Brucekelly.com

New Stuff

noreply@blogger.com (Bruce Kelly) — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 01:21:00 +0000

Sorry for not posting lately. Upon returning from South Korea I landed a new job that I’m mostly unqualified for (yes, my new employer is aware of this) and I’ve been doing a lot of traveling and training.

Because I haven’t posted anything since the election I do want to back up a bit and say that I hope we all can support our new president. Let’s not act like those frothy mouthed, mad dog liberals. I am encouraged by most of his cabinet appointments so far and as long as we can keep taxes under control we should get through this okay.

To that end I’ve decided to take a new direction with this blog and spend more time discussing tax and economic policy. The best way to reduce the size of an increasingly intrusive and bloated government is to stop sending so many of our hard earned dollars to Washington. I think it’s obvious by now that much of what we pay in taxes is simply wasted on things that we don't need.

And, because I probably won't be able to post for a while longer, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

Black Liberation Theology

noreply@blogger.com (Bruce Kelly) — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 18:53:00 +0000

The story of "Black Liberation Theology" from Little Green Footballs.

Senator Barack Obama spent over twenty years at the church of reverend Jeremiah Wright. Obama credits reverend Wright with introducing him to his Christian faith; but, what does that really mean?

Visit 1000sundays.com to learn more.

Obama's Tax Mathemagic

noreply@blogger.com (Bruce Kelly) — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 19:46:00 +0000

By Kim Strassell - WSJ.com

And now, America, we introduce the Great Obama! The world's most gifted political magician! A thing of wonder. A thing of awe. Just watch him defy politics, economics, even gravity! (And hold your applause until the end, please.)

To kick off our show tonight, Mr. Obama will give 95% of American working families a tax cut, even though 40% of Americans today don't pay income taxes! How can our star enact such mathemagic? How can he "cut" zero? Abracadabra! It's called a "refundable tax credit." It involves the federal government taking money from those who do pay taxes, and writing checks to those who don't. Yes, yes, in the real world this is known as "welfare," but please try not to ruin the show.

For his next trick, the Great Obama will jumpstart the economy, and he'll do it by raising taxes on the very businesses that are today adrift in a financial tsunami! That will include all those among the top 1% of taxpayers who are in fact small-business owners, and the nation's biggest employers who currently pay some of the highest corporate tax rates in the developed world. Mr. Obama will, with a flick of his fingers, show them how to create more jobs with less money. It's simple, really. He has a wand.

Read the rest of the article here...

Here's a related video where Senator Obama tells a tax-burdened plumber that his plan is to "Spread the Wealth Around."

Investors Fear Socialism

noreply@blogger.com (Bruce Kelly) — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 16:37:00 +0000

From Investors Business Daily

The freeze-up of the financial system - and government's seeming inability to thaw it out - are a main concern, no doubt. But more people are also starting to look across the valley, as they say, at what's in store once this crisis passes.

And right now it looks like the U.S., which built the mightiest, most prosperous economy the world has ever known, is about to turn its back on the free-enterprise system that made it all possible.

It isn't only that the most anti-capitalist politician ever nominated by a major party is favored to take the White House. It's that he'll also have a filibuster-proof Congress led by politicians who are almost as liberal.

Throw in a media establishment dedicated to the implementation of a liberal agenda, and the smothering of dissent wherever it arises, and it's no wonder panic has set in.

What is that agenda? It starts with a tax system right out of Marx: A massive redistribution of income - from each according to his ability, to each according to his need - all in the name of "neighborliness," "patriotism," "fairness" and "justice."

It continues with a call for a new world order that turns its back on free trade, has no problem with government controlling the means of production, imposes global taxes to support continents where our interests are negligible, signs on to climate treaties that will sap billions more in U.S. productivity and wealth, and institutes an authoritarian health care system that will strip Americans' freedoms and run up costs.

All the while, it ensures that nothing - absolutely nothing - will be done to secure a sufficient, terror-proof supply of our economic lifeblood - oil - a resource we'll need much more of in the years ahead.

You can read the rest here...

Let me remind you of this exchange between Barack Obama and Charlie Gibson during the Democratic debate in Philadelphia back in April of 2008.

GIBSON: In each instance, when the capital gains tax dropped, revenues from the tax increased. The government took in more money. And in the 1980s, when the tax was increased to 28 percent, the revenues went down. So why raise it at all, especially given the fact that 100 million people in this country own stock and would be affected?

OBAMA: Well, Charlie, what I've said is that I would look at raising the capital gains tax for purposes of fairness.

You see, it's not about increasing revenues to the Treasury, it's about Marxism, wealth redistribution, and punishing those that make whatever Barack Obama believes is too much money.

Dear Mr. Obama

noreply@blogger.com (Bruce Kelly) — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 02:34:00 +0000

I received this from iVoteRight just as I was leaving South Korea and this is the first chance I've had to post it. It speaks for itself... now please excuse me. I have something in both of my eyes.

Cleaned Links Page 09/28/08

noreply@blogger.com (Bruce Kelly) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 02:32:00 +0000

I've cleaned out the main links page to include only sites that reciprocate. If you don't have a link to Brucekelly.com your site is still listed in the appropriate links category (conservative blogs, conservative websites, etc). If I've made a mistake and you should be on the main conservative links page please let me know. Thanks to everyone supporting this site with a link, it's greatly appreciated.

I'll be hitting the road again (airports actually) so updates and posts will few to non-existent for a couple of weeks.

Watching The Debates Online

noreply@blogger.com (Bruce Kelly) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 00:37:00 +0000

I'm in Korea without a TV so I watched the first presidential debates online via the FOX News Live Stream. Bret Baier hosted The Strategy Room with a panel of three commentators Mystery Science Theater 3000 style (I wonder how many people actually know what MST3K is considering it went off the air about 10 years ago). It was great. I applaud what FOXNews is doing online and I wish they would do more of it.

Oh... the debate, it was good and McCain won.

Cleaning Out the Links Page

noreply@blogger.com (Bruce Kelly) — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 13:57:00 +0000

I'll be cleaning out the main conservative links page this weekend. If you don't have a link to my site or if your site is no more, your link will be dropped from this page. You'll still be listed in the catagory pages (conservative blogs, conservative websites, etc.) but I keep the main links page for reciprocal links and new additions.

I'm usually pretty slack about this but I've noticed that a lot of old friends and very good sites like FouseSquawk, Churchills Parrot, Neoconstant, We Vote Right, Cristy Li, On The wRite Side, CrossAction News (and the list goes on and on, see what I mean?) have slipped down to the bottom. I need to fix that.

So if your going to link... link.

Media Campaigns for Obama

noreply@blogger.com (Bruce Kelly) — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 20:03:00 +0000

From RealClearPolitics - Tony Blankley (and found at Powerline)

While they have been liberal and blinkered in their worldview for decades, in 2007-08, for the first time, the major media consciously are covering for one candidate for president and consciously are knifing the other. This is no longer journalism; it is simply propaganda.

[...]

But worse than all the unfair and distorted reporting and image projecting are the shocking gaps in Obama's life that are not reported at all. The major media simply have not reported on Obama's two years at New York's Columbia University, where, among other things, he lived a mere quarter-mile from former terrorist Bill Ayers. Later, they both ended up as neighbors and associates in Chicago. Obama denies more than a passing relationship with Ayers. Should the media be curious? In only two weeks, the media have focused on all the colleges Gov. Palin has attended, her husband's driving habits 20 years ago, and the close criticism of the political opponents Gov. Palin had when she was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska.

Read the full article here...

FBI Investigates Financial Institutions

noreply@blogger.com (Bruce Kelly) — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 00:17:00 +0000

From FOXBusiness.com

The FBI is investigating four major U.S. financial institutions whose collapse helped trigger a $700 billion bailout plan by the Bush administration.

Two law enforcement officials said the FBI is looking at potential fraud by mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers and American International Group Inc.

A senior law enforcement official says the inquiries, still in preliminary stages, will focus on the financial institutions and the individuals that ran them.

Update: Jim Angle of FOX News reports on who's resposible for the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac meltdown.

Update: From Powerline - 2003 NY Times article on proposed reforms to Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac.

Update: From Newsbusters - 1999 NY Times Article Revealed True Cause of Current Fannie Mae Crises.

I think any reasonable person (those that can read) should have a clear idea how we got ourselves into this situation.

Facts on the Financial Crisis

noreply@blogger.com (Bruce Kelly) — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 00:48:00 +0000

From News Busters

Since the current financial crisis is taking place under a Republican administration it is easy for people to automatically blame Republicans. The media have happily pushed this misconception too. Facts the media ignore are things such as the very groundwork for today’s problems being rooted in legislation created by Jimmy Carter , or that in 2003 President Bush proposed “the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis that was blocked by Democrats on party lines. However, the media don’t report these very important and significant facts and so it is no wonder that the GOP takes the brunt of the blame in this recent CNN poll.

Read the rest here...

Fannie and Freddie Meltdown

noreply@blogger.com (Bruce Kelly) — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 22:42:00 +0000

From Investor's Business Daily Editorials

Clinton-era corruption, combined with unprecedented catering to affordable-housing lobbyists, resulted in today's nationalization of both Fannie and Freddie, a move that is expected to cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars.

And the worst is far from over. By the time it is, we'll all be paying for Clinton's social experiment, one that Obama hopes to trump with a whole new round of meddling in the housing and jobs markets. In fact, the social experiment Obama has planned could dwarf both the Great Society and New Deal in size and scope.

There's a political root cause to this mess that we ignore at our peril. If we blame the wrong culprits, we'll learn the wrong lessons. And taxpayers will be on the hook for even larger bailouts down the road.

But the government-can-do-no-wrong crowd just doesn't get it. They won't acknowledge the law of unintended consequences from well-meaning, if misguided, acts.

Obama and Democrats on the Hill think even more regulation and more interference in the market will solve the problem their policies helped cause. For now, unarmed by the historic record, conventional wisdom is buying into their blame-business-first rhetoric and bigger-government solutions.

While government arguably has a role in helping low-income folks buy a home, Clinton went overboard by strong-arming lenders with tougher and tougher regulations, which only led to lenders taking on hundreds of billions in subprime bilge.

Market failure? Hardly. Once again, this crisis has government's fingerprints all over it.

Read the entire article...

And now you want the government to run the healthcare system?

McCartney to Perform in Israel Despite Threats

noreply@blogger.com (Bruce Kelly) — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 23:25:00 +0000

From FOXNews.com

Former Beatle Paul McCartney will go ahead with his concert set for later this month in Israel despite being labeled "an enemy of all Muslims" and a possible terror target, the U.K.’s Daily Express reported Sunday.

Way to go Paul, you were always my favorite Beatle. I just may have to buy an album, I mean CD, I mean download some music.

Free Speech, Islam and the UN

noreply@blogger.com (Bruce Kelly) — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 14:00:00 +0000

Found at Samizdata.net

Pat Condell engages in a little "disdain and contempt speech" on Islam and the UN. "Islam is as Islam does."

Charles on Charlie

noreply@blogger.com (Bruce Kelly) — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 05:50:00 +0000

Charles Krauthammer on Charlie Gibson's interpretation of the Bush Doctrine during the Sarah Palin interview.

Actually, because I found this over at Little Green Footballs, the title should be, "Charles on Charlie from Charles."

Charlie Gibson's Gaffe
By Charles Krauthammer

"At times visibly nervous . . . Ms. Palin most visibly stumbled when she was asked by Mr. Gibson if she agreed with the Bush doctrine. Ms. Palin did not seem to know what he was talking about. Mr. Gibson, sounding like an impatient teacher, informed her that it meant the right of 'anticipatory self-defense.' "

-- New York Times, Sept. 12

Informed her? Rubbish.

The New York Times got it wrong. And Charlie Gibson got it wrong.

There is no single meaning of the Bush doctrine. In fact, there have been four distinct meanings, each one succeeding another over the eight years of this administration -- and the one Charlie Gibson cited is not the one in common usage today. It is utterly different.

You can read the rest here.

Charles Krauthammer should know something about the Bush Doctrine, he is credited with having coined the term.

On a somewhat related note Ace of Spades has exclusive video of the DNC War Room after the interview. Warning, extreme foul language (it is Ace of Spades after all). This is the funniest thing I've seen in awhile.

Never Forget

noreply@blogger.com (Bruce Kelly) — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 15:11:00 +0000

September 11 News.com - The 9/11 Terrorist Attack on America. September 11, 2001 News Archives in pictures and newspapers from the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Sliming Sarah

noreply@blogger.com (Bruce Kelly) — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 23:20:00 +0000

From The Annenberg Public Policy Center's FactCheck.org

We’ve been flooded for the past few days with queries about dubious Internet postings and mass e-mail messages making claims about McCain’s running mate, Gov. Palin. We find that many are completely false, or misleading.

Palin did not cut funding for special needs education in Alaska by 62 percent. She didn’t cut it at all. In fact, she tripled per-pupil funding over just three years.

She did not demand that books be banned from the Wasilla library. Some of the books on a widely circulated list were not even in print at the time. The librarian has said Palin asked a "What if?" question, but the librarian continued in her job through most of Palin's first term.

She was never a member of the Alaskan Independence Party, a group that wants Alaskans to vote on whether they wish to secede from the United States. She’s been registered as a Republican since May 1982.

Palin never endorsed or supported Pat Buchanan for president. She once wore a Buchanan button as a "courtesy" when he visited Wasilla, but shortly afterward she was appointed to co-chair of the campaign of Steve Forbes in the state.

Palin has not pushed for teaching creationism in Alaska's schools. She has said that students should be allowed to "debate both sides" of the evolution question, but she also said creationism "doesn't have to be part of the curriculum."

You can read the entire article here.

Online Republican National Convention Coverage

noreply@blogger.com (Bruce Kelly) — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 23:44:00 +0000

Fox News has the same setup for the Republican National Convention as they did for the DNC. Here are the links to Election HQ and the direct live steam.

When Muslims Are Offended

noreply@blogger.com (Bruce Kelly) — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 05:05:00 +0000

Found at Gates of Vienna

Online Democratic National Convention Coverage

noreply@blogger.com (Bruce Kelly) — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 07:35:00 +0000

Although I was lucky enough to escape from Denver before the DNC I do want to keep up with the goings on -- not an easy trick when your living in Seoul, South Korea without a TV.

Fortunately I've found two good online news sources. Little Green Footballs, PJ Media and Zombie are working together to cover the convention and FOX News has a pretty good live cam setup. Scroll down the page for the link.

And here's a live cam outside the Denver Civic Center so you can watch the riots in real time.

What The Big Blogs Do

noreply@blogger.com (Bruce Kelly) — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 23:59:00 +0000

Here's an interesting article from Smashing Magazine on the layout and design of the 50 most popular blogs - A Small Design Study Of Big Blogs.

It's a good read for any blogger, here's part two.

Terrorism Myths Debunked

noreply@blogger.com (Bruce Kelly) — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 07:33:00 +0000

From Common Sense and Wonder

Independent research debunks one of the Democratic Party's favorite talking points about the global consequences of the war in Iraq.

Armed with government statistics showing a big increase in terrorist attacks since 2002, Democrats routinely assert that President Bush ignited a firestorm of terrorism throughout the Muslim world when he sent troops into Iraq. The claim and the statistics are used to illustrate what Democrats see as the foolishness of the president's belief that toppling Saddam Hussein's regime would reduce instability in the Middle East and eliminate a major potential source of terrorism.

A survey released in May by a Canadian university proves that the statistics paint a distorted picture of terrorism outside the borders of Iraq.

Fareed Zakaria, a columnist for Newsweek, praised Simon Fraser University for producing "a well-researched, independent analysis of the data relating to terrorism." The analysis shows that, excluding civilian casualties in Iraq, deaths caused by terrorism have declined by more than 40 percent since 2001.

It "makes no sense" to count civilian casualties in a war zone as deaths caused by terrorism, Mr. Zakaria wrote. Since the mid-1990s, thousands of civilians have been killed in war zones in other countries around the world, and those victims weren't counted as casualties related to terrorism.

Perhaps the most telling statistic is the 65 percent decline in terrorist attacks since 2004. Al-Qaida-initiated attacks peaked in 2004, but Osama bin Laden and his followers haven't been able to sustain the carnage.

The Simon Fraser study attributes the sharp decrease in terrorist attacks to effective counterterrorism operations, discord among the jihadists and an "extraordinary drop in support for Islamist terror organizations in the Muslim world over the past five years." Read the rest...

You can read Fareed Zakaria's Newsweek column here.
The Simon Fraser University press release is here.

What surprises me is that this press release is dated May 21, 2008 and I haven't heard anything about it until now. The Democratic party's Department of Propeganda (the American news media) is doing a fine job.

Why the Left is Unpatriotic

noreply@blogger.com (Bruce Kelly) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 07:18:00 +0000

Why the Left is Unpatriotic and Why the Right Should Say So
By Larrey Anderson of American Thinker

Most conservative political commentators tiptoe around the unpatriotic positions maintained by many liberals in America. We hear prominent conservatives say things like this, "I am not challenging Mr. Liberal's patriotism. I am challenging his point of view."

The fact is that much of the new left is unpatriotic. And that is okay. The Founding Fathers knew that not all Americans would be patriots; in fact, they counted on it. In this article I will show why the culture of the left is not patriotic. My basic contention is that patriotism is now the responsibility of the right -- abandoned by the left. I will use stories and photographs from this year's Oregon Country Fair to help make the point.

Read the rest here.

Paris Hilton for President

noreply@blogger.com (Bruce Kelly) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 02:22:00 +0000

Nice energy policy.

Saddam Hussein's Nukes

noreply@blogger.com (Bruce Kelly) — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 11:18:00 +0000

By Investors's Business Daily

Hear about the 550 metric tons of yellowcake uranium found in Iraq? No? Why should you? It doesn't fit the media's neat story line that Saddam Hussein's Iraq posed no nuclear threat when we invaded in 2003.

It's a little known fact that, after invading Iraq in 2003, the U.S. found massive amounts of uranium yellowcake, the stuff that can be refined into nuclear weapons or nuclear fuel, at a facility in Tuwaitha outside of Baghdad.

In recent weeks, the U.S. secretly has helped the Iraqi government ship it all to Canada, where it was bought by a Canadian company for further processing into nuclear fuel - thus keeping it from potential use by terrorists or unsavory regimes in the region.

This has been virtually ignored by the mainstream media. Yet, as the AP reported, this marks a "significant step toward closing the books on Saddam's nuclear legacy."

Seems to us this should be big news.

Seems like. Read the full story here.