Sen. Inhofe lauds global warming kid's book

Sen. James Inhofe praised our children's book The Sky's Not Falling: Why It's OK to Chill about Global Warming in a speech on the Senate floor today. He also used a blow-up of the book's front cover as a backdrop for his remarks:

A video of Sen. Inhofe's speech is embedded below. His comments on the book begin around the 6:30 mark.



You can also read his press release for further quotes and links to additional excerpts.

Random wins Tony Blair's memoir

Random House's Knopf won the bidding war for North American rights to the former PM's memoirs. Knopf also published Bill Clinton's megalomaniacal My Life a few years back. The price tag for Blair's worldwide rights was a hefty $9 million advance. Random's Hutchison imprint will simultaneously publish the book in the UK. No pub date has been set.

California wildfires rage on, trigger political debate

The sky over Los Angeles is a smokey haze, and the noontime sunlight filtering through it has the orange glow of dusk. World Ahead's offices, located in LA's "South Bay" area, are far from any of the encircling fires, but the smoke from them has covered the entire basin.

As is the case with any natural disaster, it was only a matter of time before politics came into play. Harry Reid blames global warming for the fires. Newsweek lauds the Governator for "avoiding another Katrina." And "Brownie" is taking a shot at the White House for the federal response.

Meanwhile, our local NBC affiliate reports that over 1 million residents have been displaced by the 16 wildfires now burning around the Southland. Please remember to keep these people and our firefighters and National Guard troops in prayer.

Army instructors accidentally schmoozing with terrorists?

Schmoozing with Terrorists author Aaron Klein reports that U.S. Army instructors have unwittingly exchanged emails with members of major Palestinian terror groups. Says Klein:

"To highlight how ridiculous the state of things are and how clueless are our U.S. security coordinators, they are keeping in touch with former students who are carrying out regular attacks against our ally Israel, including shootings and bombings. Some of their former students are on Israel's wanted list of terrorists."

This is disturbing indeed -- and it's not the only such revelation in Klein's book. Let's hope that this report prompts some much needed security changes.

Arizona Republic covers controversy over NAU

The Arizona Republic is the latest publication to pick up on the debate started by author Jerome Corsi, whose NYT bestseller The Late Great U.S.A. charges that efforts to initiate an EU-type "North American Union" are afoot. The Republic's article is one of the most comprehensive on the issue to date. It points out that former Mexican President Vicente Fox recently told Larry King that a single American currency was also a goal of the effort.

Google searches by country

Reuters reports on Google search terms by nation. I guess it says something about what's on a country's mind. (Morocco = jihad; Egypt = sex; Iran = IAEA; Germany = Nazi; Ireland = hangover; U.S. = burrito)

Vicente Fox repeats his call for NAU

Just a couple days after coming clean on Larry King Live, the former president of Mexico has repeated his call for a regional government in a candid NPR interview.

Jerome Corsi on BookTV this weekend

On Sunday at 8:00 PM, BookTV will broadcast Jerome Corsi's speech to the Eagle Council in which he discusses this NYT bestseller, The Late Great USA. Click here for more details.

AFP picks up on politics and kid's books

Agence France-Presse just published an article on children's political books that quotes me and mentions our books The Sky's Not Falling and Liberals Under My Bed. I've blogged on the issue of kids and political books before (see here and here), so I won't belabor the subject now.

However, I will say that the Alice Walker book it mentions (Why War is Never a Good Idea) is a real piece of work. I'm seldom at a loss for words, but words escape me when it comes to this book.

Vicente Fox says NAU, Amero are "long term" vision

Former Mexican President Vicente Fox revealed to interviewer Larry King last night that he had been working on a North American Union during his term. According to WND:

...King, near the end of the broadcast, asked Fox a question e-mailed from a listener, a Ms. Gonzalez from Elizabeth, N.J.: "Mr. Fox, I would like to know how you feel about the possibility of having a Latin America united with one currency?"

Fox answered in the affirmative, admitting he and President Bush had agreed to pursue the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas – a free-trade zone extending throughout the Western Hemisphere – and that part of the plan was to institute a regional currency from Canada to the tip of South America.

Here is a YouTube video of the exchange. Note how King rephrases the question to clarify what Fox is saying after he goes off on a tangent about Hugo Chavez:



This looks like further vindication of Jerome Corsi, author of our NYT bestseller The Late Great USA: The Coming Merger with Mexico and Canada. Back in August, President Bush derided NAU objections as the product of "conspiracy theorists," but his ex-counterpart from Mexico is proving that Corsi was on the right track.

By the way, after searching on YouTube I came across a clip from my friends at the Daily Show which also featured Fox as a guest, and he specifically says that he supports an NAU with the U.S. and Canada. Fast forward to the 2:02 mark of this video and see for yourself:

Hillary proposes 71% death tax to fund 401(k) takeover

Still riding high after her endorsement by jihadists, Hillary Clinton has decided to have the federal government get into the 401(k) business -- all it's going to take is a 71% death tax to bankroll it.

Letting the federal government take a big step towards nationalizing a private sector function that currently contains $2.7 trillion in savings is terrifying. Even more terrifying is the prospect of Uncle Sam robbing American families blind to pay for this scheme. Here's how the AP describes Hillary's new government-funded retirement account plan:

Every citizen could get a 401(k) retirement account and up to $1,000 in annual matching funds from the government... She said that for every $7 million estate that gets taxed, at least 5,000 families would receive the matching funds.

Let's do the math. First, in Washington speak, "up to $1,000" means "$1,000." Next, we plug in the parameters that Hillary is proposing. Then we can see what she means in terms of taxation:

$1,000 "matching funds" x 5,000 families = $5 million outlay = $5 million in taxes
$5 million in taxes / $7 million estate = 71.4% tax rate

That's right, a 71% tax rate upon death. Deathtax.com calculates that inheritance of a family-owned businesses can trigger a tax of up to 47%.

Forget about the cost of living going up under President Hillary. No one will be able to afford to die.

Jihadists endorse Hillary Clinton for President

Schmoozing with Terrorists author Aaron Klein reports that terrorists leaders throughout the West Bank have come out in support of Hillary Clinton's candidacy to become president. Here are a pair of the many endorsements that Klein recorded:

Nasser Abu Aziz, the West Bank deputy commander of the Al Aqsa Brigades, declared it is "very good" there are "voices like Hillary and others who are now attacking the Iraq invasion."

"All Americans must vote Democrat," stated Jihad Jaara, an exiled member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror group and the infamous leader of the 2002 siege of Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity.

There's no word yet if Hillary's campaign will be accepting contributions from Al Aqsa-affiliated donors. But I'd guess that's a Hsu in.

Rosie rejects terrorist invite

Rosie O'Donnell has declined a generous invitation by jihadists for the former daytime talk show host to visit their base of operations in the West Bank.

Evidently the terrorists had been touched by Rosie's willingness to defend them on national TV with comments like: "Don't fear the terrorists. They're mothers and fathers." She also denounced Guantanamo Bay, claiming that our military tortured the terrorists there "on a daily basis," and complained that 9/11 planner Khalid Sheikh Mohammed wasn't given a lawyer following his capture. So it's no wonder she has an Islamofascist following.

The invite to their fellow traveler Rosie was first relayed by WND's Jerusalem bureau chief Aaron Klein, the author of our new book Schmoozing with Terrorists.

My appearance on the Daily Show

Last night I appeared on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. And, yes, I'm a Comedy Central fan, so I knew what I was getting myself into.


In case anyone's interested, we didn't make an offer for any of John Oliver's book ideas. (But we are trying to sign the white rabbit to a multi-book deal.)

Scholastic global warming book comes up short

Steven Milloy has an editorial on FoxNews that compares Laurie David's Down-to-Earth Guide to Global Warming with Holly Fretwell's The Sky's Not Falling. According to Milloy:

While Scholastic may want to risk its reputation with the David-Gordon book, parents who want their children to have the correct information about the pivotal relationship between atmospheric carbon dioxide and global temperature may want to check out Fretwell's "The Sky's Not Falling."

While Fretwell's book does not come close to matching the number and visual quality of distract-from-the text illustrations that the David-Gordon books contains, Fretwell's strength is that her text is easy to read and, most importantly, is scientifically accurate.

Why liberals should love Blackwater -- but don't

House liberals seem to be targeting private contractor Blackwater as a proxy for criticizing the war in Iraq. Henry Waxman's committee majority is determined to try to smear the security firm as a bunch of "cowboys" who are out of control, and it's also attacking the State Department for using them to protect VIPs. According to the Int'l Herald Tribune:

Representative Henry Waxman, the California Democrat who is chairman of a House committee that is studying the record of the firm in Iraq, said that companies like Blackwater amounted to an inadequately controlled private military force.

"If we don't have enough troops to do the job, then we need to get more troops," Waxman said at a hearing Tuesday of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Privatizing security services was "causing us problems with the Iraqi people," he said.

Democrats have also been quick to point out that Blackwater has been involved in more combat incidents than the two other private security companies employed by the government to work in Iraq, although it also has over twice as many employees on the ground as the other two combined.

While Blackwater's employees aren't perfect, Waxman's sweeping generalizations are misguided. Contractors have always played an important role in supporting America's military. (Ever heard of Lafayette, Mr. Chairman?) Blackwater's employees in Iraq are facing the same sorts of threats aimed at our soldiers. The AP quotes CEO Erik Prince as making this strong rebuttal to Waxman:

Throughout the hearing, Prince defended his staff as courageously defending U.S. diplomats overseas. He said 30 Blackwater contractors have been killed in action and no Americans have died while in its protection.

"We're the targets of the same ruthless enemies that have killed more than 3,800 American military personnel and thousands of innocent Iraqis," he said, sitting alone at the witness table.

If liberal criticism of the war was really based on concern for our soldiers, then Democrats should rejoice that private citizens employed by Blackwater are willing to take jobs that would otherwise require more servicemen to step into harm's way. Liberals claim that the current volunteer military is unfair to racial minorities and the poor, who enlist at disproportionate rates due to lack of economic opportunities caused by capitalism and societal racism. For example, consider this 2003 statement from Rep. Charles Rangel:

The disproportionately high representation of the poor and minorities in the enlisted ranks is well documented. Minorities comprise 35 percent of the military and Blacks 20 percent, well above their proportion of the general population. They, along with poor and rural Whites do more than their fair share of service in our ground forces.

While Rangel's interpretation of military demographic data has been called into question, his claim does essentially represent liberal orthodoxy on the subject. As a professor from the Univ. of Maryland framed it, "The playing field outside the military is not level. Life structures you into certain choices, and you wind up in the military." This belief was also behind the NAACP's opposition to the Iraq war.

So given the liberal belief that society's poor and downtrodden are forced into the military, why is Waxman saying "we need to get more troops"? By their own logic, liberals should be happy that contractors like Blackwater are willing to fight alongside our brave soldiers.