The Rivett Report 07.10.06

Posted by Joe Rivett on 07.10.2006

All The Non North Korean News You Need To Start Your Day...

I just got back from a week in Orlando and I have a new email address at [e-mail]. Feel free to email me there especially if you tried to send anything about the PBS vs. Fox column. Now for the sixth installment of the Rivett Report.

Who Needs Physical Education When You Can Have Physical Science?

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush on Saturday urged the Senate to back increased government spending on basic scientific research.

The proposal is part of Bush's initiative to boost U.S. competitiveness in the global marketplace through innovation. He also wants to train thousands of new science and math teachers and extend a popular tax credit businesses can receive for investing in research and development. The total price tag over 10 years would be $136 billion.

Some Democrats have expressed concern that Bush is increasing federal math and science education spending while cutting overall discretionary spending on education by trimming money in areas such as the arts, parent-resource centers and drug-free schools.

But Bush said in his weekly radio address that his proposals are vital for America to "remain an innovative nation that competes with confidence" and would help ensure that every U.S. child has the math and science skills needed for the jobs of the future.

He said the Senate should follow the House's lead and approve full funding of the basic research component of his initiative, which would double federal spending on basic research in the physical sciences.
The president also put a rosy spin on a new jobs report that showed U.S. employers added a disappointing 121,000 jobs last month.

The count of new jobs added to the economy in June did mark an improvement from the 92,000 new positions logged in May -- the fewest in seven months. But it still fell short of economists' forecasts for an increase of around 175,000.

The April-to-June average of 108,000 jobs a month also was down from the average of 176,000 a month for the previous quarter. The moderation in job growth comes as companies cope with rising energy prices and interest rates and try to determine how much of a slowdown in overall economic activity the country is likely to encounter in the months ahead.

Still, Bush celebrated 34 straight months of job increases.

"Our economic expansion is lifting the lives of millions of Americans," he said.
Democrats focused on the tepid nature of the growth, noting it was smaller than needed to keep up with population increases.

"Instead of doing something to address sky-high gas prices, expensive loans and outsourced jobs, this president is holding photo ops touting his policies that are failing small businesses," said Sen. John Kerry, D-Massachusetts.

A couple things cross my mind when I read this story. First, math and science are more important than other courses, (And this is coming from a History teacher). Anyone can do history, all one needs to do is be able to read. Math and Science are far more useful and difficult. Each is more important than the Democrats claims of diverting money from drug education. Secondly, adding 100,000 jobs to the economy sucks because you need to add a certain amount to keep up with population increase. The most important economical statistic is income not jobs. Lastly, somebody needs to ask John Kerry why he is more outspoken now than he was between 2000-2003.

A Conservative Conservative

Of all the 34 Senators the amendment's supporters wish they had had on their side, Mitch McConnell is surely the top of their list. McConnell, the Senate Republican Whip, is normally in charge of herding the GOP agenda through the Senate. On this issue, though, with the thinnest of margins, the conservative Kentuckian has been on the other side of the wire.

McConnell took a classically conservative position on the amendment. He argued that Senators have to make a choice: protect the flag, which is a symbol of freedom, or protect the constitution, which is the literal source of American freedoms. In a recent editorial, McConnell wrote, "The First Amendment, which protects our freedom of speech, is the most precious part of the Bill of Rights. As disgusting as the ideas expressed by those who would burn the flag are, they remain protected by the First Amendment."

Though he was only one of three Republicans against the amendment, McConnell was lying low in the debate, declining to combine his whipping skills with those of his nemesis, Dick Durbin of Illinois, who was rallying Democratic opponents of the Amendment. Supporters were not quite so delicate with him. At a Flag Day celebration earlier this month attended by Senator Majority Leader Bill Frist and Kentucky's other Senator, Jim Bunning, for example, backers trotted out Miss America 2000, Heather French Henry, former Miss America and wife of Kentucky's Democratic Lieutenant Governor, who singled McConnell out and asked him "to help protect our flag."

Despite such treacly gambits, McConnell didn't bend, so amendment supporters were forced to target centrist Democrats in the hope of making up their one-vote deficit. But none of the ones they were eyeing — Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Kent Conrad of North Dakota and Maria Cantwell of Washington — flipped. Even if they could have gotten one of them to change his or her position, it might not have mattered. Senate Republican aides believe that as many as a dozen self-proclaimed amendment supporters privately opposed the flag burning amendment and were only supporting it for political gain. If the Amendment were to have actually passed, the aides predicted, those same politicians would have voted their conscience, dooming the flag-burning amendment on the Senate floor.

Any true conservative that has a conservative (strict constructionist) view of the constitution understands burning the flag is free speech. Even Antonin Scalia believes that it is a form of political protest when he voted that a flag burning law was unconstitutional. This is also my litmus test for how I vote in the fall. If any of my representatives voted for this awful amendment they will not receive my vote because the most important issue to me is the first amendment which has made this country the greatest on earth.

Ann Coulter Is A Copycat

The New York Post and the Web sites Raw Story and the Rude Pundit have raised numerous questions about Coulter's columns, which appear in more than 100 newspapers, and her best-selling "Godless," already notorious for the author's calling four 9/11 widows, who supported Democrat John Kerry for president in 2004, "harpies" thriving on their husbands' demise.

Kerr said that the press syndicate had not discussed the allegations with Coulter, who was not immediately available for comment Friday. The publisher of "Godless," the Crown Publishing Group, issued a statement saying it had reviewed the "the allegations of plagiarism" in her book and "found them to be as trivial and meritless as they are irresponsible."

"As an experienced author and attorney, Ms. Coulter knows when attribution is appropriate, as underscored by the 19 pages and hundreds of endnotes contained in 'Godless,"' Crown's senior vice president and publisher, Steve Ross, said in the statement.

In "Godless," Coulter writes:

"The massive Dickey-Lincoln Dam, a $227 million hydroelectric project proposed on upper St. John River in Maine, was halted by the discovery of the Furbish lousewort, a plant previously believed to be extinct."
An article that ran in 1999 in Maine's Portland-Press Herald contains the following passage:
"The massive Dickey-Lincoln Dam, a $227 million hydroelectric project proposed on upper St. John River, is halted by the discovery of the Furbish lousewort, a plant believed to be extinct."

In a newspaper column that ran in 2005, Coulter wrote of Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter:
"As New Hampshire attorney general in 1977, Souter opposed the repeal of an 1848 state law that made abortion a crime even though Roe v. Wade had made it irrelevant, predicting that if the law were repealed, New Hampshire 'would become the abortion mill of the United States."'

A Los Angeles Times article from 1990 noted: "In 1977, Souter as state attorney general spoke out against a proposed repeal of an 1848 state law that made abortion a crime — even though the measure had been largely invalidated by the Supreme Court in Roe. vs. Wade ... 'Quite apart from the fact that I don't think unlimited abortions ought to be allowed ... I presume we would become the abortion mill of the United States(.)"'

Coulter's career has rarely suffered despite numerous questions about her accuracy and her pitiless remarks about political opponents, including an open wish for the bombing of The New York Times building. An exception was in 2001, soon after the Sept. 11 attacks, when Coulter was fired by the conservative National Review Online for writing about the hijackers: "We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity."

Coulter's latest controversy includes a high-tech twist. TheNew York Post enlisted the Berkeley, Calif.-based iParadigms to run the author's material through its iThenticate software program, a web-based plagiarism detection system.

As I tell my students: "Just because you footnote it doesn't mean you can copy it," also applies to Ann Coulter. This is particularly bad considering she is an Ivy League elitist lawyer. This just proves that not only is she heartless but she is thoughtless too.

Headlines

BIDEN FORCED TO EXPLAIN COMMENT ABOUT INDIAN AMERICANS – Fox News

Apparently, Joe Biden cracked a joke that you can't go into a Seven Eleven without seeing an Indian American in his state of Delaware. After making this stupid comment, Biden's staff acknowledged that Indian-Americans contribute in far diverse ways to the economy especially in the high tech and medical fields. I really do not understand why Biden thinks he is presidential material. He's smart but he fails to realize you need to be likeable to be nationally elected.

I HAVE HERE IN MY POCKET THE NAMES OF 200 CARD-CARRYING TERRORISTS AT THE NEW YORK TIMES – LostNation.tv

This head line came about because Representative Peter King from New York thinks that the editors should be slapped with treason for exposing a government secret. What scares me is what Peter King went on to say after that: "Most of the Muslim community is cooperating with police and local authorities. But 85 percent of the mosques have extremist leadership in this country." I just want to know where the fuck did he come up with that number? If that number was true, there would be a lot more terrorist problems in the US.

IN LESS THAN TWO MONTHS CINDY SHEEHAN MAY BE DEAD – Josh White 411 Politics

I think my favorite thing about Josh's columns is that I can just see him spending a half hour coming up with a funny title. If people judged books by their cover, Josh could make a fortune. In addition, he refers to his readers as "my followers" which makes me smile every time. My thoughts on Cindy are this: I could care less if she dies or gets real hungry.

Preview of the Individualist

Tune in as I'll be commenting on the Lieberman vs. Lamont campaign.