theBlogs

CRO Blog contributor commentary 3/29/03 The Gall of SF – Feds asked to pay for protests. SD Mayor surprise decision not to run. 3/28/03 Senate of Weasels. Times shocked by Cuba. SF Blames the Jews. 3/27/03 SF PD Frameup? Assembly of Weasels 2. 3/26/03 Assembly of Weasels. Mayor of Weasels. 3/21/03 Jackie Goldberg: Hitler and Bush. House Weasels. go to CRO Blog

The Shadow Controller ...blogging mcclintock “The policies that turned a $9 billion surplus to a $24 billion deficit in just 18 months are continued and expanded in a state budget which, though just three weeks old, is already unraveling before our eyes." -Tom McClintock 2/23/02 3/14/03 The plea to save police and fire services is a disinformation scam to let loose the Car Tax. 2/21/03 A history lesson: raise the sales tax and watch retail sales plunge. go toThe Shadow Controller

...it's the spending, Stupid. 3/29/03 Unions tell Lord Gray to forget about it. 3/28/03 Risky pension scheme stopped. 3/27/03 Risky scheme. No fault tax. 3/26/03 Uh, next year’s only twice the deficit estimate. go to The Fabulous Budget

3/28/03 Ms. Sarandon, stay home. 3/27/03 Less Moore, please. The Great One is great. 3/20/03 Save Saddam Fashion Accessories. Let the stars rip way on Oscar night. 3/19/03 Chicks: we don’t care if you’re sorry. 3/17/03 Martin Sheen: Don’t hate us because we’re famous. Calling them out by name. go to Celebrity Brigade

3/28/03 House Whip Weasel. 3/27/03 Touristas. Fools of San Francisco. 3/26/03 SF DA’s protester “get out of jail free” card. SF could send a $10 million bill for protest costs to ANSWER. 3/21/03 Hey Rep. Stark, it’s not too late to be a human shield. Golden State sorta human shields. Pukers4Peace. go to The Western Front

3/26/03 The paperwork’s done. 3/17/03 With friends like these. 3/13/03 Visionless/ Opportunistic? 3/11/03 64% unfavorable, but recall lacks momentum. go to The Recall Follies

3/21/03 The House condemns the 9th Circuit ruling. 3/16/03 Spitzer slams early release. 3/14/03 9th gets an adult. 3/9/03 Debra Saunders and 3 strikes. Chemerinsky makes the wrong case. 3/7/03 Volokh on Megan’s Law 3/6/03 9th Circuit now has its own special view of parole. go to JurisImprudence

The Week: 3/23/03 – 3/29/03

OC Register Budget Index
Today's deficit index: $65.1 million The amount needed per day through June 30, 2004, to balance budget. Fluctuates with changes in economy, taxes, state service levels and the time the state has left to correct the problem.
Budget Update at OC Register

SAVE SADDAM – The Celebrity Brigade
From American Spectator
Pundit or Saint?
by George Neumayr
3/28/03

If Michael Moore speaks for the forgotten working class, why did stage hands at the Oscars boo him so loudly? In Moore's oddball Op-Ed in Thursday's Los Angeles Times ("I'd Like to Thank the Vatican..."), he blames a couple of stage hands for starting the "melee."

They "started some loud yelling," he says. Then some people in the bleacher seats -- also presumably from the ranks of the obscure -- joined in the jeers, leading Moore supporters, according to Moore, to counter-boo "the booers." The orchestra didn't want to end his speech, he says, but had to strike up "its tune" to stop the "cacophony of yells and cheers and jeers."

Aren't the stage hands and the bleacher-seat booers supposed to be Moore's people?
more at American Spectator

From the Weekly Standard
Michael Moore's Revenge
As antiwar protests spread in California, the largest state in the Union becomes more and more politically irrelevant.
by Bill Whalen
3/28/03

IF YOU ASSUMED California's antiwar fetish crested the moment Michael Moore thanked the Academy, dissed the president, and took his Oscar home, guess again.

Politicians here in America's dream factory have made breaking with the majority on Iraq a reliable source of amusement and amazement--as much a daily staple of the California Experience as the tanning index, surf reports, and the Lakers.
more at Weekly Standard


SHADOW CONTROLLER
From OC Register
In Defense of Proposition 13
If keeping it intact is unfair, how fair is an $8,400 property tax bill?
by Tom McClintock, Shadow Controller
3/28/03

Just for fun, take the current value of your home and multiply it by 2.67 percent. Look hard at that number, and then imagine paying it this year as property tax. This isn't a theoretical exercise - if not for Proposition 13, that's what you would now owe to the county tax collector.

Prop. 13 made two critical changes in California property taxation. It reduced the tax rate from the average 2.67 percent to 1 percent. And instead of basing the tax on your home's current value, it based the tax on the price you paid for it.

The difference is staggering. Suppose you bought your home five years ago at the median price of $186,490. Today that home is worth $316,000. The Prop. 13 property tax paid on that home today is roughly $1,900. Without Prop. 13, the property tax would be $8,400. How long do you think you could keep up with those taxes?
more at OC Register

CALIFORNIA EXPORTS
From Eonline
The United States Is Strong in the Hearts of Americans at This Moment When We Are Under Siege
By Ben Stein
3/28/03

It was an hour to remember, an hour when I got to see the mood of America at a given moment--on the eve of war, as an ungrateful world was kicking around its saviors. Let me take you back to how it happened and how it went.

By a series of strokes of luck, I am a "celebrity judge," along with Naomi Judd and Ahmet Zappa ( Frank's son ), on a successful CBS talent scout type show called Star Search.
more at Eonline

CALIFORNIA EXPORTS: FILM=LIFE
From World Magazine
Tears of the Left
Bruce Willis's new action movie implies certain ideas that make liberal critics queasy.
by Andrew Coffin
3/27/03

Tears of the Sun at heart remains an action film—it really doesn't touch on the subtleties of American interventionism or the horror of genocide and ethnic cleansing (although its effects are graphically represented). What really bothers most critics, I think, are two very simple points implied by the film's story: that it is possible to make cultural distinctions and that some good can come from American military action. These ideas should be irrefutable and harmless at face value, but in fact make liberals mighty queasy.
more at World Magazine

SAVE SADDAM – The Celebrity Brigade
From Opinion Journal
On Oscar Night, Hollywood Thanks Everyone But The Troops.
by Michael Medved
3/26/03

The most prominent personalities in the antiwar movement resist all efforts to classify their angry activism as anti-American. But Sunday night's Oscar extravaganza obliterated such defensive distinctions. For 3 1/2 hours, the entertainment elite indulged in the usual orgy of self-congratulation with only hostile or dismissive reference to epic Iraqi battles involving thousands of U.S. troops. They offered no hint of gratitude, affection, loyalty or connection to the superpower that sustains them.
more at Opinion Journal

SAVE SADDAM – The Celebrity Front
from BillOReilly.com
Yes, You're Entitled to Your Uninformed Opinion
by Bill O'Reilly
3/26/03

Since Hollywood liked the Pianist so much and since many actors are so outspoken about current historical events, I would like to give Susan Sarandon, Julianne Moore, Martin Sheen and all the other anti-war stars a short historical quiz.
more at BillOReilly.com

SAVE SADDAM – The Celebrity Brigade
From TechCentralStation
The Moore the Scarier
By Debbie Schlussel
3/25/03

He calls Bush, Cheney, and Ashcroft the "real axis of evil." He blamed 9-11 attacks on too many White people and not enough Black men on the planes.

And in his Oscar Night diatribe, film-maker Michael Moore used his win of an Academy Award to rant against a "fictitious" President Bush, "fictitious election results," and the War on Iraq, which he claimed was for "fictitious reasons."

"We live in fictitious times," he said when picking up the award for best documentary for his anti-gun film "Bowling for Columbine."

And Michael Moore should know. Because everything from his "working-class Joe" persona to his so-called documentary, for which he won the award, is largely fictitious. Michael Moore is the master of the truly fictitious.
more at TechCentralStation

SAVE SADDAM – The Local Front
From SF Chronicle
Tantrum
by Debra J. Saunders
3/25/03

IT'S RATHER choice that the anti-war group Direct Action to Stop the War is complaining about "increased repression from the San Francisco Police Department."

Their so-called peace demonstrations certainly were designed to repress -- that is, "subdue" or "restrain," according to my dictionary -- people in San Francisco. Activists boasted they wanted to close the Financial District to end "business as usual." So they sabotaged public transit and blocked intersections to gridlock city traffic.

Protesters vomited in front of the Federal Building. They scared off customers who would have spent money in city stores. While they claim to care about the poor and infirm, they've sucked some $900,000 daily from a city that is facing its worst deficit ever.

They've taunted police. They've resisted arrest. They've announced they want to practice civil disobedience. Then they complain when they are arrested.
more at SF Chronicle

FABULOUS BUDGET
From OC Register
Budgets, Books and Bombs
Let's be clear on the causes of the California budget crisis
by Ray Haynes, State Assemblyman
3/25/03

If you want a striking example of the poor job the education system is doing for at least some of our students, you need look no further than the anti-war rallies and walk-outs being held on campuses around the state.

Beyond the typically shallow "No Blood for Oil" and "Regime Change in America" signs is an increasing number of signs that seem to be making a connection between the war in Iraq and the California budget crisis. Signs that say things like "Fund Books, Not Bombs" or "Don't Fire Teachers, Fire Bush" are either intentionally or ignorantly misplacing blame for cuts in California's schools on the war overseas.
more at OC Register

SAVE SADDAM – The Celebrity Front
From Weekly Standard
Judy Blue Eyes: What the Left Sees
Could it be that the arts community lacks sufficient imagination to comprehend the horrors of Saddam's Iraq?
by Hugh Hewitt
3/25/03

Singers with enough talent can overcome their politics, and Judy Collins has enough talent. So on Oscar night, the wife and I dragooned a younger couple, like the time my parents dragged us to hear Perry Como, and off we went to an auditorium on the campus of Claremont College to hear Judy and David Crosby in concert.

The largest quarter of CSNY played the opening set, an hour long display of guitar mastery and a surprising command of the higher vocal ranges. Crosby was a miser when it came to familiar tunes, though, and his time onstage left the audience a little restless. He veered towards politics just once, and the crowd tensed. But this was a night on which Americans had been taken prisoner and some of them perhaps executed. Only the oafish Michael Moore, with all of the gravity of Pat Paulsen but none of the humor or intelligence, could miss the significance of such events. Crosby explained that even dissenters from the war loved the country and he sang "My Country Tis of Thee." Really. He left it at that.
more at The Weekly Standard

FABULOUS BUDGET
From Sacramento Bee
Iraq War May Be A Memory By The Time State Solves Budget Crisis
by Dan Walters
3/25/03

California's chronic budget problem entered the crisis stage in December when Gov. Gray Davis declared that the state faced an immense, $35 billion deficit.

As it happened, Davis' pre-Christmas declaration coincided with the escalation of America's confrontation with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein into near-war proportions.

At the rate things are going, however, Iraq not only will be conquered but Baghdad will be hosting the Super Bowl as well by the time Davis and state legislators come to some kind of conclusion about the deficit-ridden state budget.
more at Sacramento Bee

SAVE SADDAM – The Celebrity Brigade
From Time
Shame on You, Mr. Moore! Shame on You!
The 'Bowling for Columbine' auteur had every qualification to make his antiwar speech at the Oscars. That didn't make it any less stupid.
by James Poniewozik
3/24/03

It may not be the most popular thing to say today, but Michael Moore had not only every right but every legitimate qualification to make an antiwar speech — "Shame on you, Mr. Bush! Shame on you!" — at the 2003 Oscars. The standard reason to discount political speeches from Hollywood celebs, after all, is that we don't give a crap about their political thoughts: their job is to stand up, look pretty, collect their $25 million and give US and People something to write about.

One can hardly say that about Michael Moore. In fact, there is not much reason that anyone cares about Michael Moore except for his political opinions. From "Roger and Me" through his Oscar-winning "Bowling for Columbine", his movie are less documentaries in the usual sense than artfully constructed and often hilariously funny editorials. Agree with him or not, he is, unlike Susan Sarandon, nothing if he is not a professional commentator; and thus it was not inherently stupid for him to make his speech.
No. His speech was stupid for entirely different reasons.
more at Time.com

CALIFORNIA EXPORTS
From American Spectator
Hollywood Is Hell
By George Neumayr
3/24/03

Why would America's enemies ever target Hollywood? That industry of parasitical pacifists is far more useful to them strong than scattered. As the actors bloated themselves at award ceremonies this last weekend -- celebrating artistic "independence" in one breath, condemning American "unilateralism" in the next -- 15 or so U.S. soldiers died. The contrast between Hollywood's "All That Jazz" weekend and pictures of dead American soldiers was obscene.

But those who snort coke think they also serve. At the Independent Spirit Awards on Saturday, award winners patted each other on the back for their brave independence. I didn't hear a word from them about the bravery and heroic independence of our soldiers. Instead, Hollywood's Big Fat Idiot Michael Moore accused George Bush of "terrorism" and independent filmmakers mumbled about their distress at America's "unilateral" direction.
more at The American Spectator

CALIFORNIA EXPORTS
From Weekly Standard
Oscar Goes to War
Some celebrities held their tongues at the Academy Awards. Others showed us exactly what they think about the president, America, and the cause of freedom in Iraq.
by Jonathan V. Last
3/24/03

FIRST, THE GOOD NEWS: At the Academy Awards last night Chad Lowe wore a yellow ribbon on his lapel. Going a step further, John Voight wore an American flag pin. And Adrian Brody, after a shaky, relativistic start to his speech accepting the Best Actor award, finished by saying, "I have a friend from Queens who's a soldier in Kuwait right now, Tommy Szarabinski, and I hope you and your boys make it back real soon and God bless you guys, I love you." At the close of the show, the nimble Steve Martin signed off by saying "To our young men and women overseas, we are thinking of you!"

There ends the good news.

On a Sunday when 16 Americans were killed in action and another 5 were captured and paraded about by the Iraqi military, Hollywood was nearly indifferent to the peril endured by those whose job it is to make the world safe for movie stars to play in it.

There was anticipation that celebrities would turn the Oscar telecast into an antiwar rally based, in large part, on what transpired at the Independent Spirit Awards on Saturday night. At that ceremony, Michael Moore claimed that the United States is committing "terrorism" in Iraq. Actress Maggie Gyllenhaal announced that the current war was about "oil and imperialism" During her acceptance speech, Oscar nominee Julianne Moore fretted that, "We're parents and we teach our children not to fight. Fighting's not the answer." Indy filmmaker Mike White, exhorted the crowd by saying, "Let's use a little more spirit this year to get Bush out of office."
more at Weekly Standard

CALIFORNIA EXPORTS
Stupid Academy Award
by David T. Hardy
3/24/03

The Michael Moore production Bowling for Columbine just won the Oscar for best documentary. Unfortunately, it is not a documentary.

Bowling fails the first requirement of a documentary: some foundation in the truth. In his earlier works, Moore shifted dates and sequences for the sake of drama, but at least the events depicted did occur. Most of the time. Bowling breaks that last link with factual reality. It makes its points by deceiving and by misleading the viewer. Statements are made which are false. Moore invites the reader to draw inferences which he must have known were wrong. Dates are transposed and video carefully edited to create whatever effect is desired. Indeed, even speeches shown on screen are heavily edited, so that sentences are assembled in the speaker's voice, but which he never uttered.

These occur with such frequency and seriousness as to rule out unintentional error. Any polite description would be inadequate, so let me be blunt. Bowling uses deliberate deception as its primary tool of persuasion and effect.
more from David Hardy

SAVE SADDAM – The Local Front
From LA Daily News
Safety Gear Better Than Vapid Talk
by Chris Weinkopf
3/23/03

In the last full day before the launch of Operation Iraqi Freedom, the Los Angeles City Council voted to buy $4.4 million worth of emergency equipment for city safety workers to wear in the event of a chemical or biological terrorist attack.

The vote marked not only a prudent bit of planning, but also a tacit admission. It's as though council members were finally owning up to the obvious: The anti-war resolution they pompously passed less than a month ago was as intellectually bankrupt as it was politically irrelevant.
more at LA Daily News

The Week: 3/16/03 – 3/22/03

CALIFORNIA EXPORTS
From Opinion Journal
Unmoored From Reality
An ideological con artist is the favorite for an Oscar.
By John Fund
3/21/03

With Hollywood in a fever pitch against the war in Iraq, Michael Moore is likely to win the Oscar for Best Documentary at Sunday's Academy Awards. "Bowling for Columbine," Mr. Moore's work of anti-American propaganda, has grossed over $15 million, an amazing sum for a film billed as a documentary. But the film, a merry dissection of America's "culture of fear" and love of guns, is filled with so many inaccuracies and distortions that it ought to be classed as a work of fiction.
more at Opinion Journal

SAVE SADDAM – THE CELEBRITY BRIGADE
From FrontPage
The Shame of Hollywood
By Tammy Bruce
3/21/03

While most of us are disgusted by the hypocritical attitudes of actors during this time of life and death, it really shouldn’t surprise us. They’re what I term in my new book The Death of Right and Wrong “malignant narcissists.” People like Susan Sarandon, Dustin Hoffman, Selma Hayak and others cannot see beyond themselves, while they then wrap their fear, self-obsession and hate in the banner of “peace” or “justice.”
more at FrontPage Magazine

SAVE SADDAM – THE WESTERN FRONT
From FrontPage
San Francisco Street Subversion
By Brian Sayre
3/21/03

As the day progressed, their point became more clear - to cause as much havoc as possible. Despite the best efforts of the San Francisco police force, they were unable to clear the streets, no doubt because of their refusal to lower themselves to the protestors' violent level. By mid-morning, at Post and Grant, people pushed cars out to blockade the street. By noon, crowds were roving up and down Market, blocking traffic - and just when the police had restrained a large number by the Federal Building, and were preparing for a mass arrest, a 'Black Bloc' of anarchist protestors assembled elsewhere and began their own march. Leading a march reportedly two thousand strong, this black-clad mob headed for the Financial District, opening a fire hydrant and breaking windows - windows of police cars, windows of the Federal Building.
more at FrontPage Magazine

SAVE SADDAM – THE HOME FRONT
Why Can’t We Be More Like the French?
The California Assembly can’t bring itself to support the troops and the President.
by Streetsweeper
3/21/03

With our troops in harm’s way – rushing headlong toward the liberation of Iraq and the disarmament of Saddam Hussein – the progressive ideologues in the Assembly can’t bring themselves to voice support the President and our troops.

Quoted from the Bee Jackie Goldberg reminds us of her deep seated political animus for the President ["It's not about supporting the troops; it's about embarrassing people who hold a different viewpoint and trying to shut up dissent in America," said Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg, D-Los Angeles. "It's a very un-American thing to do." | Goldberg said she does not blindly buy the argument that everyone should rally behind the president once fighting breaks out. | "That's exactly what the Germans did around Hitler," Goldberg said. "And look how the world condemns them now for being quiet. ... Nobody wants our troops to be killed, but supporting them is getting them out of there."]

It’s great to know that so progressive and that we have so much in common with the French.

CALIFORNIA EXPORTS
From American Prowler
Motion Pinko Arts and Sciences
By The Prowler
3/19/03

On Sunday night, the Academy Awards will allow all winners to make a political speech -- if they choose to do so -- of between 45 seconds and one minute in length.

"As long as it's in good taste, we're happy to let these citizens speak their minds. Obviously our government doesn't care about what they say, or else we wouldn't be going to war," says a voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in New York.
more at The American Prowler

FROM THE SF CHRONICLE
Wilson for Senate
By Debra J. Saunders
3/18/03

Former Governor Pete Wilson has been enjoying himself since he was term- limited from office. He's had his fun. He has learned to drive again -- not that he's an ace behind the wheel, according to my sources.

So it's time for Wilson to get back to work: He should run against Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer.

The California Republican Party needs the win -- and Wilson is the most likely person to deliver it.
more at the SF Chronicle

FROM THE OC REGISTER
Incoming: a Deluge of Democrats
Early primary makes state a magnet for would-be presidential nominees
by Doug Gamble
3/18/03

If a visitor asks for directions in Anytown, California, over the next 11 months, they might sound something like this: "Go down a block, turn left at John Kerry, continue on past Dick Gephardt, hang a right at Joe Lieberman, go another block past John Edwards, take another left at Howard Dean, and it's right across the street from Al Sharpton."

California is going to see so many Democratic presidential candidates so often between now and next March's primary that municipalities might want to consider installing "Caution: Democrats crossing" signs on street corners.
more at OC Register

CALIFORNIA EXPORTS
Our Academy Award Predictions
We think that socio-politics will guide the voting.
Streetsweeper (posted 3/17/03)

Here at CRO we’ve put a political barometer against the Academy nominee list and come up with our own prediction of how progressive Hollywood will vote. The upcoming ceremony is a perfect opportunity for a Tinseltown message to America. You see, for Hollywood 9/11 is over – it was a “tragedy” and it’s behind them, sort of like the credit roll at the end of a disaster flick. This Iraq thing is bad, the evil corporate U.S. – led by an illegitimate President – is going to spill blood for oil. Hollywood has a unique opportunity to make a statement. Sure, some of the winners will spout cocktail napkin ideology from the podium, but collectively the members have an opportunity to speak to the world with their votes.

Okay, maybe we’re way out on a limb, but here’s the basic idea. “The Hours” is a glorious vision of core Hollywood “American Beauty” values with a heavy dose of feminism and bisexuality. Perfect. “Chicago” is a Watergate-era anti-government romp with Fosse sexuality. See? “Gangs of New York” creates a new mythology of the Irish worker class that fits with the socialist worldview of Academy voters and it’s got proletariat sex. Got it?
go to whole column

FABULOUS BUDGET
FROM L.A. DAILY NEWS
Davis Crafted
by Chris Weinkopf
3/17/03

A fresh take on an old philosophical riddle, courtesy of state leaders in Sacramento: If a tax goes up, but no one votes to raise it, can anyone be held accountable?
Gov. Gray Davis is hoping the answer is no.

Desperate to fill his 11-figure budget deficit, the governor has long been itching to triple the state car tax, but didn't want to take the political heat for socking the average California family to the tune of an additional $124 a year -- and a lot more for families owning more than one car or newer models.

For a while, he tried dumping the responsibility onto state controller and would-be successor Steve Westly, but Westly would have no part of it. Two months into office, he wasn't about to commit political suicide.

So last week, the two Democrats came up with a compromise: No one would raise what's euphemistically called the "Vehicle License Fee." It would raise itself, like a tree -- a tree in the forest, one that no one can hear.
more at LA Daily News

§

And some
Lingering Observations

SAVE SADDAM: the celebrity brigade
FROM NATIONAL REVIEW
The President of the Left
No, he’s not president. Martin Sheen only plays one on TV. But ...
By Andrew Stuttaford
Posted 3/14/03

If there is anyone more sanctimonious than The West Wing's Jed Bartlet, it's the moralizing old ham who plays him. But prissy, preachy Martin Sheen wasn't always this way. There were times, back in the depths of the wicked, whacked-out 1970s, when today's straitlaced star was a boozer, a three-packs-of-cigarettes-a-day man, and who knows what else. It was also the decade when he gave two of the greatest performances in the history of American cinema. As the restless, murderous Kit Carruthers, Sheen was an astonishingly convincing guide to the beauty, brutality, and strangeness of Terrence Malick's hypnotic Badlands. In Apocalypse Now, he took audiences on a different journey, this time deep into a heart of darkness so profound that it engulfed not only the character he portrayed but also, ultimately, Sheen himself.
more at National Review

FROM FRONTPAGE
Bay Area Activism
Robbing the Cradle for the Revolution
By Brian Sayre
3/13/03

Sarah Sloan is a bespectacled young woman in her early 20s, who looks like a typical college student. When she is speaking to audiences whom she wants enlist in the movement that has become her life, she presents herself as one of the chief organizers for International ANSWER, the main group behind the anti-war protests. She speaks both at rallies and in high schools to oppose the war.
more at FrontPage Magazine

FROM FRONTPAGE
On the Tinseltown Beat
Hollywood Honors A Stupid White Man
By Jan Golab
3/12/03

By awarding Michael Moore for his film “Bowling for Columbine,” The Writers Guild of America (WGA) has once again demonstrated Hollywood’s leftist gulag mentality. “Columbine” is filled with inaccuracies, deliberate misrepresentations and outright lies, a fact already detailed in numerous published reports. A “documentary” filled with fiction, “Columbine” is an entertaining (and admittedly well-written) work of anti-gun propaganda.
more at FrontPage Magazine

FROM FRONTPAGE
Why Hollywood Hates Conservatives III
By Steve Feinberg
3/11/03

Being a conservative never has been easy in Hollywood. Being anything in Hollywood never has been easy. Now, things have been ratcheted up a notch and Hollywood is going after conservatives with frenetic bloodlust. Conservatives think that a war with Iraq is the only way to rid the world of the terrorist thug, Hussein, and to free a tortured and frightened people; that they may live their lives without the threat of being annihilated by that psychopathic clown with a hat fetish. Hollywood believes that UN inspection teams should go on forever -- like taxes, Route 10, and The Tonight Show. It believes that we are rushing to war; we believe that twelve years of broken resolutions are enough. Hollywood has forgotten about September 11th. Conservatives haven't. Hollywood is concerned that terrorists are being mistreated by America; conservatives are concerned that America is being mistreated by terrorists.
more at FrontPage Magazine

FROM THE OC REGISTER
Feds Shouldn't Bail Out State
Aid from D.C. would only prompt lawmakers to overspend even more
by Richard Vedder
Adjunct scholar with the American Legislative Exchange Council
3/10/03

Facing an unprecedented $26 billion budget shortfall, Gov. Gray Davis and state lawmakers are clamoring for a massive federal bailout. Some sympathetic congressional leaders offer support, arguing that a federal bailout would relieve the state's deficit while providing economic stimulus. Don't believe it. A federal bailout is the wrong solution to the wrong problem.
more at OC Register

From SF Chronicle
Kuehl-Care is wrong Rx for Californians
Sally C. Pipes, President Pacific Research Institute
3/5/03

A new plan for a system of government health care in California is being touted by its author as a grand idea. That is a strange description for a measure that would be costly, counterproductive and a danger to the well being of all Californians.
more at Pacific Research Institute

FROM THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Boycott Jim Hahn's L.A.
by Arnold Steinberg
3/4/03

"We ought to focus on sidewalks, not Saddam," prudently observed Los Angeles Councilman Jack Weiss. "I didn't run on a foreign policy platform."

Yet, nine of the 15 members of the Los Angeles City Council passed a resolution against U.S. policy on Iraq.

"We're not a bunch of crazy councilmen," argued Councilman Ed Reyes, who inexplicably can discern stupidity from mental illness. Further, council members are not pro-Iraq, just pro-United Nations. How convenient.
more at The Washington Times

AND ELSEWHERE...