'CosmoGirl's' Pot Calls The Kettle Black

Just a little something for those of you who have teenage daughters. You might want ot look more closely into what your girls are reading in the magazines that you purchased subscriptions for.

From Colleen Raezler over at NewsBusters:

Editors at CosmoGirl would do well to remember that when they point at somebody else, three fingers are pointing back at them. The popular teen magazine tackled the question "What is Sexy?" in the March 2008 issue, bemoaning the increased amount of sexual imagery being thrown at young girls but failing to acknowledge its own contribution to the problem. Writer Marina Khidekel pointed out that girls are exposed to sexual imagery at younger ages than ever before, citing the popular Bratz dolls and the fact that "stores such as Limited Too sell lingerie like push-up bras and skimpy low-rise underwear for pre-teens." Khidekel also rightly lamented that TV shows "with smart female lead characters (like "Gilmore Girls" and "Veronica Mars") are being cancelled, while shows that survive (like "America's Top Model" and "The Hills") focus mainly on girls' appearance and hookups."

But what is CosmoGirl selling in terms of personal image philosophy?

Colleen continues:

One-third of the March issue of CosmoGirl focuses on either fashion or beauty. Twenty-six percent focuses on celebrities. This means more than half of the content of the magazine (not including advertisements) is devoted to looks and celebrity worship, both of which sell the idea that to be attractive is to be accomplished. While editors only devoted 26 percent of CosmoGirl's content to personality development or career goals, they still managed to make room for a column that corrects myths about masturbation (under the guise of "sex health, of course). Khidekel ultimately defined "sexy" as "much more than just your looks or your sexuality - it's your confidence in what you have to offer the world." If Khidekel is correct in her definition of "sexy," shouldn't these teen magazines place more emphasis on encouraging girls to develop other areas of life - school, sports, art, music, theater - and less on the right beauty techniques and the latest fashions?

Just something to think about as you watch your daughter go out on her dates.

You can access the complete article on-line here:

'CosmoGirl's' Pot Calls The Kettle Black
Colleen Raezler
NewsBusters.org
February 7, 2008

Redemption: McCain At CPAC

I admit, I've been hard on John McCain in this blog. But, can you really blame me?

It is difficult to put trust into someone who doesn't have a track record consistent with their plans. With John McCain, it is diffcult to trust that he will try to make the 2001 Tax Cuts permanent since he originally voted against them. It is difficult to trust that he cares about national security because he favored an open borders policy and amnesty plan. It is difficult to trust that he favors free speech because of McCain-Feingold. It is difficult to trust he would put a Constitutionalist on the Supreme Court because of his involvement with the Gang of 14.

No, I wouldn't blame anyone who was very skeptical of John McCain becoming the de facto leader of the GOP.

Ken Blackwell is taking a look at Sen. John McCain's speech to be given to the Conservatice Political Action Convention (CPAC) today and how it might help or hinder his candidacy. It will all come down to themes and embracing of Republican values for the Senator. But Ken writes something very profound here:

Mr. McCain needs to embrace his own party. He must tell conservatives that he cares about their concerns and that he will fight for these principles. If Mr. McCain does, he may find that there is another value conservatives hold dear: Redemption. If he does not, millions will stay home, even if the Democratic nominee is Hillary Clinton. Disdain for Mrs. Clinton can carry the GOP base only so far. CPAC could not come at a better time for John McCain. He needs to make the most of it.

Exactly! Right on the money!

I've been saying this for a long time. It is for the Party to come back to us, not for us to follow the Party. The question is, can John McCain bring the Party back to us? Will he even try?

You can access the complete column on-line here:

Redemption: McCain At CPAC
Ken Blackwell
TownHall.com
February 7, 2008

What Now For Conservatives?

That's a good question. I was watching Glenn Beck last night and he has come to the same conclusion that Michael Savage came to: Republicans have become Democrats and Democrats have become Socialists. I believe that too. John F. Kennedy was further to the right than John McCain is today. The leftward slide of the political scale is undeniable. But, short of just letting the country wallow in an economic hell such as we saw in the late 1970's, what can we do about it?

Well, two columnists, Dan Calabrese and Michelle Malkin, have something to say on this issue.

First From Dan, writing for the North Star Writers Group:

Conservatism is out of favor at the moment not because it is the wrong philosophy of governance. It isn’t. It’s absolutely the right philosophy. It’s out of favor because its leaders have failed to apply it to address the priorities of the nation. I hate to tell you this, but the typical American voter, unlike the typical conservative activist, is not sitting around cursing illegal immigrants, gay marriage, abortionists, left-wing media bias and gun control. Nor is the typical American sitting around wallowing in Ronald Reagan nostalgia. Most Americans’ priorities are decidedly non-ideological. Will I have my job? Can I pay my mortgage and my grocery bill? Are my kids safe? Is the country safe? Will I be able to get health care if I need it?

Dan's point is that we have lost sight of what we should be doing. It is not that we need a Conservative in power. It is that we need to address the current crop of problems with Conservative ideas.

Dan goes on:

These were the needs of the nation in 1980. Reagan didn’t go around saying, “Elect me because I’m conservative.” He convinced voters he understood the priorities of that particular time, and he convinced them he would do what he said he would do. And with the exception of cutting spending, he did. That’s why he won, and that’s why he’s now an icon. He applied conservative thinking to the problems of the day, developed solutions and convinced people he was the man to achieve the solutions.

And we Conservatives forgot about that. Instead of looking towards real Conservative thinkers like Tom Tancredo, Duncan Hunter and Fred Thompson, we got bogged down in arguments like who was most electable and who was most likely to defeat Hillary. Because we took our eyes off of the true goal, we got lost and encountered obstacles. We will now have another four years to contemplate this before we can try again.

Dan's conclusion:

A conservative who connects with people on the things they care about, and explains why each can and should be addressed by a conservative answer, can win. But it’s the substance of the answer that matters, not the conservative label. ... The right solutions are conservative ones. There’s no question about that. But with most of the stuff conservatives have been talking about lately, would it really be a surprise if the electorate doesn’t know that?

You can access the complete column on-line here:

Ask Rush Limbaugh If Conservatism Cares About America
Dan Calabrese
North Star Writers Group
February 7, 2008

And Michelle Malkin makes a similar statement with her most recent column. Instead of sitting around bewildered by the fact that John McCain is the GOP frontrunner, we can get motivated and still have a major impact no matter who is in the White House.

From Michelle's column:

Dissatisfied with the flawed crop of GOP candidates who lacked the energy, organizational skills, and ideological strength to carry the conservative banner and ignite your passions? Then pay attention to the next generation of Republican state legislators who do vote consistently to lower your taxes, uphold the sanctity of life, defend marriage, and cut government spending. Support their re-election bids. Reward them for standing with you instead of their Democrat opponents and the liberal media. ... If you can't stomach John McCain, channel your support and energies to Republicans who do represent your values and who have treated the conservative base as allies instead of enemies. There are a new generation of combat veterans running for office who haven't made a career of trashing the base. Check out staunch economic, social, and national security conservative congressional candidates like Iraq/Afghanistan veteran Eric Egland in California's fourth district. Check out the Vets for Freedom (Vets For Freedom) group for their endorsements. Opposed to the amnesty bill? Republican Sens. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, Thad Cochran of Mississippi, James Inhofe of Oklahoma, and John Cornyn of Texas all fought the McCain-Kennedy-Graham-Martinez-Bush open-borders disaster. All of those Senators are up for re-election this year. Send them some money. Then send a few more bucks to the enforcement proponents on the House side as well. Don't sit and wait for the fence to get built. It won't be finished under the Bush administration or a McCain administration or an Obama or Hillary Clinton administration. What you can do is pressure mayors and police chiefs and city councils to rescind dangerous sanctuary policies. What you can do is alert county sheriffs that you want them to work with the feds to end illegal alien catch-and-release policies in your neighborhood.. What you can do is stop patronizing businesses that you know are knowingly employing illegal immigrants using fake Ids and stolen Social Security numbers.

Yes, we can still be active and we can still make a difference. I will continue posting on this blog in the hopes that other like-minded Conservatives will read it and then discuss these ideas with other people.

I won't give up.

You can access the complete column on-line here:

Quo Vadis, Conservatives?
Michelle Malkin
TownHall.com
February 7, 2008

This Is What We May Be Looking At In November

The FairTax Can Fix The Recession

A good, short essay about how the FairTax would fix the recession we are sliding into right now. Full text here:

Instead of borrowing money from China to pay a "rebate" to American taxpayers, the FairTax makes America THE "offshore" investment magnet for the world. We have lost more than 12 trillion dollars of American capital to offshore locations in recent years. That money, jobs and a whole lot more capital will flow here when we have eliminated the corporate income tax, capital gains taxes and personal income taxes. And as long as we're counting wasted money, tax preparations, hours spent on returns, tax lawyers and accountants cost our economy $265 billion annually. To that figure add the $350 billion the income tax system comes up short on taxes owed every year. My goodness, that wasted money is coming close to the size of a stimulus package. Our tax system is damaging the American economy because the tax writing process is not about the economy--or taxpayers. It is all about Members of Congress having the power to reward friends and contributors, punish opponents and inept attempts to manipulate citizen behavior through the tax code. Add to that the profit motive of of thousands of tax lobbyists and you end up with 67,500 pages of tax regulations and a system that rewards debt over wealth, encourages cheating and mistakes, and has enough gimmicks to feed an army of academicians, tax lawyers and lobbyists who study the arcania. For Pete's sake, we've turned the CPA profession into seeing eye dogs leading us through the maze of tax regulations instead of a profession skilled at helping us grow our savings and investments. Can the American people escape being victimized by the self-interest of Congress and force enactment of the FairTax? The question is really whether the citizenry can still direct the government, as the Founding Fathers envisioned. In this, the FairTax idea, now widely distorted by those who profit from the income tax system, is more than a better tax system--it is a test of whether our form of Democracy still works hundreds of years after our first tax revolution. Ken Hoagland FairTax National Communications Director

You can access the original essay on-line here:

The FairTax Fixes The Recession
Ken Hoagland
FairTax.org
January 31, 2008

Hillary's Plantation Politics By Star Parker

If you ever get the chance, read Uncle Sam's Plantation by Star Parker. It is an intense and eye-opening book about life in the ghetto and why even after almost forty years of a "War on Poverty" it remains virtually unchanged.

One of the reasons Star points out in the book is that leftist liberals have forced poor black families to become dependent on the nanny state and literally forced those made so dependent to vote for more nanny state policies. Well, Star sees it happening again, especially in the Democratic Presidential Primary.

When asked to distinguish themselves from each other, one of the most stark differences between Obama and Hillary was their position on Health Care. From Star's most recent column:

Clinton wants federal government mandates to force individuals to buy her plan and Obama rejects individual mandates. This key departure in health policy hints at a far more fundamental difference in the mindsets of these two candidates. Clinton's big-government liberalism is less rooted in liberal ideals than in the interest-group plantation politics that has defined the Democratic Party of recent years.

In 1976, Barbara Jordon made a speech in which she said that "the great danger America faces -- that we cease to be one nation and become instead a collection of interest groups." That seems to be the intention of the Clinton campaign.

Star goes on:

Hillary Clinton is playing with black psyches as well as white ones. Black consciousness has always been defined by a sense of vulnerability. The painful realities of black American history have always posed a barrier for many blacks to buy into American ideals or the American dream. ... The more common political appeals to blacks have played on fears that the country is incorrigibly racist and that their only hope is to salvage a piece of the pie through political power and protection. Nothing can be more threatening to these politics than a successful, talented black man like Obama running as an American candidate rather than as a black candidate. But a black off the plantation is the last thing that Sen. Clinton wants. She wants blacks to feel impotent and vulnerable and in need of a political patron to hand them the goodies they need.

Uncle Sam's Plantation is alive and well and being coaxed along by the Clinton campaign. Need more proof? Look:

At a Democratic Party candidate debate last summer at Howard University, Sen. Clinton was asked about the prevalence of AIDS among young black women. Her response was to first attribute this to racism and then talk about government programs. Can anyone imagine her telling blacks the truth that the solution starts with responsible personal sexual behavior? I certainly don't buy into Obama's liberalism. But I am not surprised one bit that so many see him as a breath of fresh air over Clinton's hacked plantation politics of fear, dependence and patronage.

You can access the complete column on-line here:

Hillary's Plantation Politics
Star Parker
GOPUSA.com
February 5, 2008

Petition For The FairTax

Well, Super Tuesday is here. 22 states will be voting in their primary elections. I am hoping that John McCain will not get the GOP nod.

But we'll know more about that tonight. For today, we have a petition to sign in favor of the FairTax. From Congressman John Linder's website:

Message to the House of Representatives: I am tired of worrying about confusing tax forms and stacks of tattered receipts, and frustrated that our tax code continues to undermine our nation’s values of saving and investment. I want to be a “Citizen Co-Sponsor” of the FairTax — legislation that will create a national retail sales tax to replace all income taxes, payroll taxes, and estate taxes, and eliminate the need for the Internal Revenue Service entirely. The FairTax would revolutionize our economy. Without the income tax’s stifling impediment to growth, Americans will be able to save more, and businesses will be able to invest more. Individuals will have incentives to engage in capital formation - the real source of job creation and innovation - more than ever before. Businesses will have incentives to direct large amounts of capital back into the United States. I want you to know that I am enthusiastic about this bill and its prospects for success, and I want all of our Representatives to join us in this fight. I endorse the FairTax and I want you to help make April 15th just another spring day.

Please help us get rid of the ridiculous, intrusive, convoluted and often contradictory tax code we have and help us shut down the IRS. Visit the following website to sign the petition:

Petition For The FairTax
JohnLinder.com
Copyright 2007

My wife owns a small business here in Northern Virginia and I own the building it operates in. Every January is a new set of headaches in getting our tax records straight just to send them to an accountant!

Think I'm kidding? Just check out the 2008 Publication 15 Circular "E" Employer's Tax Guide from the IRS and see how difficult it is to follow the damn thing. And that is just for the employees' wages. Other forms are needed for product sales and services provided by the business. And then there's property taxes, business taxes and others as well.

The FairTax is the only solution that relieves small businesses of the undue burden placed on them.

Virginia Democrats Refuse To Enforce Immigration Laws

Hat tip to Black Velvet Bruce Li for this one.

A little snippet from the Washington Post about the current state of legislative priorities in the Virginia Legislature:

Several bills meant to curb illegal immigration have passed the House, including one tentatively passed Friday that would ban illegal immigrants from attending any state public college or university. Democratic leaders have said they will block that bill and what they consider to be other harsh bills aimed at illegal immigrants. Already, the Democrat-controlled Senate has killed a number of bills that would allow employers to fire workers if they speak a language other than English at work and that would limit illegal immigrants' access to public colleges. The only immigration-related bills advanced by a Senate committee "don't do anything, which is why they got out," said Senate Majority Leader Richard L. Saslaw (D-Fairfax). "The rest of them were bills looking for a problem," Saslaw said. "It was stuff [the Republicans] wanted to put in their campaign literature."

Just so we all understand this, the Democrats in the Virginia Senate are refusing to crack down on illegal immigrants because Republicans want "to put it in their campaign literature." What about the people of Virginia? Don't the Dems want to hear what we have to say, what we have said all along?

It is truly pathetic that the Dems have taken their campaign victories and deluded themselves into believing that the people gave them carte blanche to do whatever they please, even if it means going against the wishes of Virginia. We've already seen this at the National level with Senator Jim Webb routinely bowing to the DNC and clearly voting against the will of the people who elected him to office.

You can access the original article on-line here:

Slow Start Creates Big Challenges For Va. Legislature
Sandhya Somashekhar and Anita Kumar
Washington Post
February 4, 2008

Some Cartoons Today

The FairTax Calculator

When Copernicus, Kepler and Newton proposed their theories about how the motions of the planets were governed by the physics of the solar system, they all had a very unique problem in common. People of their time were so entrenched in the mistaken teachings of Aristotle that it was a nearly insurmountable goal to get them to view the universe any other way.

For example, we do not feel the earth move underneath our feet, and therefore assume that it is solid and unchanging. But in contrast, we watch the sun, moon and stars rise in the east, move across the sky above us and then set in the west. It is only natural that primitive humans would assume that the earth was fixed and stationary and the celestial bodies went around the earth rather than the earth being one of several planets that went around the sun.

I think the same argument applies to taxation. We are so entrenched in the idea of government taxing our income, our homes, our cars and numerous other things that many are unable to view the system of taxation any other way.

Well, we know that as time went on, Copernicus, Kepler and Newton were vindicated and today, we teach schoolchildren the truth about planetary motion. I believe the same will happen with the FairTax. But the process will not be easy. New ideas rarely have an easy time of gaining acceptance.

Thus, to help ease the fear of the unknown of this new idea known as the FairTax, the FairTax Foundation has provided a Fair Tax Calculator to show people, in real numbers, the benefits of the FairTax over the current system.

To use the calculator, you will need the following information:

Are you self-employed? Are you married? How many members in your household? What is your gross annual income? What percentage of your gross income did you pay one your tax return? Are you filng joint or single? Are you recieving Social Security benefits? Do you have a mortgage? What is the outstanding principle on the mortgage? What is the term of your mortgage? What is the interest rate of your mortgage? How much do you invest in IRA's, 401k's and other pretax plans? How much do you invest in non-pretax plans? What amount do you give to charity every year? How much do you spend on tuition? How much do you spend on gifts to friends? How much do you spend on used items?

Note that none of this giving away any personal information. The calculator is completely anonymous. And if the data entry looks overwhelming, remember that for the vast majority of people, most of these answers will be zero.

I did a calculation on myself and the numbers were pretty eye-opening. My purchasing power went from $34,046.34 under the current system to $51,399.00 under the FairTax and my effective Federal Tax Rate went from 32.08% under the current system to 14.44% under the FairTax.

That's a big difference. Imagine if millions of taxpayers across the spectrum were to realize benefits like this. What a jump start that would give to our economy! Billions of dollars would be freed up to become capital investments and the United States would become the world's largest tax haven thereby encouraging foreign investment rather than foreign ownership. Jobs that have been outsourced off-shore would return to the United States and unemployment would drop.

What does the FairTax do? It replaces the entire Federal Tax Code with one simple, easy to understand and completely visible national sales tax on new goods and services. No more income tax, no more hidden taxes, no more death tax, no more any tax on personal wealth or income.

The FairTax:

• Enables workers to keep their entire paycheck
  
• Enables retirees to keep their entire pension
  
• Refunds in advance the tax on purchases of basic necessities
  
• Allows American products to compete fairly
  
• Brings transparency and accountability to tax policy
  
• Ensures Social Security and Medicare funding
  
• Closes all loopholes and brings fairness to taxation
  
• Abolishes the IRS
  

Additionally, the FairTax is the only Tax Reform plan that addresses the three following end-goals:

1) The plan must remove from the IRS any power to intrude on the private lives of American citizens.
2) The plan must remove from the K Street lobbyists any power to influence Congressional votes.
3) The plan must not allow hidden taxes to be passed along to the consumer at any time.

You can calculate your own benefits under the FairTax at the following link:

FairTax Calculator (Requires Flash 9, a free download)
FairTax.org

You can learn more about the FairTax on-line here:


Americans For Fair Taxation