GOVERNMENT & POLITICS

Hillary’s in, Kerry’s out

“I’m in, and I’m in to win.” These are the words that Sen. Hillary Clinton used to signal her entry into the 2008 presidential race this past weekend. For those of you unskilled in the nuances of Clinton-speak, this means that she will do pretty much anything and steam-roll pretty much anyone to gain the White House. Launching her campaign from the safe, controlled environment of a webcast, the venue of choice this election cycle, Clinton threw out tidbits about ending our involvement in the war in Iraq, fixing Social Security and creating universal health care.

Hubby Bill, thrilled at the prospect of returning to the White House to snag some more silverware and debauch a few more interns, will lend his formidable campaign skills to the battle ahead. “I’ll do whatever I’m asked to do,” he said during a party to launch a new book by Terry McAuliffe, Hillary’s campaign chairman. The book, titled What a Party, is a memoir about McAuliffe’s time as DNC Chairman and his friendship with the Clintons. McAuliffe says that the Clinton years have shown us how to “restore moral authority” in America. With hindsight like that, TMac’s book would have been better titled What a Crock.

With Hillary’s entry sucking up all the remaining oxygen and money in the Demo presidential stakes, John Kerry has decided not to run again in 2008. Realizing what everyone else, including his shrinking circle of friends, already knew, Kerry decided that running again was not in his best interest. He cleverly masked his inability to draw support as a signal from the voters that he should remain in the Senate to do as much damage as he can to our national security by working to end our involvement in Iraq summarily. Besides, now he can return to the relative anonymity of the Senate without having to keep his promise to release his military records.

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson has also entered the race. Much further down the scale of popularity than Clinton or Barack Obama, but higher than John Kerry, Richardson believes his status as a Hispanic governor of a border state and his long record of public service will lend credibility to his bid. Credibility, maybe. Money, certainly not.

This week’s ‘Alpha Jackass’ award

“It is the time to put my energy to work as part of the new Democratic majority in the Senate, to do all I can to end this war and strengthen our security and our ability to fight the real war on terror… 35 years ago, I got into public life to end a war that was wrong. I believe now as strongly as I did then that it is wrong to ask more young Americans to die for anyone’s mistakes.” —John F. Kerry, announcing his decision not to seek the 2008 presidential nomination. Later, speaking of the war, Kerry seemed to be replaying his infamous 1971 testimony on Vietnam, asking, “How do you ask a man to be the last person to die for a mistake?”

Editor’s reply: Don’t worry, John. They’re just a bunch of poor, uneducated saps “stuck in Iraq.”

Open query

“Do you think Hillary Clinton would make a good President?”… “No, I don’t.”… “Why?”… “Because she’s a Democrat. I don’t agree with her philosophically and from a policy standpoint.”… “Do you think she will be President then?”… “I don’t.” —A recent exchange between CNN’s Wolf Blitzer and Vice President Dick Cheney who was, as always, to the point

An end in sight for public campaign financing

If there’s one good thing about a Hillary Clinton presidential candidacy, it is that it could signal an end to public financing of campaigns. With a massive fundraising option in place, Clinton will be the first presidential candidate ever to eschew public financing in both the primaries and the general election, lest she be prevented from spending the hundreds of millions of dollars she is likely to raise.

Since the Watergate era, Democratic and Republican candidates have raised private funds for nomination fights, but have turned to public (read: “taxpayer”) financing during the general election, which caps the amount of money they can spend and supposedly levels the playing field among presidential aspirants. In 2008, however, with costly media buys and longer campaigns, candidates who can pull in the big bucks actually suffer because of the spending limits placed on them during the general election. Clinton’s refusal of taxpayer financing is sure to force her well funded rivals to do the same in order to remain competitive.

Demos challenge ‘one person, one vote’

Democrats have thought up a creative and completely unconstitutional way to increase their majority in the House further by offering delegates and non-members full voting rights. House Resolution 78 would give representatives from American Samoa, the Virgin Islands, Guam, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico the power to, among other things, to raise federal taxes that their territories are exempt from paying. These five representatives, four of whom are Democrats, are more than happy to cast their votes however they are directed by the House leadership, particularly when they have no vested interest in the outcome of such votes. Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) notes that the plan “runs roughshod over the constitutional principle of one person, one vote. The average congressional district has approximately 650,000 people, while American Samoa has 57,000, the Virgin Islands 108,000 and Guam 155,000. Under the Democrats’ plan, the 57,000 people in American Samoa would have the same voting rights on the House floor as the residents of Georgia’s 6th District.” An attempt to enact this same rule change in 1992 drew scorn from all corners of the media and public, and we hope this shameless ploy goes the way of that earlier endeavor.

Martinez steps in as RNC Chairman

Florida Senator Mel Martinez took his place as general chairman of the Republican National Committee this week, and it is hoped that his Hispanic heritage will draw more minority supporters to the GOP. Martinez’s ascension caused an uproar among some conservatives, who felt they were not properly consulted, and it is widely believed that President Bush picked him to lead because of his support of the President’s immigration-reform strategy. Mike Duncan will head the day-to-day operation of the RNC, with Martinez acting as the face and strategic head of the party.

New & notable legislation

Section 220 of the Senate Ethics Bill (S 1) passed 55-43, with seven Democrats joining all Republicans in defeating an attempt to force grassroots political organizations to submit to draconian public filing regulations. This attempt by Democrats to tilt the political playing field in their favor has been thwarted, but there will assuredly be more.

Debate in the Senate over the minimum-wage bill has made it apparent that any pay hike is likely to be accompanied by tax breaks for small business. A 54-43 vote to advance the House measure, which includes no relief for business owners, fell short of the 60 needed to keep the version intact for Senate passage. Majority Leader Harry Reid has demonstrated more flexibility than San Fran Nan Pelosi in offering a tax break to help pay for the wage increase, and the White House has signaled that the Senate version is more likely to earn the President’s signature.

In the House, Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD) reintroduced legislation (HR 63) to suspend the FDA’s approval of the abortion drug RU-486.

Rep. Sam Johnson (R-TX) and Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) introduced legislation (HR 511) to reaffirm Congress’s support for the troops deployed in a theater of war and Congress’s commitment to provide them with the necessary resources to accomplish their mission.

NATIONAL SECURITY

Democrats hope to derail troop surge

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed a resolution Wednesday noting that the buildup of American troops in Iraq was “not in the national interest.” Joe Biden and his ten fellow Demo committee members were joined by Republican narcissist and Leftmedia darling Chuck Hagel in the first of many promised attempts to get President Bush to reverse course and bring American military involvement there to an end.

Biden, Ted Kennedy, John Murtha and the retreatnik wing of the Democratic Party are tripping all over themselves to express their displeasure over sending 21,500 additional soldiers to quell the violence in Baghdad and Anbar Province. Believing they have the winds of public support at their backs, they are prepared to offer even stronger resolutions in the coming weeks and months if their “redeployment” demands are not met. We can expect more talk about capping the number of troops in Iraq, withholding funds for additional troop deployments and, ultimately, cutting funds for the troops already there.

While we expect this kind of spineless activity by Democrats, we are saddened to see Republicans also jumping on the buckle bandwagon. Elizabeth Taylor’s former husband, Sen. John Warner (R-VA), offered a non-binding resolution more diplomatic in its language than the Foreign Relations Committee’s, but still expressing disagreement with the President’s plan. In fact, Congress’s negative perceptions of Bush’s plan are so strong that even success is likely to be viewed as defeat.

Immigration and the SOTU

President Bush came under fire from the whole political spectrum following his call for further immigration reform in Tuesday night’s SOTU address. He urged Congress to pass “laws that are fair and borders that are secure… comprehensive immigration reform.” Technology and doubling the size of the U.S. Border Patrol can help, he argued, but the U.S. needs a temporary-worker program to “take pressure off the border,” leaving border agents free “to chase down drug smugglers, criminals and terrorists.”

Here, we must give President Bush his due. Enforcement is necessary and prudent, but with unemployment at a remarkably low 4.5 percent, it is also quite unrealistic without a provision for workers to enter legally. For the record, a temporary-worker program is not amnesty. Amnesty is full pardon for all illegals currently in the country. Admittedly, this is a problem with no good or easy solution, but repeated charges of amnesty from conservatives have done little to help the situation.

As for enforcement, there is good news and bad news. The bad news is that Democrats are now poised to undo progress on a border fence. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer has indicated that funds may not be “available.” Even though the fence is little more than a stopgap, it is a key piece in a larger puzzle. The good news is that another 761 illegals were rounded up in Southern California this week in a larger offensive by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE), which has arrested more than 13,000 illegal aliens since June 2006. More than 150 of those arrested were immigration fugitives, having ignored deportation orders. It is estimated that some 500,000 immigration fugitives have remained in or re-entered the U.S.

BioShield, anyone?

Launched four years ago by President Bush in the 2003 SOTU, Project BioShield, an enormous effort to protect Americans from biological and radiological attacks with new stockpiles of vaccines and treatments, has shown little or no progress to date. Budgeted at $5.6 billion, the program is still defining its priorities, and less than a quarter of the budget has been spent. In December, the project’s largest program, tasked with producing enough anthrax vaccine for the populations of two big cities, collapsed with essentially no progress. Likewise, techniques to address threats such as acute radiation sickness or treating people with impaired immune systems are still unresolved. This lack of progress is unconscionable. While program bureaucrats have dithered for four years, we can be sure that our enemies have not.

Details emerge on Chinese ASAT test

Additional details emerged this week about China’s successful anti-satellite (ASAT) test on 11 January, as Beijing publicly admitted the test after first denying any had taken place. U.S. defense officials said the ASAT weapon was a non-explosive kinetic-kill vehicle, which destroys its target by collision rather than explosion, as the Soviet Union’s ASAT was designed to do. Officials also stated that this was China’s fourth test in two years, the others apparently being failures. While the Chinese said they briefed the Bush administration on the test and assured the world that the test “does not constitute a threat to any country,” there are reasons for concern.

Combined with China’s previous illumination of U.S. satellites with lasers, this successful test proves that China now has a multi-pronged ASAT capability. It is also interesting to note that the target, an aging weather satellite, was in a north/south polar orbit, the same type of orbit ostensibly used by U.S. photo-reconnaissance satellites. This means the test could have exercised not only the ASAT weapon itself, but also complete operational attack procedures as well. While China’s current ASAT capability probably does not constitute a major threat to U.S. space assets, it could certainly be used to blind U.S. assets at a particularly strategic place and time, say, over the Taiwan Straits just before a move against Taiwan.

In related news, the U.S. and the Czech Republic are in talks over the placement of a radar base in the European nation as part of a planetary missile-defense system. The additional base is intended to protect European countries from attacks by such nuclear rogues as Iran and North Korea.

BUSINESS & ECONOMY

The President tackles healthcare

In contrast to state initiatives forcing citizens to obtain health insurance, President Bush proposed reforming the tax code to enable individuals to deduct the cost of the insurance. By treating insurance costs as income and permitting deductions, the plan would allow insured families and singles to deduct $15,000 and $7,500 of their respective incomes. The President estimates more than 100-million Americans will benefit from lower tax bills, although higher-income executives and professionals may experience slightly higher taxes. With the average cost of employer-provided coverage at $11,500, most persons with health benefits would enjoy a tax reduction.

Unlike recent grandiose and punitive state schemes to socialize their healthcare markets, wasting billions to require coverage for relatively few citizens, tax deductibility may prompt a net increase of five-million insured Americans at no cost to the government. Making health insurance deductible income for individuals is strong medicine that can reduce the ranks of the uninsured and help keep our market-driven healthcare system out of the clutches of unwieldy bureaucrats. Congress would be wise to approve it and also to enable Americans to purchase coverage from companies in any state, free of the worst state mandates.

A brighter fiscal outlook

While the media play accomplice to demagogues seeking any tax increase they can pass, the federal fiscal outlook is not as bad as it seems. In fact, over the last two years, the budget deficit decreased by $164 billion and the decline continued in the first fiscal quarter of 2007. Tax receipts in December were $18 billion higher than in the previous December, bringing the budget surplus for the month to $40 billion. This should come as no surprise to Patriot readers: Contrary to the political lie so often told, tax cuts bring in more tax revenues as people generate more wealth with the wealth they are allowed to keep. Tax revenues in the first 2007 fiscal quarter were up 8.1 percent, corporate income taxes were up 22.2 percent and individual income taxes were up 8.8 percent. Meanwhile, federal spending—dare we say it—held steady. Though it could be better, the federal deficit is now only 1.8 percent of the economy.

That’s a reduction of half during President Bush’s tenure—and that in spite of the enormous costs of the war on terror, Katrina and Demo obstructions.

Rather than simply cheer increased federal revenue (that money still comes out of our pockets), we call for further spending restraint from Congress. That restraint should be followed by further tax cuts. Of course, we know we’re talking to Congress. It’s almost laughable to think that Washington pols, who believe that their very jobs depend on conning the people, would ever enact serious tax or spending reform, but that doesn’t mean we won’t keep calling for it.

A policy Russians don’t want?

As the U.S. looks for a solution to its own illegal-immigration woes, a lesson could emerge from the most unexpected of places. A crackdown on foreign labor by the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin is sending millions of immigrant workers home. Although many of these workers are in Russia legally because they’re from former Soviet republics, it is estimated that 12-million workers are in Russia illegally—200 percent above the legally restricted foreign-labor pool of just six million.

Hardest hit by the policy are construction trades and retail markets—that is, Russian small business. One Armenian worker complained, “We aren’t wanted anymore, so I guess we’ll be going home. I’ll be surprised if they can find a Russian who is willing to do this work all day for what they pay me.”

The policy is aimed at terminating the presence of foreign workers by 1 April, but because of its drastic effects on the Russian economy, the government has hinted at an extension, claiming the purpose of the law was to regulate the job market and not to reduce trade. With Western Europe looking elsewhere for its energy needs after Moscow’s recent to-do over oil prices with neighboring Belarus, keeping labor plentiful and trade strong might not be a bad idea.

CULTURE

The separation of church and Carter—please!

The Demo holy-rolling duo of Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton has set out to shore up support for Democrats among Christians. Their object is to create a counterweight to the 16-million-strong Southern Baptist Convention by building a coalition of many smaller Baptist organizations on the political left. If they succeed in forming this new coalition, it will outnumber the SBC by four million. Carter waxes eloquent about the task at hand, hoping “to emphasize the common commitments that bind us together rather than to concentrate on the divisive issues that separate us.” (Read: We’re going to fight conservatives tooth and nail.) Yet Carter left the Southern Baptist denomination in 2000 after conservative policy concerning women was nailed down in the “Baptist Faith and Message.” The erstwhile president also takes issue with SBC positions on biblical inerrancy, homosexuality and abortion. It seems like the divisive issues are the ones he knows best.

Yet our best ex-president’s divisiveness isn’t limited to the gentiles among us. Carter also found time this week to visit Brandeis University, the country’s premier Jewish academe, to defend his new book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. Students were quick to challenge Carter on a key passage of the book, page 213, where he writes: “It is imperative that the general Arab community and all significant Palestinian groups make it clear that they will end the suicide bombings and other acts of terrorism when international laws and the ultimate goals of the Roadmap for Peace are accepted by Israel.”

Here, Carter seems to suggest that suicide bombings are a legitimate means of warfare and should be suspended only when Israel concedes. Jimmy’s response: Bad editing. “The sentence was worded in an absolutely improper and stupid way… it was a mistake on my part.” That explanation didn’t convince the board of his own Carter Center, 14 of whom have resigned in protest over the book’s message.

So, if Southern Baptists needed another reason to support Israel, they’ve got one in Jimmy Carter.

’Science’ with strings attached

The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) bills itself as an “alliance” of 200,000 scientists and citizens, integrating “independent scientific research” with “citizen action” in order to bring about “changes to government policy, corporate practices and consumer choices.” Yet the money trail can often lend insight to what an organization’s true goals are. With the UCS, the trail leads straight to liberal activist groups with specific agendas and the need of scientific back-up for their claims. Money is often given with earmarks for certain research work. For example, in 2000 the Carnegie Corporation of New York gave a $25,000 grant for “dissemination of a report on National Missile Defense.” (That would be against missile defense. They advocated the “nuclear freeze” during the Reagan administration.) In 2002 UCS received a $1-million grant from the Pew Memorial Trust “to support efforts to increase the nation’s commitment to energy efficiency and renewable energy…” The Energy Foundation has given several grants over the years ($500,000, $50,000, $100,000 and $600,000) for research into energy use and man-made climate change.

Considering all of these grants with strings, isn’t it a bit hypocritical that these “Concerned Scientists” censure free-market organizations for accepting donations from ExxonMobil? UCS alleges that such organizations aim to muddy the waters regarding “global warming” and have labeled dissenters “climate contrarians.” So much for science and public debate.

Religious persecution on the rise

Last week, as American Christians recognized Religious Freedom Day, millions of believers worldwide continued to face brutal persecution for their faith. According to UK-based Release International (RI), persecution of Christians is an “escalating trend,” and up to 250 million Christians will suffer in 2007. Furthermore, RI notes that persecution is growing fastest in the Islamic world. Even in “moderate Muslim countries,” Christians endure “kidnapping, forced conversion, imprisonment, church destruction, torture, rape and execution.”

Thank goodness religious persecution hasn’t reached those extremes here at home, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. So-called “hate-crimes” legislation, recently re-introduced in the House by Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX), paves the way for thought police to target Christians who dare to identify the actions or lifestyles of others as sin. Similar laws were recently enacted in Canada.

As Faith McDonnell, Religious Liberty Director at the Institute for Religion and Democracy (IRD), recently warned, “Too often in this post-9/11 world, human rights and religious freedom are sacrificed on the altar of political correctness, diplomacy and oversensitivity masquerading as tolerance.” Tolerance of that sort, we’re reminded, only breeds contempt.

And last…

We’re shocked—SHOCKED—to report that Algore’s global-warming scare flick, “An Inconvenient Truth,” has been nominated for two Oscars: Best documentary feature and best original song for Melissa Etheridge’s “I Need to Wake Up.” Though he won’t actually receive an Oscar, the Robotic One is tickled pink at the proxy award: “The film… has brought awareness of the climate crisis to people in the United States and all over the world… This film proves that movies really can make a difference.” He also plans to take a stroll on the red carpet with the Hollywood Glitterati in February. Director David Guggenheim gushed, “For years he’s been in the wilderness on global warming. Now he’s ready for his grand walk. Now he’s at the Academy Awards. It’s a hero’s return.” It’s remarkable that Hollywood’s elite still think America lines up to hear their policy pronouncements. But at least Al’s not in the wilderness any more.

Lex et Libertas—Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus, et Fidelis! Mark Alexander, Publisher, for the editors and staff. (Please pray for our Patriot Armed Forces standing in harm’s way around the world, and for their families, especially those of our fallen Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen, who have died in defense of American liberty while prosecuting the war with Jihadistan.)