GOVERNMENT & POLITICS

News from the Swamp: Around the Hill in 100 days

Americans are happy with the job Democrats are doing in Congress—so say recent polls being touted (and composed) by the Leftmedia. Of course, while their general job-approval rating is above 50 percent, the view of Democrats on specific issues is not as rosy as in the days following the 2006 election. In a Washington Post/ABC News poll conducted this week, 46 percent approve of how Demos are handling the economy, 37 percent approve of their handling of Iraq and only 34 percent approve of their handling of immigration.

In retrospect, the Democrats’ first 100 days were a dud. Sure, the House passed most of the bills they promised, but all of that legislation is now languishing in the Senate, which marches to the beat of 100 drummers. Any congressional majority can clear a rash of legislation through the House, especially when they don’t allow minority members to debate the issues. However, real success comes from putting decent bills on the President’s desk, and legislation to cut and run from Iraq doesn’t count.

Speaking of the Senate, Republicans successfully scuttled a bill that would have replaced free enterprise with government to manage prescription drugs covered by Medicare. That the government covers prescription drugs at all is a travesty, but the idea of its negotiating prices with drug companies is downright nauseating. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt noted, “There is no way a government official can do a better job picking drugs and setting prices than the millions of consumers making choices in a free market.”

We should be thankful that Nancy Pelosi’s lefty agenda has been stalled, in large part by fellow socialist Harry Reid’s Senate. When tax-and-spend liberals hold the majority, a do-nothing Congress isn’t a bad thing.

Gonzales testifies on prosecutor firings

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales appeared before the Senate Judiciary Inquisition, er, Committee yesterday regarding his role in the firing of eight U.S. attorneys in December. Gonzales practically wrote his own invitation to the grilling by giving different accounts of events—first saying he had no involvement, but then relenting and admitting that he did have “some” involvement. Sens. Ted Kennedy and Arlen Specter were among the harshest interrogators, but Gonzales stuck to the script, saying he has “nothing to hide” and remembering to note his “faulty memory.” He did apologize, however, for “missteps that have helped to fuel the controversy.” Those missteps brought Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) to tell Gonzales pointedly that he should resign. We expect it is only a matter of time.

Hillary’s double standards

On the campaign trail, Hillary has made it clear she is willing to look the other way when taking money from questionable characters. Two weeks ago, a fundraiser netted $800,000 at the Miami home of music mogul Timbaland (whose real name is Timothy Mosley). The rapper is now an influential producer who doesn’t mind littering his “music” with the sort of racist and sexist language that would make Don Imus blush. It was just last week (after accepting the $800k) that Mrs. Clinton denounced Imus, who “showed a disregard for basic decency” and whose comments were “disrespectful and degrading to African Americans and women everywhere.” She also met with the Rutgers women’s basketball team—probably sporting a Rutgers cap and telling them she’s been a lifelong fan. No word on a denunciation of Timbaland’s products, which are doing far more damage to women than anything Imus ever spouted.

NJ Governor Corzine on speed

New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine was hurrying to a meeting with Don Imus and the Rutgers women’s basketball team when his SUV was broadsided. We fully understand how important that meeting was, but the state trooper driving was doing 91 mph in a 65-mph zone. Of course, according to New Jersey State Police Superintendent Rick Fuentes, there are no specific guidelines “about a maximum speed in the normal course of transporting the governor.” How about “the speed limit”? After a truck pulled to the shoulder to get out of the way, the driver suddenly veered back and hit the governor’s express train. Corzine was severely injured (broken ribs, sternum and leg) due to the other law he ignored: A buckled seat belt. While a U.S. Senator, Corzine pushed hard for laws forcing states to enforce seat-belt laws more strictly. Something tells us that if there were an “R” instead of a “D” after Corzine’s name, this would be a huge issue in the Leftmedia.

Common sense? Not in Maryland

Maryland’s new presidential-election law comes so close to disenfranchising its citizens of a meaningful vote as to make any Jim Crow lawmaker blush in his grave. The bill, just signed into law, will award Maryland’s Electoral College votes to the winner of the national popular vote, once states holding a simple majority of EC votes have passed similar laws. The law applies only when the state’s voters have not selected the nation’s biggest vote getter (winner takes all).

The Constitution is silent on how states go about dispensing their electoral votes—in fact, it does not guarantee citizens the right to vote for a President at all; that’s left to state constitutions. Nevertheless, Maryland’s little trick does trample federalism, upon which our Constitution is built. After all, the constitutional-federal structure for our nation’s governance rests upon respect for states and a separation of power and function between state and federal governments. When a state surrenders its electoral votes to the national will, it upsets this balance and tosses aside the very assumptions on which our Republic rests. Then again, we suppose federalism is just too outdated for some politicos.

Maryland’s General Assembly didn’t stop with federalism and the franchise, though, becoming the first state in the nation to adopt a “living wage,” pending Governor Martin O’Malley’s expected signature.

Under the new law, areas in the Baltimore-Washington metroplex that gave O’Malley his margin of victory in last fall’s election had their “living wage” set at $11.30 an hour. However, rural areas of Maryland that supported former GOP governor Robert Ehrlich had their wage set to a meager $8.50 an hour. (Democrats pitching class warfare? Never…)

Despite the two-tier wage system, rural areas of the state were not exempted from other measures Democrats passed in the session, including a statewide smoking ban for bars and restaurants and a bill to adopt California-style emissions standards for new cars sold after 2010. Regulatory commissars unite!

New & notable legislation

The Taxpayer Protection Act, H.R. 1677, passed the House Tuesday 407-7. The bill would amend the Internal Revenue Service Code of 1986, adding a few needed revisions, including IRS notification on suspicion a taxpayer’s been victimized by identity theft; simplified processes for reclaiming wrongfully levied property and money; and more restrictions on tax-refund-anticipation loans. The bill also sets increased penalty payments for sending bad checks or money orders to the IRS.

The House approved H.R. 1905, which would give DC full representation in the House.

NATIONAL SECURITY

Bush, Democrats, meet on war funding

President Bush met this week with congressional leaders to discuss what to do about the Democrats’ doomed war-funding bill that calls for withdrawing American troops from Iraq in 2008. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made clear that they have no intention of removing the surrender provision from their military-funding legislation, even though they don’t have enough votes to override the President’s promised veto. Republicans across the board, and even some Democrats, realize that any legislation that sets a deadline for our withdrawal will be a signal to the jihadis to await our departure before declaring war on the fledgling Iraqi government. Liberals know that chaos would ensue in Iraq and across the Middle East, but they hope it will cause the nation to turn away from a strong military and look to the UN to solve international disputes.

Reid and Pelosi believe they have the voice of the American people on their side. “We believe [President Bush] must search his soul, his conscience, and find out what is the right thing for the American people,” Reid said. However, they have misinterpreted what citizens are really saying about the war. Yes, people are distressed about the current state of affairs, and yes, they want our men and women overseas to come home. However, there is nothing to indicate in any poll or survey that Americans are eager to drop everything and leave Iraq tomorrow. There is still a job to do, and if we don’t do it now, we will need to return at a later date.

This week’s “Surrender Monkey” Award:

“I believe… that this war is lost, and this surge is not accomplishing anything, as is shown by the extreme violence in Iraq this week.” —Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, aiding and abetting the enemy

House Minority Leader John Boehner responded appropriately: “He is telling our enemies they have won. While Mr. Reid may be willing to throw in the towel and declare this a lost cause, I am certain that American troops are not… Mr. Reid’s comments are demoralizing to our troops, and just plain wrong.”

Iran supplies weapons to Afghani terrorists

The Pentagon announced this week that enemy weapons recently recovered in Afghanistan were provided by—guess who?—Iran. Plastic explosives, mortar tubes and rounds, RPGs and small arms, among other items recovered by Coalition forces, all bore unmistakable markings tracing them to their point of origin. Our sources tell us that weapons were not all that was recovered—at least one member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps will cause no more trouble in Afghanistan, having moved on in search of 72 virgins.

Patriots, we repeat: Iran is the single most important problem that the civilized world faces, in the Middle East and beyond. Iranian arms in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in Lebanon, on their way to the Palestinian Authority, in Syria; Iranian Qods Force and Ministry of Intelligence and Security operatives thicker than sand fleas in Iraq; a developing alliance with Venezuelan thug Hugo Chavez that collectively controls 11 percent of the world’s oil; and, oh yes, the little problem of a nuclear-weapons program, controlled by the spiritual and ideological descendents of Old Whiskers himself—Ayatollah Khomeini.

The UN and the Europeans who lectured us that their “soft power” could sway Iran’s behavior have wasted four years “trying” to stop the Iranian nuclear-weapons program, and what can they show for it? An Iran more defiant than ever, one that laughed off the first two UN Security Council Resolutions and simply declared the latest one invalid, all while seeking more actively than ever to stop the spread of democracy in Afghanistan and Iraq. How much more time will the free world waste?

States rebel against REAL ID

Last week, Washington became the fourth state to pass legislation opposing the REAL ID Act of 2005, joining Maine, Arkansas and Idaho. The bill passed in Washington State will simply prevent implementation of REAL ID unless the federal government pays for the expense of doing so, as well as providing privacy protections. Arizona, Minnesota and South Carolina are all considering similar legislation.

REAL ID requires states to comply with federal standards for drivers’ licenses as a security measure, while storing information in a national database. It is opposed by more than 600 groups across the political spectrum—from the ACLU to Gun Owners of America—and rightly so, as it infringes, at best, on federalism, and at worst, on civil liberties. The 9/11 Commission recommended the measure, although none of the hijackers needed fake IDs. The REAL ID Act should be repealed, restoring 10th Amendment rights to the states and to the people.

BUSINESS & ECONOMY

World Bank boss Wolfowitz under fire

Those seeking to take World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz down a peg or two now have the ammunition they need, as recently released documents have revealed special considerations made for his girlfriend per his request. Shaha Riza, described as Wolfowitz’s “domestic partner,” is an employee of the World Bank and the target of a probe into substantial pay raises and promotions she has received since Wolfowitz took over as president in 2005.

Wolfowitz forthrightly proposed to recuse himself from all personnel matters dealing with Riza when he signed his contract to head the World Bank, but his attorney later demanded that professional contact between the two could not be interrupted. Wolfowitz has plenty of enemies at the WB. His promise to root out corruption and hold national lenders accountable saw to that. The animosity directed at him for his attack on the status quo goes hand in hand with a rabid anti-Americanism that lashes out at anyone with ties to President George W. Bush. It is clear that Wolfowitz is in part being targeted because he is actually trying to apply good sense to his job. Unfortunately, his own lapse in judgment regarding Riza has given his enemies an excuse to vilify him and even caused his supporters to call for his resignation.

Regarding the redistribution of your income

Chances are, half the people you see today depend on you for at least part of their livelihood. More than 52 percent of Americans now rely on the federal government (your pocketbook), either directly or indirectly, for some or all of their income. While 20 percent of the population hold federal jobs or are employed in other positions connected to the government, another 20 percent receive a government pension or Social Security. In addition, 19 million Americans are on the public dole for food stamps, five million receive education grants and two million hang their hat courtesy of subsidized housing.

Overall, this percentage is up three points from seven years ago, is almost double the percentage of 1950, and is well on its way to reaching the 55-percent level that President Reagan successfully began tackling in 1980. What’s more, unless big change occurs, by 2040 fully 60 percent of Americans could be holding out their hands to Uncle Sam.

Yet, that which government gives to the people it must first take from the people. Consider that the top ten percent of income earners—those earning $100,000 or more per year—pay 70 percent of all federal taxes. Contrasted with this, nearly 45 million Americans pay a grand total of zero taxes, relying instead on the labor of others. Governing this fiscal fiasco is a tax code seven times longer than the Bible. Apparently, Washington requires more words to subsidize its waste than the Almighty needed to prepare mankind for eternity.

As the road to hell is paved with good intentions, the specter of socialism is shrouded in federal bureaucracy. Without drastic change, American entrepreneurship will be visible only through a rearview mirror.

Sarbanes-Oxley vs. free enterprise

The common axiom that “hard cases make bad law” certainly applies to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. The act, authored in response to the accounting scandals of Enron and WorldCom, will soon celebrate its fifth anniversary. The law requires senior management to certify the accuracy of their financial disclosures, risking imprisonment should they fail to do so. The mitigation of that risk has required additional accounting expenditures, estimated at $2.4 million per company through 2005. The genesis of the corporate scandals was the blurring of the lines of responsibility within the accounting profession, as public accounting firms sought to derive additional fee income from consulting services sold to their audit clients. The cash cow (auditing department) will be set aside to capitalize on the emerging market (management consulting).

Sarbanes-Oxley represents a barrier to growth in a free-enterprise market. Established firms can absorb these regulatory costs in their ongoing operations, while growing firms need to allocate their capital resources to productive enterprises. Prior to the passage of Sarbanes-Oxley, the United States was the locus for 50 percent of the Initial Public Offerings of emerging businesses, but since its passage, the activity level for this essential opportunity for growth has fallen to only five percent. Needless to say, a tenfold decrease adversely affects those businesses that seek investors as well as those investors who seek opportunity.

Prior to Sarbanes-Oxley, CEOs and CFOs of publicly traded companies were responsible for their disclosures to their shareholders under pain of perjury—but as evidenced by Sandy Berger, Bill Clinton and Scooter Libby, perjury isn’t a serious matter unless you are a conservative. The unintended consequences of Sarbanes-Oxley yield credence to another political axiom: There is no one more dangerous than a legislator on a mission to do something.

Sallie Mae sold, Ted Kennedy hardest hit

The recent announcement of the buy-out of Sallie Mae Corporation has Wall Street investors stirring with anticipation and congressional Democrats frantically trying to keep their hands in the cookie jar. The $25-billion sale transfers Sallie Mae to banks JP Morgan Chase & Company and Bank of America Corporation and private equity firms JC Flowers & Company and Friedman Fleischer & Lowe, LLC.

While private investors immediately saw potential in the $85-billion-a-year student-loan industry, Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) wasn’t so quick to join in the capitalistic celebration. He protested, “Clearly, banks and investors see student loans as a very profitable business… It’s more urgent then ever to enact reforms to our student-loan system to ensure that students, not profits, are our top priority.” Translation: The free-enterprise system is about to work—quick, get the government involved! Perhaps Senator Kennedy hopes Uncle Sam will replicate his stunning success in healthcare, welfare reform and public housing?

Congress would do well to remember the simple wisdom of President Ronald Reagan: “Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.” Government has yet to play the savior effectively for any domestic business need and odds are that Sallie Mae won’t prove a first.

Regulatory Commissars: Healthcare sticker shock

Connecticut lawmakers experienced sticker shock over the state’s proposal for universal health coverage after the state Office of Fiscal Analysis estimated the plan might cost up to $18 billion each year. Republican Governor Jodi Rell says she opposes the proposal and noted that 94 percent of state residents already are covered by Medicaid, Medicare or employer-subsidized insurance. Apparently, spending $18 billion a year to cover only six percent of the population was too bitter a pill for Connecticut’s legislators to swallow, although Democrats were still holding out hope that the scheme would become law. Since government bureaucrats typically don’t have a clue, they had no idea that the cost of their healthcare schemes would double the size of the state budget.

Across country, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed new $12-billion socialized-healthcare scheme to require (not merely encourage) health insurance for every state resident through a cornucopia of taxes and “fees” (more taxes) is starting to resemble Big Brother by proposing state tracking of private citizens through accessing of private databases. After notifying citizen slackers that they lack health insurance, the state would “attach the wages of people who don’t buy insurance” and “increase the amount they owe in state income taxes.” We suppose the laboratories of republican government do produce the occasional Frankenstein.

CULTURE

Supreme Court decides for life

In a 5-4 decision this week, the Supreme Court upheld the federal ban on partial-birth abortion, rejecting claims that in some cases the procedure is needed to protect the health of the mother, or that some constitutional penumbra protects the grisly practice. This ruling appears to contradict the one striking down Nebraska’s ban in 2000, which did not contain an exception for the “health of the mother,” though the federal bill does contain a “satisfactory” exemption. However, Justice Anthony Kennedy, who wrote the majority opinion, left the door open for his malleable mind to be changed in the future.

Several presidential candidates weighed in on the matter. Hillary Clinton blasted the decision for the usual reasons, adding, “It is precisely this erosion of our constitutional rights that I warned against when I opposed the nominations of Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito.” Mitt Romney, on the other hand, said, “[O]ur nation’s highest court reaffirmed the value of life in America…” Rudy Giuliani agreed: “The Supreme Court reached the correct conclusion…” Barack Obama and John Edwards denounced the decision as, in Edwards’ words, a “hard right turn” by the Court.

We in our humble shop think that upholding a federal ban on PBA is a wonderful victory for life, but the real need here is the overturn of Roe v. Wade, which would return the issue to the states where it belongs. Appointing the right judges in the near future is a critical reason why a pro-life candidate must win in 2008.

Paul Krugman hates Christians

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman’s latest straw-man article concludes that a conspiracy of Christians is attempting to infiltrate the U.S. government. (Krugman was obviously not a history major.) Of course, Krugman denies that this is a conspiracy theory—because, he claims, “this conspiracy is no theory.” (Before you read on, we suggest you close the blinds and survey the perimeter of your position.) The hysteria stems from the fact that Monica Goodling, former top aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, graduated from Regent University, founded by—gasp!—televangelist Pat Robertson. Regent “boasts that it has 150 graduates working in the Bush administration,” Krugman ominously notes.

Krugman lists several other mysterious examples of “infiltration”: A job given to a Regent law-school graduate who opposed the Supreme Court’s Lawrence decision on sodomy; a NASA appointee who qualified the Big Bang as “theory”; and the Texas Republican Party’s stance on dispelling the myth of separation of church and state (George Bush and Karl Rove are from Texas). If that’s not enough to leave you quaking in fear, Krugman’s final warning is that while this movement has experienced recent setbacks, it will rear its ugly head again. In fact, “Next week Rudy Giuliani will be speaking at Regent’s Executive Leadership Series.” Oh, stop the insanity!

Muslim cab drives must obey law in Minneapolis

Six months ago, we reported that Muslim cab drivers serving the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport are refusing, because of Sharia law, to accommodate paying passengers who are carrying liquor or are accompanied by dogs. In a victory for common sense, and the law, the Metropolitan Airports Commission, responding to complaints about the liquor issue, voted unanimously to impose new penalties beginning in May, including a two-year revocation of taxi permits for refusing to carry passengers.

Since January 2002, the commission said there have been about 4,800 instances in which cab drivers refused to pick up people with alcohol in their possession. Duty-free alcoholic beverages are often carried in easily identifiable packages.

So cheers to the Metropolitan Airports Commission for doing the right thing in tightening and enforcing regulations that permit the riding public to select cabs, and not visa versa. We heartily wish the Commission good luck in the pending action.

Junk Science: Earth Day 2008

We’re sure Patriot readers everywhere will have their grills out on Sunday, Earth Day, working on their “low-carbon-footprint diets.” Al Gore will be installing 33 solar panels in his 10,000-square-foot Nashville mansion as part of his “carbon offsets.” Naturally, global warming is still in the news this week, so for Earth Day, we’ll treat you to two of the hottest stories.

On the fuel front, a Stanford University study was just released, indicating that environmentalists’ beloved ethanol E85 could cause the number of respiratory-related hospitalizations and deaths to increase substantially. The study also found that while E85 vehicles reduce atmospheric levels of two carcinogens, benzene and butadiene, two others increase—formaldehyde and acetaldehyde. Thus, E85 significantly increases ozone, and thereby, smog. Researcher Mark Jacobson said, “[W]e found that using E85 will cause at least as much health damage as gasoline…”

Speaking of health damage, a group called Californians for Population Stabilization issued a statement this week saying, “Human population growth is the paramount environmental issue” and is “the most crucial factor in reducing global warming.” Spokesman Ric Oberlink blamed humans for “most environmental problems” and went so far as to say, “If we had half as many people, we wouldn’t have much of a climatic warming problem.” Oberlink does not advocate suicide, though that is the logical follow-through of his argument (no volunteers from CPS), but he sticks to birth control and immigration—as if having more people anywhere but America will reduce warming. Brilliant.

And last…

John Edwards has great hair. Of course, you would have great hair, too, if you paid $400 for a trim in Beverly Hills, as Demo presidential candidate Edwards has in recent weeks. Unfortunately, Edwards’ personal spending on haircuts is just the latest misstep by the man who is trying to appeal to America’s populist vote. Two weeks ago, his wife Elizabeth derided their neighbor for his “slummy” property. Now, don’t get us wrong—we live in a capitalist society that allows us to spend the fruits of our labor as we see fit, and if a man wants to blow $400 on a haircut, well, best wishes to him. Likewise if he can afford a 28,000-square-foot mansion. Edwards, though, will have a tough time convincing voters that he has even a clue about the less affluent of those “two Americas” he keeps talking about, but at least he’ll look good trying.

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