Tidbits From Boortz

Boortz THE FREE RIDE CONTINUES A federal judge in Louisiana has ordered that FEMA continue to provide free hotel rooms for Katrina evacuees until at least February 7th. In his ruling Judge Stanwood Duvall wrote "it is unimaginable what anxiety and misery these erratic and bizarre vacillations by FEMA have caused the victims, all of whom, for at least one point in time, had the very real fear of being without shelter for Christmas." FEMA -- or, more accurately --- the American taxpayers are currently paying for 41,000 hotel rooms in 47 states and the District of Columbia. You will find some ... and let's emphasize the some ... evacuees in these hotel rooms who have been working to find a job and to become self sufficient. Some. Damned few, in fact. For the most part these are people who lived a parasitic lifestyle in New Orleans, and they have just spread their welfare mentality to the rest of the country. They will continue to live off the taxpayers until they are forced to get out there and fend for themselves ... and there are "activists" aplenty who will work diligently to make sure that day never arrives. IGNORANCE This Vent appeared in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution this morning: "Our Constitution gives us the right of free speech, but it does not say you will not face the consequences of your words." I know that this is tough to grasp, especially since you weren't taught this in our government schools, but the Constitution does not "give" us any rights. The Constitution protects our rights ... rights that were ours by virtue of our very existence before the Constitution was ever drafted. Remember, what the government gives you, the government can take away. Don't feel bad though. Bill Clinton repeatedly made the same mistake while he was in the Oral Office. The president should know better. BELIEVE IT WHEN YOU SEE IT Leaders of more than 50 Muslim countries met in Mecca, Saudi Arabia and promised to fight Islamic extremism. [Organization of the Islamic Summit] They say they're going to reform textbooks, restrict religious edicts and crack down on terrorism financing. It sounds nice, but I don't think we should hold our breath on this one. So what's behind the lip service? Two things. One, the bombing by Al-Qaeda in Jordan last month. Seems King Abdullah found that one a little too close for comfort. So he's pushing to combat Islamic extremism. Perhaps now that these countries are experiencing a little Islamic terrorism on their own, they'll do something about it. But the second reason you're hearing a different tone from the Middle East is Iraq. Despite what they may see on Al-Jazeera and read in the anti-American international media, these thugs see what happened to Saddam Hussein. He's sitting in a cage in jail, evidently wearing the same pair of underwear for a week. Not good. They know that if they don't fall in line on cracking down on terrorism, that George W. Bush just might be coming for them. That's what Khadafi thought. All of this sounds good, but things will be right back to business as usual soon enough. Islam remains a violent religion, and those in charge will continue to look the other way when it comes to terrorism and killing Americans. It's just the order of things over there. THE WORLD'S SAVIOR .. THE UNITED NATIONS The UN has a little annual celebration ... and yesterday was the day. It was the annual celebration of UN solidarity with the Palestinian people. Kofi was there .... quite a deal! And there on the stage, flanking Kofi Annan, was the Palestinian flag and the UN Flag. Behind Kofi the Korrupt was a map of Palestine! Small problem though. The map of Palestine included Israel. Israel wasn't shown. It was gone. Wiped, shall we say, off the face of this UN map. OK .. a question. A couple of questions. Democrats tend to support the UN, and Republicans tend to oppose the policies of the UN, right? Right! The UN is and has traditionally been hostile to Israel, right? Right again! Jews are somewhat fond of Israel, right? Yup! And Jews overwhelmingly vote for Democrats, right? Right again! OK ... now would someone please explain all this to me? THE FINAL DEPARTURE Let the recriminations begin! Unless you just woke up from a 24-hour nap, you've no doubt heard about what went on down in Miami yesterday with American Airlines flight 924. The plane was on a stopover from Colombia to Orlando. It was during that time that 44-year-old U.S. citizen Rigoberto Alpizar decided to board an airplane and announce he had a bomb. After that, he disobeyed a direct order from two air marshals to stop and lay down. Then he appeared to reach into his backpack which marked the official end of the line and the beginning of the eternal celestial dirt nap for Rigoberto Alpizar. The air marshals did what they were trained to do. They did what they were supposed to do. They did what they had to do. They shot him. DRT. A search afterward revealed no bomb. His wife was shouting that he was mentally ill and off his medication...too bad. It is a tragedy for his family, but we live in times where airline security has to be absolute. If you have a family member suffering from mental problems, make damned sure they're on their medications if you're going to put them on a commercial airplane. This "he's not taking his medications" thing was just a bit late. The airplane he was on can hold 180 passengers. It is the responsibility of air marshals to get those people where they are going safely. When you have someone who says they have a bomb, the threat has to be neutralized, and it was. These marshals didn't have the time to administer an ink blot test to Alpizar. They didn't have the time to call in a grief counselor from the nearest government school. They had to act. They had reason to believe that Alpizar had a bomb. He told them he had a bomb. At that point they acted just the way any rational person would expect and demand that they act. They neutralized the threat. Remember...on 9/11, the passengers of the hijacked planes were scared not of the box cutters that the Islamic hijackers used, but of their threat of having a bomb. There was no bomb then either, yet 3,000 people died anyway. And so Rigoberto Alpizar is dead. In retrospect that's sad. But there is nobody to blame for this except Alpizar, for not taking his meds, and his wife, for not making sure he did. Already, though, we have the condescending, sneering questions from the media. Since no bomb was found, they're insinuating that the shooting wasn't justified. He was bipolar, we're told, and wasn't responsible for his actions. Wrong on all counts. The lives of the people on board that plane are more important than the personal problems of any one passenger. One particularly insipid remark I'm hearing is "why didn't they Taser him?" Taser? You have a man with a suspected bomb, and he's reaching into his backpack to presumably detonate that bomb, and you want to shock him? You think that he wouldn't have time to pull that detonation trigger if you stick electric needles into his leg? Come on, folks. Grow up here! So they took him out. One Democratic congressman put it best yesterday. Ed Markey, who is on the Homeland Security Committee, praised the actions of the air marshal: "Air marshals put their lives on the line every day to keep us safe. Thanks to the efforts of an alert air marshal, an individual was prevented from causing a potentially dangerous situation on the American Airlines flight that could have harmed passengers and crew members." For once, Ed Markey gets it right. MORE TAX CUTS Perhaps there is still hope for the Republican congress. The House passed three tax cuts yesterday and are looking to put through a fourth today. Yes...you read that right...tax cuts. This is fabulous news. The Senate will probably kill it, but hey, we can enjoy the possibility, right? The cuts would amount to $94.5 billion over 5 years. The tax cuts are for the hurricane-affected areas, investors, U.S. troops, and taxpayers who pay the ridiculous alternative minimum tax. So what's not to like? Well, as usual, Democrats, the media and some weak-kneed "Republicans" are wringing their hands over how to "pay for" these tax cuts. They say it will run up the deficit. You see, to them, their philosophy is that all of your money belongs to them, and it is only through their generosity do you get to keep any of it. Never mind cutting spending, either. It's all about increasing revenues. Government spending has almost doubled since Bush was elected in 2000 ... and the can't afford to get rid of the Alternative Minimum Tax? This is an outrage. These politicians are always so willing to take more money from you, but just suggest that we take some money away from their grandiose vote-buying spending bills and they act like you're killing babies! Time for a plug. All of this nonsense would go away if the FairTax proposal were adopted. Everyone would be treated the same, and the only tax cut to worry about would be lowering the actual rate. Imagine that! ANTI-MILITARY COLLEGES The Supreme Court is considering the question of whether or not the U.S. Government can withhold federal funds from colleges and universities that bar military recruiters from campuses. The campuses say that they bar the military recruiters because the military discriminates against homosexuals. I'm not buying it. These campuses aren't barring the military because of any discrimination issue. They're trying to bar military recruiters because of an overwhelming hatred of those in uniform .. a hatred shared by many institutions on the left. If they're private colleges, let them bar who they will ... but not with taxpayers' dollars. AND THIS PERSON MAY WELL VOTE As you know, I make it a habit to peruse the "Vent" feature of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution every day. Here is a reader comment that appeared in today's edition: There needs to be a "wealth" filter for civil service. Anybody worth more than $500,000 cannot serve in any government post. Oh yeah, that's just brilliant. Our governments are multi-billion dollar operations, and we need to restrict those who we entrust with spending and managing these sums to people who can't manage to acquire over $500,000 in net worth. Let us know how that works for you. SEND IN THE CLOWNS The Hurricane Katrina blame game has officially begun. You didn't think this one was going to be swept under the rug, did you? Yesterday hearings began and residents of New Orleans were invited to testify in front of the House....and oh what a spectacle it was. Among the complaints of the victims of Hurricane Katrina: * Racism was to blame for the slow response to Hurricane Katrina. * They compared themselves to victims of genocide and victims of the Holocaust. One congressman pointed out the lack of gas chambers in New Orleans, to no avail. * "Community Activist" Leah Hodges said that victims of the flood died of "abject neglect." I thought they died from the flood? And if they did perish from neglect, whose fault is that? * In what has to be one of the more telling statements, 53-year-old New Orleans resident Patricia Thompson said she knew it was racism. Her proof? "Yes, it was an issue of race. Because of one thing: when the city had pretty much been evacuated, the people that were left there mostly was black." Par for the course. It's always someone else's fault. Perhaps the people who followed the evacuation order and left town didn't have to worry about being left behind, because they actually left. With a few exceptions, those who stayed behind did so because they were waiting for the welfare state to take care of them, just as they have all their lives. Once again, the Great Society kills, sucking the individualism and self-sufficiency right out of the human spirit. The nonsense continued...one clown testified that the levees were bombed, repeating the Louis Farrakhan lie. To their credit, a few Congressmen said they simply did not believe those testifying. But that caused our favorite little jihadist in Congress, Georgia's embarrassment Cynthia Al-McKinney to speak up. Speaking of the non-existent racism, she said "Racism is something we don't like to talk about, but we have to acknowledge it. And the world saw the effects of American-style racism in the drama as it was outplayed by the Katrina survivors." People living in the 4th district should be so proud. The facts are the facts: the main reason the Katrina response was botched was because the Mayor of New Orleans and the Governor of Louisiana botched it. This was a Democratic operation, and they screwed it up. Did FEMA come up short? Absolutely! But by and large, this one lies squarely at the feet of the state and local officials. IN THE MEANTIME, THERE'S RAMSEY CLARK Anti-American, leftist icon Ramsey Clark is now in charge of the defense of Saddam Hussein. Clark is spouting the line that he's there to make sure that Saddam gets a fair trail. Not so. Clark's true goal is to make sure that Saddam is not tried at all. Lyndon Johnson's former Attorney General will work diligently day by day to make sure that Saddam's trial is disrupted as often as possible. I wonder if Ramsey is keeping in touch with Howard Dean as the rescue of Saddam continues apace. NOT PREPARED FOR TERRORISM The still-useless 9/11 Commission has weighed in on the progress we as a country have made since Islamic terrorists murdered 3,000 innocent people on September 11, 2001. [related: 9/11 Public Discourse Project] Their verdict? Tom Keane, the former chairman of that committee, appeared on Meet The Press yesterday and said that "A lot of the things we need to do really to prevent another 9/11 just simply aren't being done by the president or by the Congress. What we're concerned about now is that these recommendations -- four years, more than four years after 9/11, are still not being done. People are not paying attention to them." Well, he may be right. People may well not be paying attention to the 9/11 Commission recommendations. And just why would that be? Could it possibly be due to the fact that there hasn't been another terrorist attack? The dangerous truth is that Americans have simply forgotten about 9/11 and have returned to their September 10th complacency. Ironically, it was the Democratic chairman of the commission that nailed that on the head. Lee Hamilton said that another attack will occur...not a question of if, but when. You can take that to the bank. All it will take is a single Islamic extremist toting a dirty bomb into a busy downtown during lunch time or a crowded sporting event and detonating it. Hundreds of thousands of people could be made ill or die. Maybe the next attack will be another attack on an American airliner. Not from the inside, but from the outside. Did you hear that the pilot of an American Airlines Flight bound for Chicago told controllers last month that a missile had been fired at his aircraft on departure from LAX ... and missed. The pilot said he saw a smoke trail pass by the cockpit. Now .. get this. The FBI is saying it might have been a bottle rocket. Yeah ---- that's it. A bottle rocket. Airline pilots are extremely cautious about reporting any strange incidents in flight. They don't like the paperwork. They don't like the whispers that "So-and-so is seeing UFOs." If a pilot says he saw a missile smoke trail by his window, I'm predisposed to believe him. Bottle rocket? No way. Remember .. it's not if. It's when. DID YOU KNOW ... ... that there is a proposal out there under which no company may develop or sell any software for your computer unless and until that software has been approved by the U.S. Federal government, more particularly the FBI. The goal here is to guarantee to the intelligence services a way to get into your computer through some back door should they ever desire to do so. This is called freedom, in case you didn't know.