Today's Nuze: May 09, 2006

Tuesday -- May 9, 2006

DRAT

So .. here's my day so far. I get up at around 4:30. I shower, brush both of my teeth and comb the three hairs I have left. Then I head into my office and start with my morning show-prep. I lay down an excellent rant on the increase in school taxes for one of the worst school systems in the country, the Atlanta city government schools. I then explore the latest circulation figures for newspapers and write a little blurb about how the local far-left newspaper, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, has lost circulation ... about a 6% drop, I believe. Then I start working on the reading assignments. Suddenly the program I use to update the Nuze freezes ... I wait. I get some coffee. I wait some more. I scratch an itchy place. I wait some more. I walk the dog. Nothing. Finally I have to use the dreaded task manager to see what's going on ... and I get the dreaded "program not responding." I know what that means ... I'm going to have to bail and that means I'll lose every damn thing I have done. I know, I know. I should have been saving my work. Microsoft FrontPage doesn't have an auto-save feature. So ... let's see what I can get done before I have to head to the studios.

FAIRTAX RALLY - CAN YOU COMMIT?

Here's the deal folks. If we can get some sort of indication as to how many people are really going to come to the FairTax Rally May 24th, we may be able to upgrade to a larger venue. So, if you are going to be there, RSVP here. It's not for nuthin'. At the rally, 5 of these people will be upgraded to the front row! So do it! It doesn't hurt a bit!

DID I MENTION NEWSPAPER CIRCULATION?

Paid weekday circulations for newspapers in the United States is on the way down. Out of the top 20 newspapers in the country, only a few had an increase in circulation, and not one of those experienced an increase of as much as 1%. The worse drop was the No. 13 newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle, had a drop of 15.6%. The Boston Globe was down 8.5%. The third-worse drop was our own Atlanta Journal-Constitution with a decrease of 6.7%. The biggest gainers, with increases of 0.9%, were USA Today and The New York Times.

We've been watching the numbers for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution drop for some time. The AJC is a liberal newspaper looking for readers and subscribers in a conservative region of the country. When considering the coverage the AJC gives to local issues some come to the conclusion that the AJC should go ahead and bill itself as the nation's largest Black newspaper. While I don't necessarily agree, it is interesting to note that in today's AJC we have what I believe is now the fourth day of coverage of the friend of an Atlanta rapper being shot and killed .. not here, but somewhere else. Sure, the story deserves coverage ... but four days worth?

The Internet certainly comes into play here. In the mid-1980s I used to make a weekly visit to a newsstand to buy copies of newspapers from around the country. I wanted to bring my audience some news on some of the issues that were causing a stir in other locales. Now I no longer make those trips, nor do I subscribe to the local newspaper. It's all done on the Internet. Every morning in preparation for the show I'll take a look at the AJC, USA Today, The New York Times, The Washington Times, The Naples Daily News, The Drudge Report, and several other Internet sites featuring columns and opinion pieces.

There's another explanation for the circulation drops. People just don't read any more. This is not to say that they're getting their news from the Internet ... not so for many. They're getting their news from Entertainment Tonight on the tube. These people are disconnected and disinterested in the news that can truly have an affect on their lives. They spend their leisure time sucking up all the information they can on their favorite movie stars and other entertainers ... and completely ignore the rest.

Question: How long before the newspapers begin to try to make up for lost revenues by charging for Internet access?

BUSH NOMINATES HAYDEN ANYWAY

So after John Kerry, other Democrats and many Republicans said he shouldn't do it, George Bush went ahead and nominated a four-star general to head the CIA. Air Force General Michael Hayden was picked to lead the agency after Porter Goss was shown the door. So what's the big deal about a military man running the CIA?

Those who oppose the nomination say it's wrong to put someone from the military in charge of intelligence gathering. Was it wrong when Colin Powell took over as Secretary of State? Was it wrong when General Eisenhower assumed the presidency? Is there something about serving in our nation's military that somehow disqualifies you for other jobs? Nope. But wait, say the liberals and spineless Republicans. Those weren't active generals. Oh yeah ... that makes a huge difference. But that's not what is driving their complaints anyway. What really has their panties in a bunch is that Hayden was the head of the NSA from 1999-2005 and oversaw the terrorist wiretapping program. This program has never been shown to be illegal .. the Democrats just like to refer to it that way.

Question: If you are tapping the conversations of a known Al Qaeda terrorist, and that terrorist suddenly calls some contact in the United States, would you demand that the wiretap immediately cease? Come on! You make the call! They could be discussing a target in this country ... maybe a school! Are you going to demand that the tap be disconnected?

This may just be what the CIA needs. A swift kick in the behind from a 4-star general to whip that bureaucracy into shape.

WILSON OUTED WILSON'S WIFE

The Valerie Plame non-scandal has now taken another turn. By the way, did you hear that Valerie Plame is writing a book? She got something like a $2.5 million dollar advance. Not bad for someone whose (non)cover was supposedly blown. Seems like she has made out quite nicely. In fact, if her bank account is any guide, she's probably quite happy that her cover was blown,

At any rate, there was big news over the weekend, but the mainstream media completely missed it. --- or they just ignored it. There is that template, after all. Scooter Libby's defense lawyer stepped forward and announced that he has five witnesses that will testify that Joe Wilson outed his wife as a CIA agent before Robert Novak did in his July 2003 column. Uh-oh. But wasn't it Scooter Libby? Or George Bush? Or Karl Rove? Or Dick Cheney? Once again, the press gets caught with their pants down.

Patrick Fitzgerald's case against Scooter Libby is now in complete shambles. This is just the latest hole blown in his theory. You can expect the charges to eventually be dropped in what was never a scandal to begin with. But the media won't care. They'll just let the story fade, never updating people with the facts they've so conveniently chosen to ignore.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

GAS PRICES HEADED DOWN

We've just been through weeks of media hysteria about high gas prices and how people are going to cope with $3 a gallon gas. Politicians spinning around on their eyebrows ... offering worthless legislation, rebates and other such nonsense...all in an attempt to try and control the market.

The predictions have been dire: $3 a gallon gas...$4 a gallon...even five dollars! What will people do? They'll stop eating to pay for gas! Stop their medicine! The oil companies are getting rich off the backs of the poor! We must do something! Well, we have a little development this week that, once again, the big media is ignoring.

Gas prices are going down. Nationally, it's only off a penny a gallon on average, but in many places, it's dropped 10 cents a gallon. How could this be! It's simple: supply has caught up with demand. Either people are driving less or the industry is producing more gasoline.

The problem here is that polls show that most Americans don't believe that supply and demand is driving gas prices. That's because most Americans were educated in government schools. We can also blame this on the fact that politicians of all stripes have been trying to use the high gas prices to political advantage .. by blaming it on Bush, Cheney, Big Oil or Rosie O'Donnell. Listen up! That noise you hear? That's the conspiracy nut jobs telling you the oil companies are lowering prices because .they're afraid of the politicians! Yeah .. that must be it.

REDNECK SCRAP BOOK

Oh, so THAT'S how you get a sheep dog. More in the Redneck Scrap Book.

READING ASSIGNMENTS

Order from Amazon
Order from Barnes & Noble
FairTax Rally 5/24
Sit Front Row at the Rally!

Well, the White House got the letter from Iran...and although it was 17 or 18 pages long, it offered nothing to calm the nuclear standoff between that nation and the rest of the world. Oh well...what a waste of postage!

A new poll has President Bush's poll numbers down to 31%. This despite the fact that another poll shows his numbers headed up. At any rate, while these polls measure his overall popularity (or lack thereof,) they don't mean much else. After all, he's a lame duck.

Who is the perfect candidate for the Democrats in 2008? If you ask Ann Coulter, she says there's only one choice: Al Gore. Yesterday she ran down the list of why he would be the perfect nominee.

Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch is making headlines...because he's going to be hosting a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton. But wait...I thought Fox News was a Republican network? Guess not.

The DA who is prosecuting two Duke students for allegedly raping a stripper may have a problem on his hands. It turns out the accuser initially claimed 20 men raped her...then she changed her story.

Pat Buchanan, not really a fan of the Bush Administration's foreign policy, says it's a mistake for the United States to take on Russia. He's specifically talking about Dick Cheney's comments criticizing Moscow last week.

Victor Davis Hanson has a great column today...talking about the successes of war. He points out that every war in the last 100 years that we've won, has also had a mixed outcome. So it shouldn't be a surprise that things aren't ending up perfect in Iraq.

Atlanta listeners, what will you do with $10,000?

How about a $10,000 shopping spree with Clark Howard?

Register here for your chance at a $10,000 shopping spree and then listen for your name weekday mornings and afternoons. Contest details.

With Hillary Clinton leading the pack for the 2008 Democratic nomination, 
much has been written about her negatives. 

But John Podhoretz thinks those negatives just may help her.

Larry Kudlow recently interviewed President Bush, and here is a full 
transcript.  Bush is finally starting to outline just how well the 
booming economy is doing.  It's about time.

Thomas Sowell says he never really cared if Zacarias Moussaoui received life 
in prison or the death penalty.  He's actually more outraged at the way 
the penalty phase of the trial was conducted...sort of along the lines of a 
tabloid TV show.

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