OBAMA ON FOX

Well, so much for Obama "taking Fox on" in his appearance on Fox News Sunday yesterday. In fact Obama was the picture of decorum and aptly exhibited the glibness - and the ability to talk a lot and say little - that has made him the Democrat Party shoo-in for the presidential nomination.

There were a few gems hidden in the interview. One that caused me to take notice was Obama's assertion that "What the American people are looking for is somebody who can solve their problems." No ... I'm certainly not suggesting that Obama is wrong here. That is exactly what the American people are looking for. They want their mommy .. they want a government that steps in every time they face a little difficulty in their lives. Why in the hell should they work, learn, suffer and sacrifice to solve their own problems? That's the government's job!

Then there was Obama's answer to the Bill Ayers question. Once again we got that "he's just a guy who lives in my neighborhood" response. He then went on to compare Bill Ayers to his "Republican friends, " with a specific shout out to Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn, and the "religious right." Well isn't that just so special? To Barack Obama this former member of the Weather Underground terrorist group pretty much has the same standing as he Republican buddies and the religious right. Nice to know that Obama knows so many unrepentant bomb throwers. Tom Coburn, who knew?

For those of you who aren't all that familiar with Ayer's resume, we'll cover some of that in the information overload hour of the show today. For now suffice it to say that Ayers is an unrepentant terrorist who has stated that he wishes he could have done more. Come on, folks ... Obama thinks it's fair to draw a parallel between this terrorist and Tom Coburn, some "Republican friends," or the religious right?

I particularly like the line where Obama tries to downplay his relationship with Ayers by reminding us that Ayers' bomb throwing activities were "40 years ago" when Obama was only seven or so years old. That would be like someone trying to explain away a relationship with Adolf Hitler by saying "but he killed all those Jews before I was even born!"

I wish Chris Wallace would have spent a bit of time asking Obama about his past flirtations with Marxism. It would be nice to see Obama cornered on his philosophy of government.

TAX REBATE CHECKS

So ... you get your $600 check. This is supposed to stimulate the economy. How much do you think our economy would be stimulated if people could get their entire paychecks and pay taxes only when they spend for items beyond the basic necessities of life? How would our economy be stimulated if $13 trillion dollars working offshore came back to this country to work in our domestic economy? How much would our economy be stimulated if we could take the $300 to $500 billion in tax compliance costs we pay every year and spend that money on stuff we want instead of a tax system we don't want.

It's called the FairTax. Right now things are slow .. but wait until after the election, especially if we manage to keep the Marxist out of the White House.

MESSAGE TO JEREMIAH WRIGHT

Keep it up. Your speech yesterday, your appearance at the National Press Club today ... helping John McCain all the way.

BRITISH HOSTAGES HELD IN IRAN

The (London) Sunday Times is reporting that five British citizens who were kidnapped in Iraq about a year ago are being held - not in Iraq, but in Iran. If you want more to this particular story you can get it here. But the story goes far beyond five Brit hostages. While we're worring about non-existence global warming the Iranians are proceeding with their nuclear program. Today we read that the Iranians are demanding the completion of a shipment of nuclear material from Russia. If you believe that the Iranians are simply working to create a nuclear power capability then you're way beyond help. Just imagine what happens when Iran seizes control of all Middle Eastern oil.

May Barack can go talk to them.

DAMNED EVIL RICH PEOPLE

Don't liberals just love to holler about "tax cuts for the rich?" It doesn't matter what the facts are - people just love to hear that stuff. In a country awash with achievement envy (a/k/a "wealth envy") people just love to hear that those who have accomplished more than they are going to be hammered for daring to excel.

Well ... not to burst your bubble, but a report from the National Center for Policy Analysis shows that the tax burden has been increasing on the evil rich faster than their incomes have been going up.

Here's a quickie look at the figures since 1986.

1. The share of the income tax paid by the top 1 percent of income earners went from 25.8 percent to over 37 percent.
2. The percentage their total income that the top 1 percent of income earners paid from their income to the federal government rose from 18.3 percent to 19.6 percent. The percentage paid by the bottom fifth of income earners went from 0.4 percent to zero percent.
3. The income share of the top 1 percent rose from 11.3 percent to 19 percent while their share of income taxes rose from 26 to 37 percent. That's a 7.7 percent increase in income and a 11 percent increase in income taxes.

Clearly these evil rich people are getting away with murder. We need to really raise their taxes, don't we?

IGNORANT SMOKERS

Notice I didn't say stupid smokers. You can't fix stupid ... and smokers can quit. I just thought you smokers might be interested in some research from the Harvard medical school. It seems that the more education you have, the longer you live. People with a college education will live on average about seven years longer than those who just have a high school education. The biggest reason for this gap is smoking-related illness. Bottom line - the dumber you are the more likely it is you will smoke and die younger.

So - keep it up. Hang that hand with that cigarette in it out your car window. And between cigarettes you might wave a sign out of your car window telling everyone else on the road that you're an ignorant dumbass. And you workplace smokers who like to congregate at the smoker's leper colony by the side door? Way to go! Every non-smoker walking in and out of the office building - and that would include your boss or supervisor - looks at you and your smoking friends and sees you as a bunch of ignorant fools.

But you're weak .. and can't do anything about it, right? How sad.

Oh .. and you stink, too.

DOES YOUR EMPLOYER PROVIDE YOU WITH A CELL PHONE?

The Georgia Public Policy Foundation reports that the IRS - ever eager for draining every bit of money out of your bank account they can - is starting to look at employer-provided cell phones as a source of additional tax revenue. All your business-related calls will be just fine, but the cost of any personal calls should be taxed to you as personal income. So ... are you ready to start keeping a log of all your phone calls? Don't forget the minutes!

HOW ABOUT A "WHAT IF?"

We've talked about the lardassification of America on the show. Today 66% of adults are overweight. That includes me .. I need to dump about 20 big ones. What would happen if nobody in America was fat? Well ... for starters, we would 0save about $487 billion a year. No small potatoes. You'll hear more about this in the Nealz Nuze portion of today's Information Overload hour.

FOOD SHORTAGES AND ETHANOL

You do know that food prices are rising around the world. If you're paying attention you will know that much of this is caused by the heavy subsidies the federal government pays to farmers who grow corn and maize for ethanol production. It has been several years since any new acreage has been planted in corn for food in this country. Well ... I just thought you might like to know just who it was in the United States Senate who broke a tie on a Senate vote to prevent an EPA mandate for ethanol. Louisiana Democrat Senator Bennett Johnson tried to prevent that mandate from becoming law. He said that American consumers would need a few extra bucks to pay for their corn flakes every morning if the mandate made it through.

Now .. here's what you don't know. The Senate was tied 50-50 on the bill to prevent the EPA from going forward with the ethanol mandate. The tie had to be broken, and it was, by the President of the Senate. The bill was defeated and the EPA was allowed to proceed with the mandate. That was 14 years ago. Now we have these increasing food prices.

Who was the President of the Senate that broke the tie and led the way to ethanol mandates?

Al Gore.

JET FUEL AND THOSE EVIL RICH

The Congress has created a bill that increases fuel taxes for business-jet owners by 65%. Senate leaders have agreed that an increase of jet fuel taxes to 36 cents a gallon - that's up from 21.8 cents now - will help to finance federal air traffic control upgrades.

Senator Jay Rockefeller, a Democrat from West Virginia, wanted to double taxes from corporate aircraft while cutting fees for airlines. He says he wants to do this because the airlines pay "disproportionately" for aviation services. Instead, he got this "smaller" boost, which will mean that small-jet owners will pay 5% of all federal aviation costs. Raising the tax on this fuel used by those evil private jet owners will bring an additional $240 million a year.

Jay Rockefeller says, ``This agreement is a good down payment toward ending the growing inequities that exist between airline passengers and corporate jet users." But an airline trade group, the Air Transport Association, says that this still falls short of "the costs they impose on the system."

You do realize, of course, that what you're seeing here is simple pandering to wealth envy, don't you?

RACIST? YOU'RE ALREADY VOTING FOR MCCAIN

At least that is according to Barack Obama's campaign manager. That's right. Here's the quote from David Plouffe:

"[T]he vast, vast majority of voters who would not vote for Barack Obama in November based on race are probably firmly in John McCain's camp already."

In other words, this man who is managing the campaign for the presumed nominee for the Democrat party believes that if people won't vote for Barack because he is black, that automatically means that they are going to vote for McCain. I guess it follows they will vote for McCain not because of his policies but simply because he is white.

Perhaps we're seeing an interesting expansion in the racial aspects of the election. What we're being told here is that there are no Democrat voters out there who would ever base a vote on race .. only Republicans would do that and they're already in McCain's camp. In other words, only Republicans can be racists. Every time you say anything about Barack Obama, you are considered a racist because he is black ... not because he is the most liberal Senator in Washington or associates himself with terrorists or is two steps away from being an outright communist. No. The Barack Obama campaign calls the race card on others, and then uses the race card when all else fails. How convenient.

FUN GOVERNMENT QUOTE OF THE DAY

This quote comes from right here in our home state of Georgia. We're not sure that Georgia legislator Eric Johnson was joking or not when he had this to say about producing a Georgia license tag with the University of Florida Gator logo on it:

"A Gator tag will cause accidents ... It will lower our quality of life. In fact, my children used to have nightmares because we lived dangerously close to the state of Florida."

DEAR GOVERNMENT SCHOOL PARENTS ...

In Osceola County, Florida, one school board member has taken a page from the Boortz guide to the painful truth. Over a week ago, the Osceola government school district decided that its students were going to wear uniforms. Immediately, parents began complaining that they couldn't afford to buy their children new clothing.

So Jay Wheeler sent this message to these government school parents in an email: "Everyone can afford Wal-Mart and if they can't they need to think about turning off their cable TV or stop buying alcohol or cigarettes and spend their money on their children."

Wow. Way to go Jay. Hot Damn! Gotta love it

Of course, parents were offended by the email. Oh, the poor, poor pitiful offended parents. Come on! If they can't afford the uniforms what in the hell are they doing with the children? Children are expensive to raise. If you can't afford one, take an aspirin ... and hold it between your knees. Maria Quintana says that she was speechless when she first saw the message. She said, "It is insulting. I have to go to school, I have a job and sometimes it's really hard you have to struggle and to have them say something like that is really degrading."

Ahhhh ... another woman who downloaded a child she cannot afford. No surprise there.

HOUSING THE HOMELESS

Residents of an affluent Seattle neighborhood are upset that the government has decided that their neighborhood would make a great place to house the homeless. Magnolia neighborhood sits right next to Fort Lawton. Fort Lawton is being transferred over to city officials, who decided that this would make a great place for urban outdoorsmen. As of right now, there is no housing for the homeless in this area because property is too expensive for social services to afford. But all that changed when Fort Lawton was closing, giving the city officials priority to use the military land at no cost to build homeless housing.

Residents are worried that this is going to attract wife beaters, sex offenders and crack addicts to their neighborhood. They are also worried about the homeless shopping at their high-end grocery stores. But the city officials tried to convince them that this plan is actually going to increase their property value ... not sure how.

Oh but wait, we are not done yet. There is another group of people upset with this plan ... the environmentalists. They are frustrated because Magnolia is home to the largest active colony of great blue herons in Seattle, and they wanted to use this land to expand their heron habitat.

Screw the herons. I like the idea of a campground for urban outdoorsmen.

DUMBING DOWN GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS

In Norfolk, Virginia government school administrators want to lower academic requirements so that more students can play football. Right now, freshmen who want to play sports must earn at least a 2.0 GPA - that's about a C average. In these days of grade inflation anyone with a pulse should be able to do that ... especially in a government school. But still, last school year, three out of every 10 rising ninth-graders in Norfolk did not have a 2.0 grade point average, which qualifies them to play sports.

Just how dumb are the children of Norfolk?

School administrators are afraid that if you don't let students play sports, they will turn to gangs and drugs and other negative influences. So rather than clean up the kids, you dumb down the school. I guess that playing sports in high school is not a privilege, it is a right.

Now I am picking on Norfolk because this is where the story came from ... there are plenty of government schools out there where there are no requirements to play sports. In fact, administrators will bend the rules for "kids who have gone off the beaten path" just so they can continue being the football star.

But isn't it sad folks when one third of students in this school district can't even get a C average? But if they are allowed to play on the football team, they will become better students? This is about culture, not sports.

THANKS GAINESVILLE AND OCALA

Royal and I had a wonderful time at the Sky-97 Boortz Invitational golf tournament on Sunday. A special thanks to Mark, T.J. and the Sky-97 crowd for an excellent event. I also want to thank the FairTax people from The Villages for coming to the tournament to tell people about the FairTax. I have your invitation to come to The Villages for a book signing .. and as soon as I'm through with rehab we're going to do what we can to make that happen!

REDNECK SCRAP BOOK

One problem with riding a motorcycle is that it can be hard to carry things with you. Not for this guy! More in the Redneck Scrap Book.

READING ASSIGNMENTS

Neal gives Clark Howard a hard time on the air, but they really are good friends. Check out this impromptu behind-the-scenes video shot here in the Atlanta studios of Neal & Clark.

We've had some discussions in past weeks about the panhandlers who plague us on the streets of Atlanta. We're not alone here. Watch this report from Salt Lake City about who these panhandlers really are.

Another Hillary defection ... when is this woman going to get a clue? And why isn't there a good Hillary bobble-head doll? If anyone deserves a bobble-head, it's Hillary. Do they make one that cackles?

Barack Obama isn't making any more friends in the media after calling bloggers liars. Why can't he just come out and call Hillary a liar?

Charles Krauthammer has some great commentary about Barack Obama, pointing out that the real threat to Obama's candidacy is less Hillary Clinton and John McCain than his own character and cultural attitudes.

Here's an editorial from the Washington Post about Hillary and Barack's tax and spend plans and how they are too costly and short on fiscal realism. In other words ... they want more government. Whodathunkit?

Reverend Jeremiah Wrights maintains that his G D America comments were taken out of context ... so here is the entire sermon so you can decide for yourself.

Rev. Al Sharpton tried to close down New York City this past weekend with protests over the Sean Bell case and acquittal of the three police detectives that shot Bell on his wedding day.

The President of Afghanistan says he wants US forces to stop arresting suspected Taliban members and sympathizers.

When you want Hugo Chavez to restart talks with Colombia, just send the US governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson, to handle the situation.

Here is some more devastating global warming news ... the people of Anchorage are trying to dig their way out of record snow fall.

Illegal aliens who are not finding work in Arizona are actually asking local police to take them back to Mexico. Why, this news just makes me want to dance on my hat. You?

Florida just doesn't have the time to work on becoming part of our energy solution rather than our energy problem .. but they sure have the time to ban testicles on trucks.

A man is refused a spot on the transplant list because he had used marijuana ... which was legally approved for his medical condition.

Government schools in Seattle won't let students bring their own calculators to exams ... the school would prefer that you use the taxpayer funded calculators, that don't even have a square root button.

A 21-year-old Marine is dating an 18-year-old government high school student ... the Marine boyfriend is told he can't take his girlfriend to the prom because he is of legal age to consume alcohol.

One of our government outrages weeks ago was about a government school principal who wouldn't let students who earned a perfect 4.0 to graduate in special colored robes because "every student is special." Well you will be glad to hear that the decision has been reversed.

When the Pledge of Allegiance was said in Spanish in Wisconsin government high school ... parents demand that the Spanish teacher, the principal, and the superintendent be fired.

Malaysian Muslim leaders do not want an English soccer team to play in its country because its coach and defender are Israeli.

Great Britain is considering having drivers over the age of 75 retest their eyesight and ability to drive.

Move over Rainbow Fish, here's the book kids really need. My Beautiful Mommy explains why mommy suddenly has giant hooters or has had 150 pounds of fat sucked out of her and is now unrecognizable.

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