Paul
A. Ibbetson is a published author and lecturer on the
Patriot
Act. He is a former Chief of Police of Cherryvale, Kansas, and member
of the Montgomery County Drug Task Force. Paul received his
Bachelor’s
and Master’s degree in Criminal Justice at Wichita State
University,
and is currently completing his PhD. in Sociology at Kansas State
University. Paul is the author of the books “Living Under The
Patriot
Act: Educating A Society” and "Feeding Lions: Sharing the Conservative
Philosophy," (both available for purchase at Paul's own book store
or at Amazon.com,
as well as other major book
outlets) and is the host of the award
winning radio show the “Conscience of Kansas” on
The Wildcat 91.9
f.m. Paul
is a regular
writer for the Conservative Crusader as well
as over 30 other online websites.
Nicole
Matthews from
"People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)
Growing up on a
small family farm in Michigan, Nicole
Matthews was always uncomfortable with the thought of killing
and eating the animals she and her family raised, but she never thought
of questioning the status quo. Later, while working for a veterinarian
and volunteering for a humane society, Matthews attended an animal
rights conference to learn more about spay/neuter programs and stumbled
upon a presentation by a vegetarian artist that forever changed the way
she thinks about animals raised for food. She adopted a vegetarian diet
immediately and moved to Rochester, N.Y., to join Compassionate
Consumers, a farmed-animal advocacy organization.
While attending a protest against KFC, Matthews was reunited with a
dear high school friend—and PETA staffer—and was recruited to
participate in a series of protests outside KFC restaurants throughout
the Southeast U.S. Wearing little more than a yellow bikini and a sign
reading, “KFC Tortures Chicks,” Matthews attracted a tremendous amount
of attention from passersby and the media and was so buoyed by the
protests’ success that she decided to join PETA’s staff full-time.
Today, as the campaign coordinator for PETA’s “Kentucky Fried Cruelty”
campaign, Matthews holds demonstrations across the country to combat
the abuse of chickens by KFC and to urge the company to improve its
animal welfare standards. Thanks largely to Matthews’ efforts, the
company that owns most of the KFC franchises in Canada agreed to
dramatically improve its animal welfare standards and even introduced a
vegetarian “chicken” sandwich to the menu.
Matthews has also participated in PETA’s campaign against Canada’s
annual harp seal hunt. She organized and participated in protests in
Toronto and Ottawa in which she and other activists wore little more
than a banner resembling the Canadian flag that read, “The Naked Truth:
Canada Slaughters Seals.” Photos of the protest ran in newspapers all
around the world. She also cohosts PETA’s “Speak Up for Animals”
workshops to teach activists how to work more effectively.
Matthews’ work in behalf of animals has been featured on Fox News and
Court TV. She recently appeared in the A&E reality show The
Two Coreys with Corey Feldman and Corey Haim, discussing the benefits
of a vegetarian diet with Haim.
Noel
Sheppard is the Associate Editor of NewsBusters as well as a small business owner residing in Northern
California. He is also a contributing
writer to the Business and Media Institute. Noel welcomes feedback at nsheppard at
newsbusters dot org
[you
should know what to do to make that work...]
Previously on the 'Conscience of
Kansas' Radio
Program:
Dr. Meg Meeker,
author of best-selling book: "Boys Should Be Boys"
I recently found myself in the
childhood home of Dwight D.
Eisenhower in Abilene, Kansas. It was a tremendous experience
to hear the creek of the floorboards, to see the handcrafted furniture,
and to feel the texture of the wallpaper (even though that is probably
against the rules for visitors) in the boyhood home of one of the most
important historical figures of the United States. They say that the
Eisenhowers lived on the wrong side of the tracks, but you can't tell
that today. What you can tell, is that the Eisenhower family home was
not a place of extravagant frills, but of family necessity, with a
delicate dash of austere country beauty.
It was from my visit to Abilene,
Kansas, that I thought myself
bold enough to compare the man they called "Ike" to the newest
sensation on the presidential stage, Barack Obama. Some would say that
it is not fair to make the comparison of these two presidents and that
the list of reasons might possibly reach infinity - and to some degree
that's a valid argument. However, there are some situations in the
country now facing Obama that are very similar to those which were
faced by Eisenhower that had defined him as a leader. That is,
the current threats to the national security of the United States, and
the manner in which the President is dealing with them. Let's throw
political parties to the side and talk about what really matters in the
crunch from a leader: experience, judgment, and character.
The United States is once again faced
with a foe that desires
our total destruction. This time the foe is radical Islamic extremists,
and it is here that we see a tremendous separation between the
experience, judgment, and character, of Barack Obama and that of Dwight
D. Eisenhower. Barack Obama seems all too willing to talk to our
enemies about America's wrongdoings, and then appears to be overly
restrained when freedom-seeking people challenge those same
totalitarian regimes. If the same situation of election violence that
has recently taken place in Iran were to have befallen Eisenhower,
would we see the same vague and flaccid statements of condemnation that
have sprung forth from the lips of Obama? I seriously doubt it. In
fact, if we are honest, Eisenhower had probably made more clutch
decisions before becoming President than Barack Obama or most people
have had to make in their entire life.
This is not to say that Eisenhower was
a war hawk, because
that would be far from the truth. Eisenhower had the same distaste for
war that entails most soldiers, but he had a keen eye for sizing up the
enemy. He had celebrated abilities that are entrusted to a special few
that bear the burden of momentous decisions that will affect the
nation, where failure is not an option. It was this kind of tested
judgment, combined with Eisenhower's internal character, which placed
him in the historical position of Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in
World War II. With a humble grace, Eisenhower shined in this harsh war
environment with its extreme pressures that require not only experience
and good judgment, but also the strength of character that comes from
knowing the righteousness of freedom, and the rightness of America.
It is in this arena that Eisenhower
excelled and that, I
believe, Obama will fail us. As Barack Obama spends his precious time
talking about the challenges of the day by noting the shortcomings of
the past administration, Eisenhower went to work. As Obama rubs
shoulders with Hollywood elites and runs the late night talk show
circuit, Eisenhower addressed the bottom line needs of the country. As
Obama triples the country's debt and nationalizes the free market
system, Eisenhower gave us economic prosperity after the bloodiest of
wars.
There is no doubt that Obama would win
an oratory flare
contest against the thirty-fourth President of the United States, and
would most likely come off more flamboyant after an evening of chit
chat with Jay Leno or David Letterman; but when it comes to substance,
and a leader for troubled times, I still like Ike.
Whether it is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Weather Underground, Central Park rapists, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Jim Jones and the
People's Temple, welfare recipients, Palestinian terrorists, murderers,
abortionists, strippers or common criminals -- liberals always take the
side of the enemies of civilization against civilization.
In the view of The New York Times, every criminal trial is a shocking
miscarriage of justice -- except the ones that actually are shocking
miscarriages of justice.
Thus, in last week's Times, Timothy Egan wrote about a shocking
miscarriage of justice being carried out against a "high-spirited"
American girl accused of murder by a crazed prosecutor in Perugia,
Italy.
Egan's column bears as much relationship to the facts of the case as --
well, I guess as anything printed in the Times. And yet every American
news network has embraced Egan's version and is flacking for the
accused.
Amanda Knox, her erstwhile boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, and another
man, Rudy Guede, stand accused of murdering Knox's roommate, Meredith
Kercher, on Nov. 1, 2007, at the house Knox and Kercher shared with two
other girls in Perugia.
Egan triumphantly cites an "outside expert hired by CBS News" who calls
Knox's prosecution, "the railroad job from hell." Egan does not mention
that the "outside investigator" is Paul Ciolino of the "Innocence
Project," whose investigations always seem to conclude that the accused
is being railroaded.
Ciolino's theory of the crime -- adopted unquestioningly by Egan -- is
that the third man, Guede, who has already confessed to the crime,
acted alone.
Despite Ciolino's careful analysis of the evidence, his theory is
contradicted by Guede himself, as well as the coroner and a leading
forensic geneticist, both of whom have testified that Kercher's massive
injuries could only have been inflicted by multiple assailants.
It is also contradicted by the court's 106-page report, released in
January, explaining the judge's reasons for refusing to release Knox
and Sollecito on bail. (continue)
Back when I was on the receiving end of racial discrimination, it was
to me not simply a personal misfortune, or even the
misfortune of a race, it was a moral outrage. But not everyone who went
through such an experience sees it that way.
When it comes to subjecting other people to the same treatment in a
later era, some have no real problem with that. They see it as
pay-back.
One of the many problems of the pay-back approach is that many of the
people who most deserve retribution are no longer alive. You can take
symbolic revenge on people who look like them but this removes the
whole moral element. If it is all right to discriminate today against
individuals who have done you no harm, then why was it wrong to
discriminate against you in the past?
These are not just abstract questions. These are serious, real world
questions, especially when considering someone to be given a lifetime
appointment to the Supreme Court of the United States.
Some judicial nominees have had racial bias attributed to them, despite
their years of unwavering support of civil rights for all-- Judge
Robert Bork and Judge Charles Pickering being striking examples. But
the current Supreme Court nominee is the first in decades to explicitly
introduce racial differences in their own words, along with the claim
that their own racial or ethnic background makes them better qualified.
(continue)
To quote the esteemed Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the chickens that were
hatched in the stimulus package are coming home to roost in the
healthcare proposal.
The budget deficit Obama racked up paying for the massive federal
spending passed in January is having a real economic and political
impact now, forcing the president and his congressional allies into
hard choices as they face his healthcare legislation.
Of course, the prudent thing to do is postpone healthcare changes until
the economy generates some revenues and trims the deficit. But the
socialist in the White House can't do that. He's got to strike while
his congressional majority is hot. So he is forcing his administration
and his party to choose among unpalatable options to finance his
program.
His demand may be a bridge too far, endangering his popularity with the
American people.
First of all, the very fact of a focus on healthcare reform inevitably
stirs discussion of the deficit. Americans are allergic to deficit
spending, and the more the deficit grows, the more they worry. As
interest rates rise and the government finds it increasingly difficult
to borrow enough to cover Obama's massive spending, the economy is
likely to show the negative effects.
It is a matter of a few months, certainly no more, before voters start
to realize that it is the deficit, not the pre-existing conditions
Obama inherited, which is causing the prolongation of the recession.
Already the jump in mortgage rates has slowed the refinancing, which
was the only aspect of the Obama economic program that was working
well.
But the foreign and domestic focus on the deficit has a harsher
political impact: It forces the Democrats to come up with money to fund
healthcare reform. In other words, it makes them raise taxes. The
Democratic Party is good at fooling itself that tax increases don't
matter and are politically palatable, but they do and they are not.
The massive spending healthcare will require dwarfs the capacity for
the rich alone to pay the bill, no matter how confiscatory Obama
chooses to become. Only broader taxes will do the job. Obama faces two
practical choices: a value added tax or taxing health insurance
benefits.
The political harm either way will be enormous. Not only will Obama be
breaking his pledge not to tax the middle class but also he will be
doing so in a particularly pernicious way. If Obama opts for the
value-added tax, Democrats will hope to cloak the increase in the price
of the product. (continue)
Leave voice message!
Abilene, Kansas. It was a tremendous experience
to hear the creek of the floorboards, to see the handcrafted furniture,
and to feel the texture of the wallpaper (even though that is probably
against the rules for visitors) in the boyhood home of one of the most
important historical figures of the United States. They say that the
Eisenhowers lived on the wrong side of the tracks, but you can't tell
that today. What you can tell, is that the Eisenhower family home was
not a place of extravagant frills, but of family necessity, with a
delicate dash of austere country beauty. 
rapists, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Jim Jones and the
People's Temple, welfare recipients, Palestinian terrorists, murderers,
abortionists, strippers or common criminals -- liberals always take the
side of the enemies of civilization against civilization. 
simply a personal misfortune, or even the
misfortune of a race, it was a moral outrage. But not everyone who went
through such an experience sees it that way. 
stimulus package are coming home to roost in the
healthcare proposal. 
