The Scrutinator

From Harry Stein's How I Accidentally Joined the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy (and Found Inner Peace):

What most ex-radicals still cannot see is that in trashing the university [during student protests of the '60's & '70's] they weren't noble or heroic, but childish and narcissistic--that, for all of their professions of building something new and better, they were mainly interested in tearing down.

Harry Stein speaks first hand as a '60's protester.

By The Scrutinator @ 9:21 AM  ::  1 comments

Ryan H. Sager at Tech Central Station takes a startling look at the campaign finance reform legislation. This is a must read.

In September of 2000, less than two years before the passage of McCain-Feingold, the liberal magazine The American Prospect put out a special issue devoted to campaign-finance reform. It was called, "Checkbook Democracy." And it was bought and paid for with a $132,000 check from the liberal Carnegie Corporation of New York, which has spent millions of dollars promoting laws to restrict political speech -- a fact the magazine never disclosed to its readers.

Read the whole thing.

Though he's probably trying to carefully pick his fight(s), I'd have to take exception at the AFL-CIO as a non-partisan group.

Hat-tip: Instapundit

By The Scrutinator @ 4:47 PM  ::  0 comments

I saw on the Fox News crawl that the United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC) is judging on Kuwaiti POW's murdered and buried in mass graves after the 1991 Gulf War. I haven't been able to find a perma-link to the story, or any other info for that matter...still looking.

Here are two backgrounders:

• ICRC's Update of 14-01-2003
• Kuwait's National Committee For Missing & Prisoners Of War Affairs - Kuwait.

Here are some relevant words from UN Security Council Resolution 687, the cease-fire that ended the 1991 Gulf War.

(G) 30. Decides that, in furtherance of its commitment to facilitate the repatriation of all Kuwaiti and third country nationals, Iraq shall extend all necessary cooperation to the International Committee of the Red Cross, providing lists of such persons, facilitating the access of the International Committee of the Red Cross to all such persons wherever located or detained and facilitating the search by the International Committee of the Red Cross for those Kuwaiti and third country nationals still unaccounted for;
...
(I) 33. Declares that, upon official notification by Iraq to the Secretary-General and to the Security Council of its acceptance of the provisions above, a formal cease-fire is effective between Iraq and Kuwait and the Member States cooperating with Kuwait in accordance with resolution 678 (1990);

Update: Here's the Reuters AlertNet article dated 08-Mar-2005

Bodies of the missing Kuwaitis have been found in mass graves since the fall of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, ending more than a decade of uncertainty for their loved ones.

By The Scrutinator @ 8:55 PM  ::  0 comments

[Nazi madness] was what Bonhoeffer had to face. And as he said, it was not a case just of a deluded, vainglorious Germany. A sick man was in charge of a sick nation in a sick world.

From A Third Testament, by Malcom Muggeridge.

Lest you think I'm making some analogy between Nazi Germany and the US and our current leaders: I'm not.

I'm noting that Bonhoeffer's entire world was sick. Our entire world is sick today. "Sick men in charge of sick nations" describes the UN's bribe-taking nations pretty well, as well as "Democidal" regimes like North Korea and China.

And our sick world placidly sits by.

By The Scrutinator @ 9:55 PM  ::  0 comments

Hugh Hewitt brings to light North Korea extreme human rights abuses. Here are some important links.

• Extreme Starvation
• US Committee for Human Rights in North Korea
• US News & World Report's Article (Available now for purchase only.)
• Statistics on North Korea's "Democide" (i.e., mass-murder by a government against its population).
• MSNBC's "Death, terror in N. Korea gulag"
• Chosun Journal,
• Freedom House on North Korea
• PowerLine's analysis
• State Department's Report

By The Scrutinator @ 8:36 PM  ::  2 comments

Progress For America's Social Security reform ad distills the issue better than anything else I've seen. Here's the text (transcribed by me):

It took courage to create Social Security. [FDR:] "This Social Security measure..." It'll take courage and leadership to protect it. Once, 16 workers supported 1 retiree [1950]. But when today's workers retire, only 2 workers will support 1 retiree. Washington must strengthen Social Security. No changes for those at or near retirement. But younger workers should have the option of a personal savings account. Call Congress today. Urge them to strengthen Social Security...for everyone.

16-to-1 in 1950, 2-to-1 when our kids retire. Is that true? Annenberg's FactCheck.org looks into this very ad, and finds...

Where it states facts, the PFA ad gets it essentially right. ... To be strictly accurate the ad should have said "beneficiaries" instead of "retirees." ... But the central point is quite true -- demographic trends make it certain that the current system cannot be maintained without increasing taxes or cutting the growth of future benefits.

So the ad stands to scrutiny. For more info, see SSA's own publications, The Future of Social Security, and the 2004 Trustees Report, particularly the conclusion.

By The Scrutinator @ 10:38 PM  ::  0 comments

Former liberals and radicals like Cinnamon Stillwell bring some of the best perspective on today's left.

Hat-tip: Two Minute Offense

By The Scrutinator @ 9:49 PM  ::  0 comments