In yesterday’s Opinion Journal’s Review & Outlook is a look at the mega-positive effect of Reaganomics on the economy over the last quarter century.

Twenty-five years ago today, Ronald Reagan was inaugurated as the 40th President of the United States promising less intrusive government, lower tax rates and victory over communism. On that same day, the American hostages in Iran were freed after 444 days of captivity. If the story of history is one long and arduous march toward freedom, this was a momentous day well worth commemorating.

All the more so because over this 25-year period prosperity has been the rule, not the exception, for America–in stark contrast to the stagflationary 1970s. Perhaps the greatest tribute to the success of Reaganomics is that, over the course of the past 276 months, the U.S. economy has been in recession for only 15. That is to say, 94% of the time the U.S. economy has been creating jobs (43 million in all) and wealth ($30 trillion). More wealth has been created in the U.S. in the last quarter-century than in the previous 200 years. The policy lessons of this supply-side prosperity need to be constantly relearned, lest we return to the errors that produced the 1970s.

Good read, the column is here.

…at least columnist Bruce Britt is, with this article at Bet.com, where he blames global warming on human activities, blames Katrina and future powerful hurricanes on his man-made global warming and then turns it into a racial issue.

If you thought Hurricane Katrina was a once-in-a-lifetime fluke, think again. Concerned environmentalists say that unless the United States gets real about the threat of global warming, African Americans and other people of color can expect a repeat of disasters like Katrina.

“When you look at the trends and put them all together, it’s undisputable that the sea levels are rising,” says Ansje Miller, director of the Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative (EJCC). “Warmer seas mean more intense hurricanes…. You’re going to have intense flooding like we have never seen before. Katrina is really the hurricane of the future.”

So blacks and “other people of color” can expect a repeat of disasters like Katrina. Thank G-d the rest of us have nothing to worry about — as the mainstream media established in New Orleans four months ago, severe hurricanes like Katrina blow right by us white folks because they’re somehow our creation, white folks causing the racism spawning global warming. Yeah, blame Bush and Cheney, who are, if so many left-thinking pundits are to be believed, the producers of all that is evil or disasterous in the world.

Environmentalists blame the fierce new storms on global warming – the increase in the average temperature of the Earth’s atmosphere and oceans. Scientists attribute the phenomenon to gases produced by fossil fuels like gasoline, petroleum and coal. Though critics dismiss global warming as junk science, reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have continually found a discernable human influence on world temperatures.

That’s bad news, especially for African Americans. Citing Katrina as a case-in-point, some environmentalists say global warming impacts minorities and the disadvantaged harder than other groups. If global warming gets worse, many African-American communities will be more vulnerable to breathing ailments, insect-carried diseases and heat-related illness and death. But asking Black folks to give up gas-guzzling SUV’s and other bling is a tough sell.

I’m not insensitive to the disaster that befell New Orleans, by no means — the Crescent City, where I once lived for many years, has remained close to my heart, and I contributed what I could to the Red Cross and a couple of religious organizations in the aftermath to help obtain relief for some of those poor souls who lost their homes and possessions — but I am also completely aware that as many white people, by population ratio(there were a lot more blacks living in Nawlins than whites), lost their homes as well, but this fact was played down by the left leaning media so as not to detract from the playing of the infamous “race card”.

There are a whole lot of poor white families in the Crescent City, many I have known well whose adult members are/were totally illiterate and who scraped to get by. We saw little coverage of their post Katrina plight, simply because the media, in their complicity with the rest of the left in their War On Bush, preferred to make the disaster homogeneously racial, all assignable fault somehow leading to the Bush Administration.

This entire debacle is utterly shameful — disinformation coming from the folks trusted to report the entire story, delivering all the facts, in order to attack the Bush government to preserve a political agenda.

Now we have a “journalist” at Bet.com who is essentially telling us that by not supporting the Kyoto Accords, the Bush Administration will be singularly responsible for the future hurricane deaths of black Americans, putting a racist spin on the global warming issue.

Further,

Relatively, Blacks are environmental Good Samaritans. Per capita, we emit approximately 20 percent less carbon dioxide than Whites – well below 2020 targets set by the U.S. Climate Stewardship Act. Not only do we use more energy-conserving public transportation, we spend considerably less per capita on energy-intensive material goods.

Yet Blacks are exposed to worse air pollution than Whites in every major metropolitan area. Some charge that the Bush administration has made matters worse by creating new policies, like the Clear Skies Act and the Healthy Forest Initiative, that allow utilities and industries to pollute more. President Bush enraged environmentalists when he opted out of the Kyoto protocol global warming treaty, saying it would harm the U.S. economy.

Where, we have to ask ourselves, does Mr. Britt obtain his “evidential” statistical data?

And when, we must also wonder, will black America wake up to the fact that the party they trust and the party they vote for is not only the party that keeps racism alive just to keep on enjoying the majority of their votes, but also the party from whence sprang the Ku Klux Klan?

Perhaps after another few wasted years of being lied to by the Democrats and shysters like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and Louis Farrakhan, this powerful voting bloc will realize how propaganda and empty promises from the left are hindering their community more than helping it, and that this is by design — as long as the Democrats are able to maintain a wall of distrust between blacks and whites, continuing to blame everything on racism and being believed by the black community, they’ll continue to keep their votes.

Hat Tip; James Taranto.

…is about the most accurate term for what the left presents George W. Bush as their contribution to homeland security.

The administration is prosecuting a war against terrorists who mean to harm murder all Americans who are not Muslims. Men, women, children, old folks, all the same to them… and Dubya’s having to spend an inordinate amount of time defending policies that have proven themselves to have saved a whole lotta lives — American ones — here in the continental United States.

All this aggressive energy the Democrats and their liberal masters, for purely political reasons, have been investing in attacking and obstructing Bush’s efforts to protect our country, ourselves, our families and our fellow Americans from an ambitious, remorseless, implacable enemy would be better invested in supporting the Global War On Terror and the Patriot Act.

Instead, we get a thinly concealed declaration from the left that they want to see Bush fail, meaning, among other things, that terrorists would be successful in mounting attacks here in the United States. Despite these peoples’ Utopian fantasies, we really can’t have one without the other, which pretty well tells us where their priorities lie.

Those leftists are, indeed, some sick puppies…

This in from yesterday…

Apparently in an effort to win international support and avoid censure by the United Nations Security Council, Iran on Tuesday proposed a resumption of nuclear talks with the Europeans, a move that was immediately rejected by Britain as “vacuous.”

Indeed.

The proposal came eight days after Iran resumed nuclear work at three sites in violation of an agreement 16 months ago with France, Germany and Britain that froze most of Iran’s nuclear activities. The resumption prompted the European trio to declare the talks dead and call for the Security Council to pass judgment on Iran.

This should be very frightening for Iran. The U.N. “passing judgement” can only mean one of two things:

a) They might be {gulp!} censured, or

b) There might be {shudder} sanctions.

Seriously, what will they do?

Impose a Megatons For Food Program?

Kofi & Son would be strongly supportive, as they would undoubtedly see some lucrative financial opportunities in the offing, as would most French U.N. diplomats and a few others of their ilk, such as a certain corrupt, left wing scumbag, terrorism supporting British traitor named George Galloway (spit).

In a letter on Tuesday, Javad Vaeedi, deputy head of the Supreme National Security Council, emphasized Iran’s determination to “continue its full cooperation” with the International Atomic Energy Agency, adding that Iran “spares no effort in removing any ambiguity on its peaceful nuclear activities through dialogue and negotiation,” according to a copy of the letter obtained by The New York Times.

Expressing appreciation for the Europeans, it added that Iran “considers dialogue and negotiation as the best course of action” and “is prepared to make the process a success.”

But the letter, addressed to the three foreign ministries and sent through their missions in Vienna, gave no indication that Iran would resume the freeze on its conversion, enrichment and reprocessing of uranium as required by the agreement.

Of course not! It’s amazing how after dealing with Islamofascist governments for so many years, these dynamic diplocrats would still like us to believe that they’ll bring anything reasonable to the bargaining table.

And camels might fly…

It’s always the same deal: The Muslim country offers nothing except doubletalk, promises they can break, according to their religious beliefs, because they’re made to infidels, or simply stands firm while insisting that all concessions come from the western governments involved in “negotiations”. And somehow they manage to word their diplomatic dictum in such a way as to give the impression that they’re proferring offers of great sacrifice to themselves and great benefit to all mankind.

Sure they are.

“It is unacceptable,” said a German official, who described the letter as “a lot of nice words without any concrete offer.”

Good for you! You tell ‘em!

And tell ‘em again, and again. Western diplomacy with Iran as regards their nuclear programs is reminiscent of something I saw in a cartoon as a kid where one character draws a line on the ground and says, “I dare you to cross this line.”

The other character crosses it.

The first character draws a second line on the ground.

“I dare you to cross this one.” He challenges.

What follows is: “And this one.” “And this one.” etc…

The U.N. and its Old Europe members have already proven themselves a toothless, unapplicable, cowardly, corrupt and overly expensive attempted remedy to the world’s more dangerous problems.

So,

Indeed, Ali Asghar Soltaniyeh, Iran’s representative to the international nuclear agency in Vienna, said in a telephone interview from Vienna that Iran’s decision to resume nuclear fuel research was “legal and irreversible.”

He added: “We are ready to negotiate with the Europeans and the Russians. It is now their turn to understand us.”

He called it unfair that Iran’s scientists had not been able to conduct their nuclear research under the freeze, saying, “The philosophy of telling scientists not to think and research is contrary to human rights principles and the United Nations Charter.”

Which means exactly what it reads like.

Iranian diplomats will talk day and night for as long as possible, buying time for their continued nuclear research and the development of their first atomic weapons.

Given the spinally challenged diplomacy of the folks in western Europe, “as long as possible” can mean forever, or at least right up until there is a mushroom cloud over Tel Aviv and a score or so additional suitcase nuclear devices fall into the hands of terrorists. One suitcase nuke goes a long, long way.

Then again, perhaps Israel will do unto Iran’s nuclear reactor program what they once did unto Iraq’s.

Or for the entire issue coming down to the Eleventh Hour option of the U.S.(it always comes down to our country) allowing Iran to produce and deploy a nuclear weapon while the U.N. talks to a wall, or executing a military operation, up to and including invasion, to prevent a probable nuclear holocaust by removing the extremist government and replacing it with the same kind of democratic government we have helped install in Iraq.

Jeezzzz!!!! I can already hear the howling, booing, hissing, weeping and gnashing of teeth coming from the port side over that one!

They’ll just have to get it through their pointed, tinfoil covered little Utopian liberal heads that our entire operational profile in the Middle East and Southwest Asia is ultimately an act of self defense against people who don’t think like we do but would sure love to kill us, man, woman and child, because we don’t worship as they do, either.

All that said, I do not for a minute believe that this situation we now face as regards Iran’s nuclear weapons development energy program is going to be resolved peacefully.

All the Europeans and that useless fucking idiot U.N. nuke agency czar Mohamed ElBaradei are doing is blowing smoke, lots and lots of smoke.

Here is a must-read post featuring a great letter to the Dishonorable John Kerry from my friend GM, at GM’s Corner.

Recently I posted on the corruption of the nation’s core educators’ union. An organization that began as a protective association for teachers and metamorphosized into something entirely different, not at all representative of its dues paying constituency.

Well, this is not an isolated incident, as they say; Evidently this kind of thing has spread like a cancer into the infrastructures of other unions, not least among which is the United Farm Workers(UFW).

According to Columnist Ruben Navarrette, Jr.,

Discussing the Jack Abramoff congressional lobbying scandal, some have invoked the colorful saying — often attributed to Eric Hoffer, a longshoreman-turned-philosopher of the 20th century — that every great cause begins as a movement, degenerates into a business and winds up a racket.

I can’t help but think how beautifully, and how tragically, that phrase sums up the moral trajectory of the United Farm Workers union over the last 40 years. What began as a worthwhile cause — to bring dignity to farm workers — eventually became a national movement, then a family business. And now, the evidence suggests, it has become a racket.

Read the entire column.

And this is what those contemptible, soulless, murder endorsing, liberal scum “progressives” who, outspokenly so, do not support Judge Sam Alito’s confirmation to the Supreme Court, do support.

For every 100 babies born in New York City, women had 74 abortions in 2004, according to newly released figures that reaffirm the city as the abortion capital of the country.
And abortions for out-of-town women performed in the city increased from 57 to 70 out of every 1,000 between 1996 and 2004, a subtle yet noticeable trend that experts say may reflect growing hurdles against the procedure in more conservative parts of the country.

The new Vital Statistics report released by the city Department of Health this month shows there were 124,100 live births, 11,700 spontaneous abortions and 91,700 induced abortions in the city in 2004.

Hat Tip; James Taranto

Jay, over at Stop The ACLU, reports that the American Civil Liberties Union(spit) is now suing the National Security Agency over their electronic intelligence gathering programs made public by the New York Times in recent weeks.

ACLU Sues NSA

by Jay on 01-17-06 @ 12:53 am Filed under ACLU, War On Terror, News
Another Big Hat tip to AJ Strata

Is the ACLU in contact with terrorists overseas? Well, of course they are! Now it seems they are paranoid of getting caught!

Saying that the Bush administration’s illegal spying on Americans must end, the American Civil Liberties Union today filed a first-of-its-kind lawsuit against the National Security Agency seeking to stop a secret electronic surveillance program that has been in place since shortly after September 11, 2001.
“President Bush may believe he can authorize spying on Americans without judicial or Congressional approval, but this program is illegal and we intend to put a stop to it,” said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero. “The current surveillance of Americans is a chilling assertion of presidential power that has not been seen since the days of Richard Nixon.”

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of a group of prominent journalists, scholars, attorneys, and national nonprofit organizations (including the ACLU) who frequently communicate by phone and e-mail with people in the Middle East. Because of the nature of their calls and e-mails, they believe their communications are being intercepted by the NSA under the spying program. The program is disrupting their ability to talk with sources, locate witnesses, conduct scholarship, and engage in advocacy. The program, which was first disclosed by The New York Times on December 16, has sparked national and international furor and has been condemned by lawmakers across the political spectrum.

In addition to the ACLU, the plaintiffs in today’s case are:

Authors and journalists James Bamford, Christopher Hitchens and Tara
McKelvey

Afghanistan scholar Barnett Rubin of New York University’s Center on
International Cooperation and democracy scholar Larry Diamond, a fellow
at the Hoover Institution

Nonprofit advocacy groups NACDL, Greenpeace, and Council on American
Islamic Relations, who joined the lawsuit on behalf of their staff and
membership

“The prohibition against government eavesdropping on American citizens is well-established and crystal clear,” said ACLU Associate Legal Director Ann Beeson, who is lead counsel in ACLU v. NSA. “President Bush’s claim that he is not bound by the law is simply astounding. Our democratic system depends on the rule of law, and not even the president can issue illegal orders that violate Constitutional principles.”

Note special emphasis on this line:

“Because of the nature of their calls and e-mails, they believe their communications are being intercepted by the NSA under the spying program.”

So, while our military fights the good fight, the ACLU are sueing over an inconvenience in its ability to talk to the very people who want to kill us all. Like I said before, the ACLU’s slogan of “Keep America Safe and Free” is an absolute lie. They care more about the imaginary rights of our enemies than any kind of safety for America. They have done absolutely nothing for America’s safety, and everything in their power to fight the efforts to protect America!

The American Civil Liberties Union undoubtedly speaks for someone, but not for the American people nor for the American way of life.

Nor, evidently, for the preservation of American life.

Now this is a crying shame.

Howard Baugh grew up next door to Martin Luther King Jr. and joined the Atlanta Police Department in 1953 as its 12th black recruit. He is a veteran of the civil-rights demonstrations that roiled this city — and of a long struggle against bigotry within the police force itself.

Mr. Baugh, now 81 years old, is still fighting that battle. Together with a group of fellow officers who crossed the color line decades ago, Mr. Baugh is pressing the state of Georgia to grant him the same pension benefits as his white counterparts from that era.

Mr. Baugh and the other African-American retirees say that early in their police careers, they were blocked from participating in a state-backed supplemental retirement fund because of their color. As a result, Mr. Baugh says, he receives about $700 less each month than white officers who signed up. As many as 200 other retired black officers, many in their 70s and 80s, are in the same boat.

There shouldn’t be any kind of an argument here, these guys laid their lives on the line to protect the public, excelled at their jobs and the “powers that be” should find the money to pay them pensions and retirement benefits equal to those of retired white cops.

Of all the liberals to come down against a filibuster to disrupt Judge Alito’s confirmation hearings,

Prospects for a filibuster to try to derail Samuel Alito’s confirmation to the Supreme Court all but died yesterday when a key swing Democrat, Dianne Feinstein, came out against it.

I’ll bet that a lot of sighs of relief were audible on the left side of the aisle when Dianne made that statement — the last thing most of that crowd wanted was a filibuster - nuke option showdown they would have lost, further damaging their already feeble chance of winning any more seats in November.