We’ve all heard this week the criticisms that the government is spending billions on the War in Iraq while the nation’s roads and bridges deteriorate. These assertions came after the Minneapolis 35W bridge crumpled and caused death, injury and destruction. I’d like to join the debate and take it to a higher level with a unique and more on-target agenda of how mis-directed funds could be better applied to infrastructure. In place of spending money on the following items, the government could be spending more on infrastructure:

--$272 million a year to Planned Parenthood, plus state appropriations: re-direct responsibility back to Planned Parenthood for taking innocent lives and putting women at risk of physical and psychological trauma

--$420 million a year to Public Broadcast System and its leftist agenda: re-direct responsibility back to PBS

--unknown millions each year spent on university research grants related to the hoax of evolution: re-direct responsibility back to universities instead of requiring taxpayers to fund careers based on fraud

--billions a year spent on farm subsidies: re-direct responsibility back to farmers

--billions wasted every year on a space program growing less and less competent and which could be privatized: privatize space program

--millions spent every year guarding the Korean border: shift funding toward guarding U.S. border and on infrastructure

--millions spent annually for the arts: re-direct responsibility to arts patrons

--proposed college education funding for illegal alien children: defeat bill (the “DREAM Act”)

--state spending on missile museums, drag racing museums, Indian radio stations, etc.: re-direct responsibility to private sector

--$100 million for the 2006 Senate Energy and Water Appropriations; re-direct responsibility to local jurisdictions

--Funding for “Queer Theory” classes at public universities: End the insanity. Period.

--More than $400 million for failed comprehensive “safe-sex” education in humanist religion/government schools; cancel curriculum due to failure and due to declining teen pregnancies because of abstinence education

This list could fill a book, but you get the picture, don’t you.

Reporting the Really “Hard News”

The Hill (online) is carrying photos and bios of “The Hill’s 50 Most Beautiful” people. Now, there’s some hard news for you! Guess there isn’t much for the media outlet which normally focuses on all things congressional to report about in the nation’s capital. This might be the only article on The Hill read this year by Bill Clinton. He “reads” the pictures in his subscriptions, you know.  

Presidential Endorsements

Here’s a list of whom our Arizona congressmen are supporting in the 2008 presidential sweepstakes:

Ed Pastor – New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson
Raul Grijalva – former U.S. Sen. John “Silky Pony” Edwards
Trent Franks – California Cong. Duncan Hunter
Jeff Flake, John Shadegg, Jon Kyl – part-time U.S. Sen. John McCain

Gabby Giffords, Rick Renzi and Harry Mitchell are on the sidelines.

By the way, Renzi is dogged by an investigation and looks like a long-shot for re-election. FBI agents recently raided the insurance business of Renzi’s wife amid reports that he paid substantial back taxes to settle charges that his businesses improperly paid for his first congressional campaign. Arizona’s Congressional District 1 is looking more and more like a Democratic pick-up seat in 2008, which would give the lefties five of Arizona’s eight congressional seats. This state is going south real fast.

The Intellectual Conservative’s top 100 conservative sites

Recently, The Intellectual Conservative, a site headed by Rachel Alexander of Phoenix and the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, ran a poll to determine the top 100 “conservative” websites. The results were quite interesting because many of the sites are decidedly not conservative. Among the sites in that category are:

Hugh Hewitt (moderate), U.S. News and World Report (are you kidding?), Christopher Hitchens (are you still kidding?), Cato Institute (Libertarian) and others.

The Intellectual Conservative runs a lot of good columns. They also run one by Aaron Goldstein, whom I’ve debated and exposed as a non-conservative. He replied being exposed as a non-conservative by listing five things he supports that make him “conservative” – including support for the war. Nowhere did he mention support for the sanctity of life, traditional values or any of the conservative basics. He actually favors allowing homosexuals to adopt, though it often has very detrimental effects on children, and this is not regarded as a topic that reasonable conservatives can disagree on.

Dennis Durband is publisher and editor of The Arizona Conservative, is also a freelance writer and webmaster and a longtime journalist.