THANK YOU KLBJ!

Clark Howard and I were in Austin over the weekend, along with George Noory, to participate in the 590 KLBJ News Radio Talkfest. We want to thank Mark Ceasar and the entire staff of KLBJ and our Austin fans for their great hospitality. Austin, despite the presence of no small amount of bedwetting liberals, is a great city. I'll be back there in about three weeks for a book signing for Somebody's Gotta Say It!

HILLARY OFF AND RUNNING

Fark isn't the only one who has fun with photoshop. Check out worth1000.com

Hillary Clinton has officially hit the campaign trail, and the hypocrisy is already flowing. She says President Bush should pull all the troops out of Iraq before he leaves office...because it was a mistake to go to war. Now this statement from Hillary was in response to a question about her vote for the war in Iraq. She didn't answer the question ... she just said that Bush should get us out of there before it becomes her responsibility.

Speaking at a townhall-style meeting, The Hildabeast actually said this: "This was his decision to go to war with an ill-conceived plan and an incompetently executed strategy. We expect him to extricate our country from this before he leaves office." His decision, huh? Funny...back in 2002 when she voted for the war in Iraq, Hillary didn't find Bush's plan all that ill-conceived. No problem, though...the media will punch her pass anyway.

But don't worry...she says she takes responsibility for her vote giving Bush the authority to invade Iraq. She's just not going to take any of the blame. Nice sidestep. And so it goes that the 2008 campaign is underway. In a little over a year and 10 months, we'll know if Hillary Clinton will be the next president of the United States.

Let the nightmare scenarios begin.

By the way .. you might want to look at today's reading assignments for a link to Hillary singing the national anthem. I'll say this ... I wouldn't have the guts to do that in public.

KENNEDY'S SCREAMING TIRADE

The Democrats class warfare minimum wage increase is now being debated in the Senate .. and Ted Kennedy is about to have a stroke. Did you hear this pathetic man screaming at the Republicans? [video] "What is it about it (the minimum wage) that drives you Republicans crazy? What is it about working men and women that you find so offensive?"

Well ... of course .. most of you will recognize this as cheap demagoguery. There are two faulty premises to Kennedy's question:

1. The working wage has some meaningful connection to "working" men and women.
    
2. Republicans are offended by working men and women.

Both premises are false.

Let's deal with this "working men and women" line first. This rhetorical nonsense is now a basic part of the left wing class warfare arsenal. The goal here is to foster the idea that the more money you make the less you work. The reality is that there we have two resources we can use to make money, physical labor and mental labor. Most of us use a combination of the two. The ugly little fact is that, generally speaking, and professional athletes aside, the more of your mind you use the more money you will make, and the more of your muscle you use the less money you'll make.

Here's another fact. The more money you make, the more likely it is that you will vote Republican. The less money you make, the more likely you will vote Democrat. Bring this all together and you'll soon figure out that the more you use physical labor to earn money, the more likely it is you will vote Democrat.

Knowing that almost all Americans value the concept of hard work, the Democrats have worked to promote the concept that the only real work that physical labor. Working with your mind -- managing investments, for instance -- just isn't work. Therefore the only real working people out there are those who work with their hands instead of their brains .... or those more likely to vote Democrat. Once you've made this absurd concept a reality you have created a wonderful class warfare weapon. If you're smarter than the average bear, and if you realize that it is not the role of government to set wages, you then become an enemy of "working men and women."

This, then, enables Ted Kennedy's demagoguery. He first asks what it is about the minimum wage that, as he says, drives Republicans so crazy. Simple. First -- there are still a few Republicans out there who believe that in a free market economy it is not the role of government to set wages. If the government can set a minimum wage, what is to stop the government from setting a maximum wage? If the government can set a minimum wage, then why can't the government set a minimum wage based on family size? Why can't the Imperial Federal Government of the United States just pass a law saying that the minimum wage goes up by $2.00 per hour for every child born to the worker? Once you allow the government to have a say in establishing the value of labor ... the sky is the limit. Where does it stop?

Secondly ... Republicans realize that less than 20% of the people in this country who earn the minimum wage live in families that are anywhere near or below the poverty level. Over six out of ten people who begin work at the minimum wage have received their first raise within the first year. Only 15% of minimum wage workers are still receiving the minimum wage after three years on their job. What percentage of the full time work force is earning just the minimum wage? Around 1 percent.

So .. to answer Kennedy's screaming questions: The minimum wage drives (some) Republicans crazy because there is absolutely nothing in our Constitution that allows the government to set wages, and the minimum wage is used by Democrats as nothing more than a tool of class warfare. Around one percent of full-time workers earn the minimum wage, and most of them are part of families that are well above the poverty line. It just isn't an issue. Knowing Republicans are also upset because they know that the Democrats push for the minimum wage increases are just another way of telling unions "thanks for your support."

And to answer Kennedy's second question, there is nothing about "working men and women" that Republicans find offensive. What they do find offensive is the Democrat use of the phrase "working people" as a tool of class warfare through their attempts to convince lower income Americans that those who make more than they do aren't really working for the money they earn.

GLOBAL WARMING NEWS FOR THE DAY

The low temperature tonight at Walt Disney World in Orlando may be around 26 degrees. Citrus farmers in Florida will be working hard all day to save their orange and grapefruit crops. In my home base of Atlanta the law last night was in the teens. The cause? Global warming. No doubt about it.

A POODLE NEVER CHANGES ITS SPOTS

The Poodle has wandered abroad ... still doing what he does best -- criticizing the United States. While sitting just a few feet away from the former President of Iran in Switzerland, Kerry called us an international pariah. Nice going, John. This is the guy that was just on the Senate floor crying about how he wasn't going to run for president next year. Gee...I wonder why?

Kerry also complained that the United States wasn't ratifying the Kyoto protocol....and that we somehow "walked away" from our responsibilities. As has been pointed out by others, we never walked away from anything. Did you know the Clinton Administration never submitted the Kyoto agreement to the Senate for ratification? And did you know that the United States Senate, almost 10 years ago, voted 99-0, saying the U.S. shouldn't sign it at all? As Al Gore would like to say, those are inconvenient truths.

And so The Poodle goes on...globetrotting around the world criticizing the United States. Why not go all the way, Senator Kerry? Swing by Tehran and meet with Ahmadinejad. Perhaps you could criticize George W. Bush on the state-run media there. Go ahead. You know you want to.

HARRY REID'S POLITICAL CORRUPTION

Harry Reid is in hot water again....and this time things aren't looking good for the Senate Majority Leader. Another sweetheart land deal has popped up...this time one affected by legislation that Reid was responsible for. I guess we can start calling him Dirty Harry. Perhaps we'll finally stop hearing about the Republican "culture of corruption," since Senator Reid seems to have his own ethical troubles.

Here's the essence of Reid's deal: In 2002, Harry Reid kicked in $10,000 to pension fund controlled by a longtime friend of his (a "lubricants distributor." Insert your own joke here.) Anyway, in exchange, Reid got control over 160 acres in Northern Arizona. This was a sweetheart deal...the land was worth over 10 times more. So what did Harry Reid do to repay his friend? He introduced legislation 6 months later that would benefit his friend's industry. Sounds like a nice, tidy little quid pro quo, doesn't it?

And yet, other than a story in the L.A. Times, this revelation isn't getting any play in the media. Imagine if this land deal were done by George W. Bush...or a Republican Senator (other than Chuck Hagel.) The call for his or her resignation would be deafening. Add this on top of Harry Reid's dealings with Jack Abramoff and you have one corrupt Senator getting a complete pass from the media.

Who says there's no media bias? The evidence is out there. Often the bias is evidenced more by the stories you don't highlight than by the stories you do.

REDNECK SCRAP BOOK

Phil sends us this video of a redneck theme park ride in action. More in the

Redneck Scrap Book. If you just want a quickie, check out the top ten viewed redneck scrapbook entries for 2006.

READING ASSIGNMENTS

Would you like to feel better about some of the young men and women in our colleges and universities? Read this opinion piece from the University of Georgia student newspaper posted by Bradley Alexander, a senior political science major.

Here's some good class warfare reading for you . Two stories from an MSN website. First story ... life in one of America's richest communities. The second story .. life in one of the poorest. Note, please, that we're comparing a community of high-achieving law-abiding American women with a community that is quite probably made up of illegal aliens.

In case you missed it, Friday we had the final answers to the science myth quizzes we had all last week.

If you'd like to see and hear Hillary Clinton's full performance of the national anthem while she was visiting Iowa recently, click here. Don't you just love open mics at press events?

Joe Lieberman says he might back a Republican for president in 2008. He says his allegiance to his party is important, but the future of the country is more important. He says he'll be looking at all of the candidates, regardless of party. The Democrats aren't going to like that one bit.

A politician in North Carolina wants to review movie scripts before films are shot there and refuse the ones found objectionable. It turns out the state subsidizes filmmaking. Here's an idea...how about the state of North Carolina stop subsidizing the production of movies altogether? That would solve the issue entirely.

Bush Senior is complaining about the media hostility toward his son. This is nothing new...Bush 41 should realize that anytime there is a Republican in the Oval Office, the media is going to be there to jumping on his case at every opportunity. It's their template.

You know those two U.S. Border Patrol agents currently doing time in prison for killing an illegal alien drug smuggler? Turns out some of the evidence, particularly the ballistics report, is a bit on the flimsy side. All the more reason to pardon the two men.

250 "militants" (really Islamic terrorists, but don't tell that to the media) bought the farm yesterday and were treated to their eternal desert sand nap by the U.S. military. Their final resting place was Najaf in Iraq, where a daylong battle ensued. Good riddance.

Delaware Senator Joe Biden, who is running for president, had his dreams crushed this past week of passing a bipartisan resolution opposing the troop surge in Iraq. Robert Novak reports on Biden's failed attempts to do so.

Mark Steyn compares John Kerry in the United States Senate to old politicians in the Soviet Union's politburo. He also criticizes President Bush's State of the Union speech. It's quite the column, one where no one is spared. Check it out.

Recently, Professor Mike Adams wrote a column about racism. As you might expect, many were upset with his writings and wrote in to tell him so, some of which he shares in today's column. [Warning, some of his column may be offensive to some and not safe for work.]

Dinesh D'Souza, who has written a book recently about terrorism, is calling out Jimmy Carter...for being the father of Islamic terrorism. He says the Carter Administration helped Islamic extremists rise to power in Iran over 25 years ago.

It's done. All the editing is over. "Somebody's Gotta Say It" will appear on your bookstore shelves on Tuesday, February 20, 2007. The autographed first editions have sold out so if you want my mark on your book, you'll need to catch me at one of my book signings. Or if you just want to get to reading, order it online here.

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