Looking for a great source for quoting McCain, Obama, and other political figures to set the record straight? Look no further than the Library Of Unified Information Sources (LOUIS), a project of the Sunlight Foundation. This database gathers in one place all text of the following "documents":

• Congressional Reports
• Congressional Record
• Congressional Hearings
• Federal Register
• Presidential Documents
• GAO Reports
• Congressional Bills & Resolutions

Although it's not yet finished, it does contain a surprising amount of info for a beta. I was disappointed, however, that a search for "UFO" didn't turn up the answers I had hoped for. :)

Labels: Congress, federal, LOUIS, president, search

Bulldog Reporter announces that Fox News is pulling head of CNN again after the latter had a brief respite from a six year slump in the popularity of its news content. MSNBC continues at a sad and distant third.

Now, I don't know that Fox news coverage, integrity, blah, blah, blah is all that much better in quality that CNN's. But it certainly is different in terms of its bias. All news is biased because all news is reported by humans and all humans are biased.

Furthermore, we tend to associate with those who most share our interests and worldviews, so it follows that a network that is built of reporters who associate on conservative worldviews is going to be conservative. Likewise for a liberal network.

And that's okay. That's what the First Amendment was meant to protect. On the dark side of things, with Obama a serious contender for the presidency and a Democrat-controlled congress, the Fairness Doctrine looms on the horizon. For a peek at how scary the Left is becoming in their fanatical thinking about reinstating this outdated and poorly conceived idea, see here.

Labels: censorship, cnn, democrats, Fairness Doctrine, Fox News, Liberals, Obama, ratings

This week, as we celebrate the fourth of July and the signing of the Declaration of Independence, I took the time to actually read the Declaration itself. The Declaration’s wisdom is self-evident, although its prudence at the time was far from certain. The full scope of the historical context eludes me, but its expression of principles seems as relevant today as it must have then.

Many times we stop at the profound enunciation of equality among men as the singular achievement of the document. After having read the Declaration again, this view seems to be incomplete at best. The statement that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights” is but a preface to the larger point of the Declaration: “That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” The Declaration continues on describing how and when the governed have the right and obligation to change the form of government under which they live.

The Declaration of Independence carries no legal force today. Our rights, or more properly the rights of our government, derive from the Constitution. Still, the Declaration is properly held out as one of the bases of our understanding of the purpose and nature of government. Jefferson states that “it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish [the government], and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.” Jefferson adds that prudence and experience should serve as our guides in altering, or abolishing as was their case, the government.

Given these principles, it is right to look at the present government and assess whether it effects our “Safety and Happiness” and whether it secures our natural rights to “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Particularly relevant are those measures, provisions, and candidates that are on the upcoming ballot. Experience and prudence should be our guide.

Equally important is our right to rebuke the courts. Several court decisions at both the state and federal level have either rejected the will of the people or created law out of pure whim. However, the final word on any matter rests with the people. We should not passively submit while judges dispense law inconsistent with the will of the people, much in the same way the king did at the time of the Revolutionary War. We can find common ground in the revolutionary mantra of "taxation without representation" with current programs and rights that have come without representation: same-sex marriage, enemy combatant habeus corpus rights, etc. We should likewise reject this kind of judicial despotism like our ancestors did to despotism in their time.

What makes this relevant to this blog is that these are the kinds of principles our man Mitt espoused. Last year at this time he said:

For more than two centuries, the United States has stood for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Our freedoms have not been easily won. Today, brave men and women are fighting to preserve those freedoms. As we gather with friends and family, let us resolve to keep America strong. We will always be the hope of the world and a beacon of light to liberty-loving people everywhere.

It appears Obama has bought in to all the hype about himself. Hopefully Americans will recognize the tall poppy for who he is.

(see this press release from the NOAA)

Ocean Levels Suddenly Receding; Global Warming Trends Reverse Overnight

The NOAA is pleased to announce that Global Warming is no more! As dawn broke on Wednesday, June 4, 2008 it was clear that something had changed. No doubt the events of the previous evening had something to do with the sudden turnaround in global temperatures and the assurance that we can now all sleep in peace instead of 5 feet of water.

Satellite photos taken at various intervals overnight saw a dramatic decrease in global temperatures originating from St. Paul, Minnesota and slowly creeping out to the rest of the earth, indeed, the entire universe. NOAA experts have a good idea what caused the incredible change in our eco-doom scenarios, but our non-partisan efforts require us to walk carefully upon this disclosure. We can only claim this scientific fact: OBAMA ROCKS!

As President-elect Obama declared on Tuesday evening: "this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal." Indeed.

FOXNews.com has the story here:

Obama's New Pastor Issue

Priest apologizes for mocking Clinton

Rev. Michael Pfleger says he regrets fiery sermon at Obama's church; Dem frontrunner calls sermon 'disappointing'

Below is the YouTube of Pfleger's rant at Obama's church this past Sunday:

Governor Romney had this message for Memorial Day last year.

Boston, MA – Today, Governor Mitt Romney issued the following statement on Memorial Day:

“On this Memorial Day, we recommit ourselves to honoring the memory of all those brave men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice for their country so that others may live in liberty. Their bravery is a legacy that no American should ever forget. While we honor those who have fallen for their country, our thoughts and prayers are with the men and women currently serving across the globe. They are Americans doing extraordinary things so that our country can be free. We are forever grateful to them.”