The election the media failed to report, and feminists failed to notice

             With the mainstream media (MSM) in hurricane mode since early September, you may have missed the news out of Afghanistan—free elections. Women voted too. Prior to the US's liberation, women were not allowed to show their face in public. Under the Taliban, women had no rights. They were not allowed to attend school. They were 'things'. You’d think feminists would be rallying around the president for the advancement of women’s rights in Afghanistan. But the silence has, so far, been deafening. Instead, the media is swooning over Cindy Sheehan. I am tired of America's critics characterizing the spread of democracy as US Imperialism or “America imposing its will on the world.” If I were to stand on a busy street corner in New York City and hand out $100 bills, would anyone accuse me of imposing my money on someone else? Freedom is not something that is imposed. Freedom was recognized by our Founding Fathers as a gift from God. Liberty, wrote Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence, is an unalienable right, granted to humanity by the Creator. America's form of government guarantees it will always remain that way. Let’s hope the people of Afghanistan will have the courage to hold on to what we have helped deliver to them at so great a cost.  

MSM indirectly complicit in terrorist attacks?

             Is it me or has anyone else noticed a direct correlation of the diminishing of terrorist attacks in Iraq with the increase of killer hurricanes in the US? During Katrina's onslaught, the headlines of car bombs in Iraq on Yahoo's home page suddenly disappeared. Then on September 14, as if to make up for the inattention of the mainstream media, a huge attack was launched in Baghdad's Kadhimiya neighborhood that killed 150 Iraqis. With Rita bearing down on Texas, again, all became eerily quiet on the Eastern front. Certainly terrorists rely on publicity to enhance their terror. But the American MSM's obsession with the negative—its focus on reporting car bomb attacks as the sole news in Iraq—coupled with its penchant to ignore the good news in the region may be unintentionally encouraging al Qaeda.

 MSM Still Getting it Wrong on Tax Cuts

             Once again, liberals wasted no time seizing the opportunity to disparage President Bush’s tax cuts, blaming them for the ballooning deficit in the face of financing the war in Iraq, Afghanistan and now, rebuilding the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast. Were they challenged by members of the MSM?—No, of course not. But the facts show the president’s tax cuts had the exact opposite effect. The Wall Street Journal recently reported the amount of additional revenue that the federal government will collect in the fiscal year that ends this month is $262 billion, a roughly 15% increase. “This is the largest annual increase in federal revenues, even after inflation, in American history. And it had reduced this year's federal budget deficit—before Katrina—by more than $100 billion, to about 2.7% of GDP, or close to the modern average.” The reason cited for the increase of revenues flowing into the Treasury Department’s coffers is “the lower tax rates on capital and income. Since they passed in 2003, the economy has grown at an average rate of roughly 4%, the stock market has recovered most of what it lost when the tech and dot-com bubbles burst, and some four million more Americans are working and paying taxes. All of this has helped fill federal coffers and will also help offset the cost of  Katrina.” n  

Gregory J. Rummo is a businessman and writer. Contact him through his website, GregRummo.com.