Tonight, the Talking Points memo about the violence confronting President Bush in Italy.
He is there to attend the G-8 summit, a gathering of the eight most powerful economic countries in the world -- the U.S., Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Canada, and Russia.
The topic, of course, is money and how to keep the world economy moving ahead. Communists, socialists, and anarchists don't like that at all. They want "give me economics." "You give me what you have because somehow you stole it in the first place, and I deserve it more than you do."
That kind of thinking is ridiculous, but there's an awful lot of it around, even here in the USA. Millions of Americans feel entitled to government handouts, charity, inheritance, and special treatment they didn't work for. That's just the way it is.
The danger is that violence against free-market countries will be allowed to grow and become socially acceptable, kind of like the Vietnam War protests.
You're looking at pictures in Genoa, Italy, and these people just came to that town to cause trouble.
Now it hasn't been socially acceptable yet, but the BBC says more than 100,000 protesters will show up this weekend in Italy. That's a big number. And there are plenty of morons around looking to hitch their butts to a destructive movement because they have nothing else to do.
The protesters do have one point and one point only. Some very powerful and wealthy corporations all over the world have exploited the poor and manipulated world markets unfairly. These entities have to be condemned and prosecuted if possible, and the U.S. government has been very slow to do that.
On a personal basis, we all know greedy people who consume far too much, but this is a free country, and they have a right to spend the money they earn on anything they want. We can mock them, but we can't in good conscience do anything else.
That's what separates us from these thugs in Italy. These people simply want to tear down structures that allow people to have better lives. Communism and socialism can't ever compete with capitalism, which is why America is the most powerful country in the world.
So Talking Points supports a tough crackdown on violent demonstrators everywhere. That's simply the only way to deal with these people because, if they don't do, they'll take what you have and hurt you doing it.
And that's the memo.
Most Ridiculous Item of the Day
Time now for the "Most Ridiculous Item of the Day." Hillary Clinton is banging the Democratic mantra about Gary Condit. The most important thing is to find Chandra, blah, blah, blah, while never commenting on Condit's behavior. I just can't stand that parroting stuff.
Bt the National Press Club, Mrs. Clinton did say something about running for higher office that got a response.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D), NEW YORK: Now I have said that I am not running. And I'm having a great time being president -- being a first- term...
(LAUGHTER)
CLINTON: ... being a first-term senator.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Ridiculous...
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