In God We Trust

Cameron Says:

7 April 2008 at 6:08 am.

More Charlton Heston stuff.

Heston was the regal face of scrappy NRA

By CALVIN WOODWARD, Associated Press Writer Sun Apr 6, 7:23 PM ET

WASHINGTON - As Moses, Charlton Heston thunderously rallied his people with the Ten Commandments in hand. The tablet of his political life was carved with something else — the Second Amendment.

Heston was not just the public face of the gun-rights movement but a good deal of the fire in its belly during a transformational time in the decades-old debate.

He lived to see Democrats running away from a cause they once embraced, scared off by the likelihood that they lost the 2000 presidential election in part because of their gun-control advocacy.

For a conservative champion like Heston, that was pretty close to the Promised Land.

His death Saturday night brought tributes from public figures whose fortunes were linked in some way to his.

President Bush praised his commitment to liberty. Former first lady Nancy Reagan remembered Heston’s long association with her late husband.

Ronald Reagan, like Heston, was an actor who became more conservative over time — fellow strangers to Hollywood’s Democratic mainstream — before walking into an Alzheimer’s twilight.

The most pointed tribute may have come in 2003, when Heston stepped down after five years as president of the National Rifle Association, enfeebled by symptoms of the disease.

“Were it not for your active involvement,” Florida Gov. Jeb Bush told him, “it’s safe to say my brother may not have been president of the United States.”

It was in the 2000 campaign that the NRA went after Democratic candidate Al Gore with a vengeance built up over years of confrontation with the Clinton administration and its “jack-booted government thugs,” as others put it.

The Moses of gun rights may have had too regal a bearing to use such incendiary words. But in attacking a Democrat who favored mandatory photo ID licenses for future handgun buyers, Heston held little else back.

As he had once lifted Moses’ staff in “The Ten Commandments,” Heston held a musket above his head and dared Gore from afar to pry it “from my cold dead hands.”

Gore lost blue-collar votes to Bush in an election so close any setback was perilous.

The key finding from 2000: About half of voters were from gun-owning households, and they voted for Bush by 61 percent to 36 percent. Voters from households without guns backed Gore 58-39.

Ever since, Democrats in presidential and many congressional and governors’ races have scrambled to establish their bona fides as hunters, if they can, or as admirers of firearms or the Second Amendment if they can’t.

After a student shot five people dead and then himself on the campus of Northern Illinois University in February, Democratic presidential rivals Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton asserted their support for the right to bear arms.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080406/ap_on_go_ot/heston_politics;_ylt=Ak6OIBdcnEi50hT2mFRKE_myFz4D

Cameron Says:

7 April 2008 at 11:53 am.

Credit Crisis Adds Millions to D.C.’s Interest Payments

Just as subprime mortgage borrowers were teased into taking out loans they later could not afford when the interest rates spiked, scores of municipalities, schools, hospitals and even museums are now facing soaring interest payments on unconventional bonds that proved too good to be true.

The District has begun paying an extra $1.2 million every month because its interest payments have doubled, and in some cases even tripled, on $601 million of these bonds. That represents nearly one-seventh of the city’s total debt and includes $24 million for the Washington Nationals’ new stadium, the District’s treasurer said. City officials were convinced by investment banks that these types of loans would be safe and cheaper than traditional borrowing.

But the market where these bonds, called auction-rate securities, are bought and sold has collapsed, a victim of the wider credit crisis set off by the meltdown of subprime home loans. That has left public bodies, including some in Maryland and Virginia, facing dramatically higher interest payments.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/06/AR2008040601999.html?wpisrc=newsletter

E.E. Says:

7 April 2008 at 12:17 pm.

Rush just said something I found very smart. The democrats already knew what the Clintons were like but they liked it when it was turned against the conservatives. Now that it is turned against other democrats, they don’t like it. They are scared of the Clintons and are angry that they are damaging the party.

So I picture it like a gang that follows a bully who thinks he is great until he turns and starts bullying his own gang. All along they knew he was a bully and they were wrong to decide to support him in his bullying.

Matt Says:

7 April 2008 at 1:22 pm.

Clinton urges Bush to boycott Beijing Olympics

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton urged President George W. Bush on Monday to boycott the Beijing Olympics opening ceremonies this summer unless China improves human rights.

Clinton, in a statement, cited violent clashes in Tibet and the lack of pressure by China on Sudan to stop “the genocide in Darfur.”

“At this time, and in light of recent events, I believe President Bush should not plan on attending the opening ceremonies in Beijing, absent major changes by the Chinese government,” the New York senator said.

Bush plans to attend the Summer Olympics ceremonies in Beijing in August and so far has resisted pressure to change his plans in response to a violent crackdown against protesters in Tibet by Chinese authorities.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080407/pl_nm/usa_politics_clinton_boycott_dc_3

Benjamin Says:

7 April 2008 at 4:15 pm.

Cameron, that article about the credit crisis hitting cities and such is very disturbing to me. I can’t quite figure out what happens when the government runs out of money. Where do they get more from? Can a city go bankrupt? Seems like living within our means would be very good advice for the government on all levels right now.

Sharon Anderson Says:

7 April 2008 at 11:17 pm.

This ties iin with E.E.’s comment yesterday (Apr. 6) about C & R. the “C & R” document reportedly “states that if the United States defaults on loans and debt underwriting from China, Japan, and Russia, all of which are propping up the United States government financially, and the United States unilaterally cancels the debts, America can expect a war that will have disastrous results for the United States and the world.”

Now for something encouraging: No act of kindness is ever wasted. Today do something special for someone who does not expect it. We can still create some light in our little corner of the world!