A really creative way of throwing off the other team
Virtual museum of carnivorous plants
Run your own fast food restaurant...not as easy as it seems! [flash game]

REDNECK SCRAP BOOK

Do it yourself bungee jumping might not be such a good idea. [short Windows Media Video courtesy of Bill] More in the Redneck Scrap Book.

READING ASSIGNMENTS

Boo Got Shot
Did you miss Boo Got Shot, the translation and the rap version on the show Tuesday? Not to worry, we'll give you all three versions in next week's Boortz Blast newsletter. Not getting it? Sign up here.

With President Bush now becoming the biggest spender in presidential history, Peggy Noonan asks the nine trillion dollar question: would Republicans have supported his nomination had they known he'd become such a big-government advocate?

The Jane Fonda honor in the Georgia state Senate is officially kaput. The senator who put forth the bill withdrew it. Apparently even Fonda's people called...asking her to give up.

Who is the GOP frontrunner for 2008? Dick Morris says it's not John McCain....and one of the many reasons is his fourth-place finish in a recent straw poll held in Memphis. Who does Morris think it will be? Read on to find out.

Does Rudy Giuliani have a solid chance at becoming president of the United States in 2008, as some believe? The Washington Post's Chris Cillizza points out that Giuliani's liberal stands on social issues won't fly in the primary states. There's also the small matter of his personal life.

Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold's censure proposal went absolutely nowhere. David Limbaugh explains that Feingold's ill-conceived plan was just playing to his base.

Republicans may have a problem this fall in the mid-term elections, not because they are losing amongst independent voters, but because their base is slipping. The reason: out of control federal spending. The Heritage Foundation's Ed Feulner explains.

Here we are...the third anniversary of the invasion of Iraq is upon us, and Oliver North takes a look back at the initial invasion. He was there at the very beginning and shares some insight.

So just how bad are things in Iraq? Is all hope lost? Well, believe it or not, columnist David Ignatius, not exactly a conservative, has been in Iraq and says things aren't so bad after all.

Dick Cheney, who always seems to be on the verge of getting booted out of office...has some unlikely backers. Windsor Mann of National Review explains.

Just how did the Taliban's former spokesman get into the United States and get accepted at Yale University? Senator John Cornyn wants to know that very thing. He says he should be deported. Nice idea, but to where?

Name this guy's brain tumor and he'll let you take it home.

If you're happy and you know it clap your hands.

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