The McLaughlin Group---ALERT

This weekend, The McLaughlin Group switches networks for viewers in the New York and Washington areas. In New York, the show will no longer be seen on Sunday mornings at 11:30am ET on NBC. Instead, it will be seen on Sunday mornings at 11am ET on CBS (Channel 2). In Washington, the show will be seen at its usual time (11:30am ET) but on CBS (Channel 9). Viewers in the rest of the country will see the show as usual on PBS. Please tune in for the most freewheeling and fun Sunday morning show. You can go to www.mclaughlin.com for more show and station information.

Comments

[gringoman]

Cara Mia,

'Things fall apart, the center cannot hold....' (Didn't WB Yeats sound the alarm?) And now look....

The Rodham of Clinton goes on 'right-wing conspiracy' Fox News with O'Reilly.

Media icon Don Imus, still sheltered in foxhole with his race-hustling tormenter Reverend Tawana Sharpton, endorses 'Satan' (The Rodham) over Charisma Barry (while saying he'll still vote for John McCain.)

The increasingly deranged Democrats and progressives hope to convince someone that the unpopular Georgie Bush is running against their black proggie or their female proggie in 2008.

Our new member of GAB (Gringo Advisory Board), gringoBro, an Obama stalwart (and admirer of that 'fine Monica Crowley,') does not want to open up "a Chinee fortune cookie that say, 'USA, Game Over.'"

Georgie Bush's Great Black Hope, Condy Rice, has ordered a politically correct gag on the State Department: NO mention of Jihad OR Islamic terrorist OR anything else that will offend the muslims. (Entire U.S. Government must and will follow suit, exactly like the Euro pc-ers.)

Suggested 2-minute topic or question for the McLaughlin Group this Sunday:

John McCain still dares to say ISLAMIC terror:

Question: In light of enormous pressure from muslims, Saudi gold dinars, Free Trade Republican wussies doing Sheikh deals, Free Trade Democratic dhimmis doing Sheikh deals, and the media's cowardly little Christian bashers, how much longer will Johnny Boy stand firm?

www.gringoman.com
Escaping Politically Correct

[FredK2929]

Anyone else notice that Jack is gone? Is that why I've been getting so much attention here?

[gringoman]

"Anyone else notice that Jack is gone."

Some may have a problem with your syntax. Like his next of kin.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

A more garnished version of the gringoman post in this thread, addressed to Cara Mia, and with link to the BUSH-RICE MANDATE, is now at http://www.gringoman.com/ entitled WHEN WILL MCCAIN BUCKLE?

[beachbum]

Happy Bithday(5/3) to MARTY!!! 90 years young and still tellin' it like it is. Enjoy your day with your sons and family.

[Michael Avari]

Obama is looking more like the conservative candidate in contrast to a gestating McCain-Clinton (or the other way) alliance.

Obama is standing his ground on the ill-advised gas tax moratorium proposed by the other two. There is no economic, foreign, environmental, or energy policy reason for such a proposal. Were Kemp, Graham, Forbes all absent when McCain concocted this one? And of course Hillary had to trump him by proposing to confiscate private (oil) company profits to pay for the tax rebate. Sounds eerily like a government forced wealth redistribution scheme: a classic Socialist idea.

And hidden deep in the bowels of The Wall Street Journal this week was this jewel: Obama says most family problems are a result of poor parenting and are not conducive to government solutions.

[M/M]

MARTY!!!! It was such a treat to hear Marty call Monica on Easter weekend. I hope he calls Monica's show tomorrow so Monica can wish him a Happy 90th Birthday from all his fans.

[SteveOk]

I just watched the Group and it was an excellent show this week. I really enjoyed the debate on Rev. Jeremiah Wright and B. Obama. My take on this incident with Rev. Wright is that it has hurt the Obama campaign more than anyone is saying. I believe Obama cannot come back from this incident, I believe he is finished as a candidate. This upcoming Primary in Indiana and N. Carolina could tell the tale, if Hillary upset Obama in N. Carolina Obama is finished.

Another important issue is the recent Supreme Court decision on Identification and voting. It's a common sense idea for bringing order and organization to the voting process. There has to be efforts to prevent voter fraud to protect our right to vote. I elections can be manipulated by voter fraud, then our right to vote becomes meaningless.

Fashion update: loved the soft yellow color and the hair style is great. I appreciate the classy demeanor that you maintain throughout the debate (even when Eleanor is screaming like a nut), however when Eleanor was talking about her nutty views on the ID Card and voting you looked like you could throw-up.

It was a great show this week.

[Truther]

Even Richard Nixon understood that the government ought to address an unequal distribution of wealth : bad for the economy and social stability, and also, there is a need for an umbrella for those who lose out in the economic "competition", that are on the bottom, until they can reorient their lives. This is a valid role for government, although this can be taken too far.

The problem is often one of proper regulation, to keep costs of a government program within reasonable limits. This is also the case of large government handouts to corporations, cost overruns on government contracts, earmarks, windfall profits, unending wars etc,

The purpose of allowing people to accumulate wealth is not to create an elite class, but rather the idea is that the "superior" individuals presumably gain, and they are therefore more able to lead society toward a stronger future. What of these days of the wealthy, removing the wealth they gain in our society, bolstered by our values, and investing in foreign lands, lead by Communists? This is a breakdown of our system.

[Truther]

A Great redistribution of wealth, that is not obtained by legitimate competition, is reclaimable. Hence, windfall profits from oil companies are reclaimable. Profits obtained through technical innovation would not be. Basically, they obtained this because of the political environment in the Middle East, and there is no role other than purchase of the crude.

Since huge profits are connected with Chinese trade, there ought to be a claim to these also. So far I haven't heard any proposal to that effect. There is no innovation there, just exploitation of cheap labor.

[Michael Avari]

Truther,

Who decides what is an "unqual distribution of wealth"? Would we entrust these matters to government? It is government that distorts markets by subsidies, lack of antitrust diligence (was there really a justification for Mobil and Exxon to merge?), regulations that discourage the production of replacement products (domestic oil for foreign oil), regulations that discourage the production of supplementary products (nuclear for oil), and bad foreign policy (raising the risk premium on importing oil through the Strait of Hormuz by waging an illegitimate war).

The price of oil is something we can't control, only supply and demand. To bring the price down, increase supply, or reduce demand, or both. Redistributing profits from an oil company to give $35 this summer to subsidize SUV drivers might make even Nixon cringe.

Cheers,

[gringoman]

MICHAEL AVARI,

Of course you're right about the populist demogoguing of "Big Oil," which even Bill O'Reilly does. But you have an unfair advantage, being arguably the only one on this site, not to mention the media in general, who actually knows how business actually works.

You would know, for example, that Exxon's profit margin is lower than that of most corporations.

You would know that Exxon has virtually nothing to do with the price of oil, which is set by supply and demand and in this case also the rotting dollar.

You would know that the dim demogogues are usually the very ones against drilling at Anwar etc which would have put an added 1 million barrels on the market today.

You would understand the stupidity of a windfall profits tax that would

(1) cause an increase in price at gas pump

(2) raise logical point: if Exxon gets taxed for windall "profit," why should it not get windfall "welfare" for those unpredictable times when revenue tanks?

Unfortunately, Michael, I failed to see where you cited the "intelligent" Barack Obama for his position on "the capitalists": TAX THEIR BUTTS, AND GOOD. Our colleague at GAB, gringoBro, cheers on his man Barry for this. I suspect you do not.

You don't like to hear his real middle name mentioned. So how about Barack Windfall Obama?

ps The polished Obama did talk some sense about blacks facing up to their own derelict sense of responsibility and family. You say it was "buried" in the WSJ. But so much of the liberal MSM is obviously anxious to give Obama all the Affirmative Action they can. Ergo, why are they not doing more to ram home this significant point---will US blacks ever get off the Slave Meme and take responsibility for themselves? Or, since this gets aired so little, is the question: what does this "blackout" tell us about the Democrats and the "anit-racist" Liberal Mind and what gringoVision (even if no one else) calls their neo-Plantation?

[Truther]

These noncompetitive companies, have windfall profits. Huge amounts of capital. As they told Bush : "We want to be filthy rich.". As Bush told them : "Okay, you are filthy rich, now what do you want?" There is nothing to regulate the oil profits other than the government. Exxon is better than other companies because it invests in the talent of its employees, and gouges less. But .. hey, they are all doing very, very well. As companies go, they make alot of money/employee. They are streamlined, almost robotic operations. Those tankers are as large as they can be made, and be driven safely. These excessive profits should be taken and provided to create incentives/supports for energy alternatives. One problem is : the oil companies pay for the entire state operations in Texas. Why should we all pay for that?

The same argument applies to the Chinese manufacturing as does oil. They have established monopolies by virtue of no labor costs. If a domestic company hired volunteer retirees to drop its prices and sink its domestic competition, would not there be complaints? Would that be legal? The only throttle on prices from China is our government. From the large illicit profits they have allowed, we should expect to recover excessive profits from companies that styme all domestic competition, in order to give domestic operations a chance. This makes innovation possible, and energizes our economy.

[Truther]

Just imagine if we could buy directly from the Chinese - we could buy almost everything for almost nothing. There would be very little need for capital, at all.

[M/M]

Monica brought up O'Reilly's interview with Hillary on "The O'Reilly Factor" and how Hillary tapped danced around her response to Bill's question concerning "the fairness of FOX News".

Here is O'Reilly:

"Now, final question. Are you surprised — and you've got to tell me the truth here. You're looking me in the eye, so I'm going to believe you. Are you surprised that FOX News has been fairer to you than NBC News and a lot of the other liberal news networks? Are you surprised?"

CLINTON: I wouldn't expect anything less than a fair and balanced coverage of my campaign.

O'REILLY: Now, I know you're being a little — but really, aren't you surprised?

CLINTON: Well, I have — you know, look, I am not a pundit or a commentator. I will leave that to you.

O'REILLY: But they hammer you every single night.

CLINTON: You know, that comes with the territory.

O'REILLY: I know, but aren't you surprised?

CLINTON: This is — I'm running for the toughest job in the world. And it goes with the territory.

O'REILLY: So you're not going to tell me whether you're surprised.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,353759,00.html

Monica played a cut from Reverend Wright's "Chickens Coming Home to Roost Sermon" on her show and I would like to point out that even Reverend Wright admitted that he watches Fox News in the now infamous sermon.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/comments?type=story&id=4719157

"I heard Ambassador Peck on an interview yesterday, did anybody else see him or hear him? He was on Fox News, this is a white man, and he was upsetting the Fox News commentators to no end. He pointed out, did you see him John, a white man, and he pointed out, an ambassador, that what Malcolm X said when he got silenced by Elijah Mohammed was in fact true, America's chickens…are coming home to roost."

[M/M]

Monica is discussing media bias and she is also interviewing Deirdre Imus, wife of Don Imus. Deirdre is discussing her new book:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1416541241?ie=UTF8&tag=thimti-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1416541241

Remember last year at this time, Obama said:

"I understand MSNBC has suspended Mr. Imus," Obama told ABC News, "but I would also say that there's nobody on my staff who would still be working for me if they made a comment like that about anybody of any ethnic group. And I would hope that NBC ends up having that same attitude."

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=3031317&page=1

[M/M]

Fred here is a really great example of why "liberalism is a mental disorder" and why many of us HATE "The View". Below they are discussing Reverend Wright's description of Italians. Don't you just love Joy Behar? Liberal bias????

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/justin-mccarthy/2008/03/28/joy-behar-rev-wrights-anti-italian-slurs-compliment

[M/M]

Here is another great example of a "wacked out" liberal.

At last year's meeting of the DNC, I mean the Emmys, Sally field gave this speech "where she said "If mothers ruled the world, there would be no gd wars".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImoMGyJjWIk

I would like to point out that we have a mother running for President and she seems to be AGGRESSIVELY attacking the other candidate. What did Hillary say about Iran again?

[Michael Avari]

Gringoman and Truther,

Exxon Mobil’s (XOM) gross profit decline to 42% in 2007 from 63% in 1998. If there was evidence of price gouging or windfall these figures would have been reversed. Taxing “obscene” profits (unfortunately the First Amendment only protects pornographic obscenities, not the kind that comes from hard work, investment, and risk taking) hurts whom? … Anyone who owns their stock: retirement plans, mutual funds, insurance companies, and direct shareholders. If I owned shares in XOM, I’d be pretty upset if government tried to take some of my company’s (my) money to give it back to my company’s customer.

On the other hand $18 billion in oil tax subsidies should be repealed, as should subsidies on Ethanol which is one factor raising food prices. These were designed to encourage companies to take risky bets on oil exploration in North America (as well as other bets), but now the market needs to take care of that. We should instead open up the Continental Shelf for exploration. If the oil companies don’t reinvest or look for ways to sustain their companies after oil, as Rockefeller’s own descendents want XOM to do, the shareholders will take action. Government disrupting this intriguing dance would only make matters worse, not to mention boring!

I would go the other way: repeal the corporate tax and instead tax dividends and capital gains at the same rate as earned income. This would have the effect of simultaneously ending double taxation and some of the Bush tax cuts—-which might be appealing to a broad base. If McCain picked up on this and includes the flat tax, no one could accuse him of running as Bush III. More importantly it makes for good economic policy.

As for Chinese trade, I agree it has to be fair, but must remain free. There is nothing wrong with companies seeking lower labor costs. Not to do so penalizes the consumer. As long we don’t want to pay $5000 for a flat panel TV, demand for low cost labor content will be high. The fair part has to come by imposing consumer protection laws, preventing dumping, and so on, to level the playing field. Tariffs are just another name for taxes.

Gringoman/Bro – Obama’s remarks were not just aimed at back families. Whites can be bad parents too!

Cheers,

[gringoman]

From MICHAEL AVARI:

Gringoman/Bro – Obama’s remarks were not just aimed at back families. Whites can be bad parents too!

Michael,

I suspect that everyone knows that whites can be bad parents too. I don't know if that will console blacks in their present social calamity.

The quality of parenting is certainly important, but not the point under focus. The point was more about the fact of ANY parenting.

There's another fact that's becoming widely known in this era of New Media:
Since the liberals' Great Society, begun under Democratic president Johnson, blacks without fathers have gone from 40% to 70%. And it's been aided and abetted for decades by the kind of politics that nourished the guy from Hawaii and Jakarta, Mr. Obama, who was profoundly fortunate enough to get excellent white family support after his own African father flew the coop.

(Incidentally, this remark is not aimed just at blacks and their politicians. It is aimed even more at white politicians and their enablers, especially the ones who are ready to yell "racist" at anyone who gets in their "progressive" way.

Andale,

[FredK2929]

Clearly your parents were pretty bad, Gringoman.

Oh no! I got personal! Time to call me a "Marxist", right?

[gringoman]

MICHAEL AVARI,

(I'll leave FrK to you, if you don't mind. Good luck with the parenting.)

Here is another, possibly brand new reason for "progressives" (and maybe Rockefeller Republicans)to love BHO. He is sponsoring a bill in the US Senate which will tax Americans to support--- not their own poor, which they already do--- but now the world's poor too.

http://www.cfiflistmanager.org/globalpovertyact1nm.html

[Ummah Gummah]

I was reading this intersting and substative thread.. and then K-Fred has to come and ruin it all with yet another one-line polemic.

How truly sad indeed.. all that liberals can do is destroy.

Reminds me of moslems.

[FredK2929]

Have a sense of humor much, Ummah?

[Michael Avari]

G-man,

I completely agree with you that the Great Society was un-Great for blacks. I think Obama knows this but cannot say it for fear of disturbing the delicate illusions of the left. However, he lives the opposite each day--educated, independent thinking, predilection toward personal responsibility. He may not be presidential material, but he embodies the paradigm for blacks--and others--to elevate themselves. Which is why I believe we should not be too harsh with him about some bad choices he made in life (like Wright). He has made and is trying to make many good choices. I think as he matures, he might even be attracted to Conservatism (admittedly wishful thinking on my part stemming from my Catholic belief in the redemption of all mankind). I believe Gingrich believes the same, which is why he tried to engage Obama in an intellectual dialogue about race after the Philly speech.

Here is another thing to ponder: the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) is authorized at 1 billion barrels. It is 70% filled. We import 1.6 million barrels per day from Saudi Arabia. Others in the top five exporters are Canada, Mexico, Nigeria, and Venezuela, ... all non-Mid East ... and No. 6 is ... Iraq, which we control. Therefore, if we really wanted to jaw-bone OPEC to increase production or decrease their price we could threaten to open the valve on the SPR and not buy oil from the Saudis for nearly two years.

This is what we need leadership for.

Oops. I ended that in a preposition. As Churchill is reputed to have said, "That is the kind English up with I shall not put."

Cheers,

[Michael Avari]

G-Man/Bro, Ummah, Fred, Truther,

On the issue of world poverty, Obama is saying nothing new, but could be saying something interesting: suppose we took all foreign aid and said to our benefactors, "Fend for yourselves now in this thriving world, free trade economy." and instead gave that sum to the truly needy. Yes, it is a liberal idea, but liberals have good ideas too. What is happening in Darfur is not as tragic as our great nation doing nothing to alleviate their suffering.

Regards,

[Michael Avari]

beneficiaries ... not benefactors

sorry

[M/M]

$770 million of our tax dollars will be used to assist with the global food crisis. I want to point out that part of the reason we have a global food crisis is due to the use of ethanol:

"Global food prices rose 43% between March of last year and this year, Edward P. Lazear, chairman of the president's Council of Economic Advisors, said in a conference call with reporters. He blamed the jump on the rising demand for food, higher energy costs, bad weather and the growing use of ethanol, which is made from corn."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-bush2-2008may02,0,3808125.story

I like the idea of using Iraqi oil to assist us with in dealing with this oil crisis. I heard on one of my radio shows that Kuwait paid us back for the expense of assisting them in the first Gulf War, but the Iraqis are not assisting us economically.

Savage proposed a brilliant idea on his radio show. Instead of GIVING blanket amnesty to each illegal alien, how about asking Mexico for a barrel of oil each illegal alien? I've not heard that Canadians are coming into this country illegally, but perhaps there is something we can negotiate with them? Both these countries are part of NAFTA, isn't there something that we can trade with them for oil other than our jobs?

It seems the situation in Darfur comes down to oil too because China imports 80% of its oil from Sudan. The link below is old, but it does seem to explain the problems the US and UN are encountering in relieving the crisis in Darfur.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/29/AR2007012901686.html

[M/M]

Isn't this a nice, uplifting story?

"I am not a stranger to your country because the national hero of Poland, Pope Karol Wojtyla, is my spiritual brother," Agca said, referring to John Paul by his other name."

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/02/europe/EU-GEN-Turkey-Pope-Gunman.php

[Ree]

M/M

Sunday morning snort...Malkin reporting on the real cause of illegal alien unrest.

http://michellemalkin.com/2008/05/03/my-immigrant-vagina-is-angry-and-other-militant-may-day-moments/

[Ree]

Monica,

http://www.myspace.com/getoffmyphone