GOVERNMENT & POLITICS

News from the Swamp: Democrats surrender

The Surrender Monkeys in Congress finally gave up their fight to set a date for defeat in Iraq, conceding that they could not break unified Republican support for funding our troops. After President Bush vetoed the first war-funding bill that included a timeline for withdrawal from Iraq, Democrats still clung to the idea of a timeline, or at least partial funding with a second vote this summer. Facing increasing pressure to fund the troops before Memorial Day, many Demos accepted a GOP plan that includes 18 various “benchmarks” for the Iraqi government and periodic reports from President Bush. The House voted 280-142 to fund the war fully through September (the end of the fiscal year), including a vitally important provision for the war effort: A $2.10 hike in the minimum wage. The Senate voted likewise 80-14.

Undaunted by the prospect of American victory, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) continue to work their sabotage in the halls of Congress. Pelosi declared, “This debate will go on.” So evident are their wanton acts of abandonment that Iraqi Defense Minister Abdul-Qader al-Obeidi announced efforts this week to draw up plans to “deal with a sudden pullout.”

Earlier in the day, President Bush made a Rose Garden speech and signaled that we would leave Iraq if the Iraqi government asked us to. “We are there at the invitation of the Iraqi government,” he said. “This is a sovereign nation. Twelve million people went to the polls to approve a constitution. It’s their government’s choice. If they were to say, leave, we would leave.” Then he added, “I would hope that they would recognize that the results would be catastrophic.” Now if only Democrats would strive for victory, rather than seek defeat for their own perceived gain.

As a footnote, presidential candidates Hillary “formerly Rodham” Clinton and Barack Obama voted to abandon the troops—a strange way for two would-be commanders in chief to observe Memorial Day.

In the House: The pork tradition continues

The new congressional plan to require the identification of earmark sponsors has achieved nothing in curbing their widespread use, as evidenced by a water-projects bill that comfortably passed both the House and Senate last week. The House version contained 692 earmarks, and the Senate version contained 446. Removing their anonymity was supposed to make pork-barrel-spending legislators think twice about having their names tied to frivolous spending amendments that ratchet up federal budgets every year—by $19 billion in fiscal 2005 alone. Yet politics is local, and for congressmen elected locally, bringing home the bacon matters more than any stigma. The 446 earmarks in this year’s Senate bill trump the 272 earmarks contained in last year’s Republican water bill, further exposing the hypocrisy of Demo complaints over GOP pork spending in 2006.

Meanwhile, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) filed a resolution this week for the House to reprimand Demo loudmouth John Murtha (D-PA) for threatening to kill any earmarks Rogers introduced in any defense-appropriations bill. Murtha’s threat came after Rogers unsuccessfully tried to remove an earmark that Murtha added to the Intelligence Authorization Act of 2008 (H.R. 2082) to authorize $23 million for the National Drug Intelligence Center based in Murtha’s district. Rogers acted in line with President Bush’s desire to close the office, which has been given poor reviews by several federal review boards.

Murtha told Rogers after the vote, “I hope you don’t have any earmarks in the defense appropriations bill because they are gone, and you will not get any earmarks now and forever.” This tirade, complete with finger-pointing, came on the heels of a similar threat Murtha made to Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-KS), after Tiahrt voted to close a program in Murtha’s district. Murtha’s next project is to pass the 2008 intelligence bill—complete with a mandate that the intelligence community report on global warming.

In the Senate: Demos continue assault on Justice

The manufactured controversy over the firing of eight federal prosecutors has emboldened Democrats in Congress to muscle in on the President’s ability to appoint federal prosecutors. A bill passed by the House and Senate this week will repeal a provision of last year’s renewed Patriot Act that allowed the President to appoint federal prosecutors indefinitely without Senate confirmation. Instead, the Attorney General would appoint new prosecutors for a period of up to 120 days until the Senate acts to confirm them, which was the policy previously in place. The original aim of the Patriot Act was to remove the politicization of prosecutorial appointments during wartime, but Democrats claim that the White House used the provision for political gain to remove prosecutors and replace them with people loyal to the White House.

With the help of the Leftmedia, the Democrats have done a fine job of creating a scandal where one did not exist. Demo leaders in Congress are planning a meaningless “no confidence” vote against Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in mid-June after hearing former aide Monica Goodling testify this week. Goodling said she “crossed the line” when taking into account party affiliation when hiring attorneys, though she distanced herself from the firings. She also said Gonzales had sought to get their stories straight before testimony. Gonzales soon may be thrown under the bus in an effort to appease the Demo headhunters.

New & notable legislation

Rep. Chris Cannon (R-UT) attached an amendment to the upcoming lobbying reform bill (H.R. 2316) to prohibit law firms or lawyers who are currently being paid for services by Congress from lobbying members, committees or employees of Congress.

The National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2008, H.R. 1585, passed 397-27.

Carter confuses Bush administration with his own

Jimmy Carter has screwed up again. It happens so often that it makes us wonder if it’s even noteworthy anymore, but his recent gaffe in an interview with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette begs a response—and a review of the record. In a conversation regarding the war, Carter was asked, “Which president was worse, George W. Bush or Richard Nixon?” America’s 39th President replied, “I think as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world, this administration has been the worst in history.” He couldn’t simply say that Bush was worse than Nixon; he had to go the extra mile and say he was the worst ever. Carter backpedaled on NBC’s “Today” show, stating that his remarks “were maybe careless or misinterpreted.” As Jay Leno quipped, “I’m sure the phrase ‘the worst in history’ can be taken any number of ways.”

It’s not a stretch, however, to conclude that Carter himself presided over the worst administration in history in terms of foreign policy. During his four-year reign of error, Carter did nothing to intervene when the Sandinistas introduced a Communist regime in Nicaragua, just a thousand miles south of the U.S. border. He wore sweaters and talked about “malaise” while Islamic fundamentalists overthrew an allied government in Iran; then he allowed 52 Americans to languish in captivity there for 444 days, with only one smallish and ill-fated rescue attempt. He allowed the Soviets to make a mockery of the U.S. by boycotting the 1980 Olympic Summer Games in Moscow and finished off his term with interest rates at 21 percent, inflation at 13 percent, and an approval rating at 21 percent—the lowest in the history of modern polling. You were saying, Jimmy?

NATIONAL SECURITY

Warfront with Jihadistan: Bush restates case for war

On Wednesday, President Bush reminded the country that we are indeed at war with an enemy that wants to strike us hard, right here at home. Speaking at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy’s commencement ceremony, the President described defeated terrorism plots that had been revealed previously. In addition, he fleshed out more details and highlighted recently declassified U.S. successes in foiling other planned attacks since 9/11, including another East Coast attack using multiple airplanes.

Perhaps of most interest were his remarks about Osama bin Laden. The President said U.S. intelligence indicated that in January 2005, bin Laden directed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, his senior al-Qa’ida operative in Iraq, to use Iraq as a staging ground for attacks within the United States. Al-Zarqawi, as you may recall, had a bad reaction to some U.S. ordnance in Iraq last June. Naturally, left-wing critics discounted the President’s speech, saying that he selectively releases intelligence to build his false case against the jihadis. Then, as if on cue, al-Qa’ida released a new propaganda tape this week with an opening graphic showing a headline reading, “The Islamic State of Iraq… March Toward Washington” superimposed over a digitally created scene of the U.S. capital under attack.

John “I’ll teach you about poverty for $55,000” Edwards even said this week that there is no “global war on terror,” arguing that the phrase is no more than a bumper-sticker slogan. Osama couldn’t have said it better himself. Makes one wonder if al-Qa’ida contributes to the Breck Girl’s bumper-sticker presidential campaign.

Edwards sullies Memorial Day

Speaking of John Edwards, the Demo presidential candidate wants to remake Memorial Day in the liberal image this year, proposing that instead of honoring the brave soldiers who have made the ultimate sacrifice to defend our country, Americans should use the holiday as a day of antiwar activism. It’s hard to imagine that Edwards would ever muss his great hair by actually going into combat himself, but the fact that he is advocating one of our nation’s greatest days of remembrance be used as a political statement to further the ends of his cut-and-run campaign is sickening to the stomach. At a commencement address at New England College in New Hampshire, Edwards called on people to send care packages and hold prayer vigils with the ultimate aim of demanding an end to the war in Iraq. Memo to Edwards: If we leave Iraq, the war will not end; it will only come back to America.

On the contrary, there’s no better way to commemorate Memorial Day than to honor the triumphs of our fighting forces, many of whom have purchased those triumphs with blood. Accordingly, we’d like to highlight just a few of the many victories you’re unlikely to read about in the MSM. For instance, collaboration between U.S. Marines and Iraqi army forces has resulted in the arrest of 250 terrorists in Anbar, a province once thought unmanageable. More than 100 IEDs were also recovered during the operation (“Valiant Guardian”), clearly surprising the terrorists, who had once believed they “owned” Anbar. Meanwhile, a U.S. -led ambush in southern Afghanistan resulted in the destruction of seven enemy compounds and 25 terrorists, including Taliban commander Mullah Younus. This came on the heels of last week’s permanent “rehabilitation” of the “Butcher of Kandahar,” Mullah Dadullah, courtesy of our Special Forces. Clearly, the supply of Taliban commanders is drying up, thanks to U.S. housecleaning in Afghanistan.

This Memorial Day, remember the sacrifices our men and women in uniform make to keep The Long War off American soil.

Profiles of valor: Marine Corps Reserve Cpl. Camp

While on patrol to clear insurgent areas near the Syrian border as part of Operation Matador, then-Lance Cpl. Mark Camp, serving with Company L, 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines, stood in the hatch of an amphibious assault vehicle closely surveying his surroundings. Children had been playing in the area, but as the convoy rolled further along, Camp noticed the sudden, strange silence.

A roadside bomb exploded, sending Camp’s vehicle into the air. Camp then fought to extinguish the flames on his hands and face, while directing others to open the door of the vehicle in which 17 Marines were trapped. While most of the Marines stumbled out, badly injured, Camp heard the voice of his friend, Pfc. Christopher Dixon, who was still trapped. Camp crawled back into the vehicle, though his right leg was badly injured by shrapnel. Despite his injuries, continued gunfire from the insurgents, and intense heat inside the vehicle that was causing ammunition to cook off, he was determined to save Dixon.

Another explosion sent Camp flying back out of the vehicle; he was on fire again. After beating down the flames, Camp climbed back into the vehicle a second time and realized, as he tried to pull Dixon to safety, that his hands were burned beyond function. “I [was] screaming for someone to help me… someone with fresh hands,” Camp later said. Camp and Dixon were finally pulled free, though Dixon was killed by the second detonation.

For exhibiting character typical of a Marine in both his brave rescue actions and for another incident involving an insurgent attack, Cpl. Mark Camp was awarded the Silver Star.

In other news from the warfront, the body of Pfc. Joseph Anzack Jr. , one of three missing U.S. soldiers, was recovered Wednesday. Anzack, along with Spc. Alex Jimenez and Pvt. Byron Fouty, went missing after an ambush on 12 May that killed four other American soldiers and an Iraqi soldier. Pfc. Sammy Rhodes of Anzack’s platoon said of the remaining missing soldiers, “We can’t leave them behind. I just hope that they have enough faith to keep them going.” Godspeed.

Homeland Security: Survey of U.S. Muslims

The liberal Pew Research Center has released a survey of more than 1,000 in the U.S. Muslim population with some good, bad and ugly. The good news is that about two thirds of those polled say they are “largely assimilated, happy with their lives,” have not experienced discrimination and believe in the American Dream—that they can get ahead through hard work. The vast majority of American Muslims are indeed peace-loving people who have more or less adopted the Western way of life. The bad news is that more than one quarter have “no opinion” about al-Qa’ida and five percent have a favorable opinion of the terrorist organization. The ugly is that more than one quarter believe that, under certain circumstances, suicide bombing is at least rarely, if not often, justified. So: drawing on government statistics, about 600,000 Muslims in this country are sympathetic to terrorism. Statistics can certainly be overblown, but one cannot underestimate the threat that radical Islam poses, even right here at home.

Iran to obtain Russian air-defense system

From Russia with love: Iran has reportedly inked a deal to acquire Russian Pantsyr-S1E air-defense systems via middleman Syria. The Pantsyr-S1E is a mobile, short-range gun-missile combination system, suited for defending fixed installations against air or cruise-missile attack. The Pantsyr-S1E, if provided to Iran, would augment that country’s recently acquired SA-15b air-defense missiles in defending high-value nuclear sites. Russia denies that it has approved the deal, claiming that the system cannot be re-exported after being delivered to Syria, the original customer. Sort of like the way that Chinese C802s could not be exported to Hizballah after being delivered to Iran, we suppose.

In a move calculated to remind Iran of its vulnerability to air attack, and indirectly to persuade Iran to mend its evil ways, the U.S. Navy sent not one but two aircraft carriers, and a Marine amphibious group for good measure, into the Persian Gulf this week. After taking positions off Iran’s western coastline, both the carrier groups and the amphibious group will conduct exercises to hone their war-fighting skills, while giving Iran an eyeful of American capability. Most certainly NOT by coincidence, the deadline for Iranian compliance with UN Security Council Resolution 1747 fell on Thursday. As predicted, Iran failed with flying colors, and the UN will now take up the issue of additional sanctions. Given Iran’s history of ignoring UNSC resolutions, the Navy and Marines may soon need to apply those war-fighting skills.

BUSINESS & ECONOMY

High gas prices, more congressional meddling

After much angry chest-beating coming from Capitol Hill over high gas prices, the faithful guardians of the U.S. Constitution in the House of Representatives decided to do something about it. The House passed a bill to outlaw “gouging” by gas stations and oil companies. Get ready for shortages and lines at the pump, a la the 1970s. The House also voted 345-72 to allow the government to sue OPEC over oil-production quotas. “We don’t have to stand by and watch OPEC dictate the price of gas,” crowed clueless Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI). Conyers is looking to please his “Big Oil conspiracy” base and he may even fancy this will help us at the pump, but the only real result will be an increase in the price of gas due to the inevitable disruption of supply. A more helpful move might be a repeal of the 57 varieties of “boutique” blends required around the nation. In other words, we recommend reversing regulation instead of introducing the legal lotto into the mix.

What is more, the Federal Highway Trust Fund is facing a shortfall of $1.7 billion by 2009, which will grow to $8.1 billion by 2010. The fund, which finances approximately 45 percent of all highway-project spending, as well as rampant misspending, makes most of its income from the 18.4 cents-a-gallon tax on fuel. Unfortunately for the government, if Americans don’t drive as much or choose a hybrid over a Hummer, the fund suffers. The American Association of State Highway and Transportation estimates that the fuel tax, which Congress has not increased since 1993, must increase 10 cents per gallon through 2015 in order for the fund to function. But with Democrats approving an unprecedented $2.9-trillion budget—including the largest tax increase in history—lack of money is clearly not the problem.

Calls to investigate carbon offsets

Representatives Tom Davis (R-VA) and Darrell Issa (R-CA) have formally asked the Government Accountability Office to investigate the unregulated world of carbon-offset programs. Carbon offsets are levies that individuals and businesses can pay to fund renewable-energy sources to offset the high levels of carbon-dioxide emissions now being blamed for global warming. This way, carbon producers made to feel guilty by environmentalists can claim with good conscience that they are “carbon neutral.” Offsets are becoming increasingly popular in the wake of the debate over global warming, which environmentalists have effectively ended despite growing evidence that the warming trend is neither permanent nor entirely manmade.

There is currently neither oversight nor standards in the selling of carbon offsets by some 60 companies in the U.S. , and there is no way of knowing if the emissions that are being offset exist or if the money being collected is actually being invested in renewable energy programs. As a study by Clean Air Cool Planet of New Hampshire notes, “[A]lmost anyone can offer to sell you almost anything and claim that this purchase will make you carbon neutral.” Sounds like a great business plan to us.

Obama’s very own healthcare proposal

From the Empty Suit Files, liberal Senator and presidential candidate Barack Obama recently promised to deliver his own version of universal health coverage. The Illinois Rock Star suggested his plan would be paid for by the familiar liberal tropes of preventive healthcare savings, improved care for the chronically ill and using new technology to reduce paperwork and bureaucracy. Given Obama’s disconnect with the current surfeit of federal spending on these areas, it is unclear how these unquantifiable savings will justify $79 billion in new spending. Obama was also silent regarding how the federal budget will reconcile his scheme to add trillions of dollars in unfunded universal-healthcare debt to the tens of billions in unfunded Medicare spending already on the books. As it now stands, Medicare will eventually consume 50 percent of the federal budget.

In contrast to the accelerating bankruptcy of the federal government’s Medicare final solution, the states continue to experiment with new programs. As is the nature of experiments, some succeed while others don’t. An example of the latter would be Massachusetts’ “universal” healthcare program (courtesy Mitt Romney), which mysteriously excludes the 20 percent of the state’s uninsured population that can least afford the coverage. Program costs have soared to $1.7 billion per year. This poses an ominous new challenge to our continued desire to live in liberty rather than die in shackles within an incompetent bureaucratic nanny state.

CULTURE

From the Village Academic Curriculum File

First it was universal healthcare. Now, hip-hip hooray, it’s pre-kindergarten for all! At a cost of merely $10 billion (a figure reminiscent of the predicted bill for Medicare in 1995—only $355 billion off), Senator and presidential wannabe Hillary Clinton has proposed establishing a new federal program to provide voluntary universal pre-kindergarten to all four-year-olds. (It takes a village, after all.) Her plan, akin to government daycare in sanitary packaging, would allocate federal funds to states that agree to create voluntary, universal pre-K programs. Naturally, in true social-justice fashion, participating states would be required to provide no-cost services to children from low-income and “limited English” homes.

In outlining Hillary-Ed, the Clinton campaign argued that while state spending on pre-kindergarten programs has increased by $1 billion over the last two years, fewer than 20 percent of four-year-olds actually benefit from these programs. This means 80 percent of four-year-olds are being denied surrogate parenting and leftist indoctrination by Washington. Unthinkable! After all, in just 14 years these children will be of voting age. And as current electoral flurries prove, it’s never too early to start campaigning.

Forecast: It’s gonna be hot

Breaking News! In an announcement sure to astonish the country and instill fear in law-abiding citizens everywhere, weather experts are predicting… a hot summer. The federal Climate Prediction Center forecasts that drought in the West and upper Midwest will persist, and dire concern exists over how these areas, along with the Southeast, will cope with such summertime anomalies as heat, dryness and lightning.

To make matters worse, the National Weather Service has released its prediction for the 2007 hurricane season, and it includes 13 to 17 named storms, with seven to ten of these becoming major hurricanes ranked at Category Three or higher.

But fear not—the federal government is preparing to save the day. In a joint news conference this week, FEMA, the Department of Homeland Security, the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, the Air Force Reserve and the U.S. Coast Guard reaffirmed their commitment to work together to prepare for the upcoming weather seasons. Good thing, too—what, with heat in summer and now hurricanes in hurricane season. Next it’ll be snow in winter. Perish the thought.

Washington Post celebrates malaria

The Washington Post published a puff piece celebrating Rachel Carson’s 100th birthday (she died in 1964). Why is that important, you ask? In 1962, Carson wrote the best-selling book Silent Spring, which “led to the banning of the pesticide DDT, the launch of modern environmentalism and her enshrinement as a kind of patron saint of nature,” wrote reporter David Fahrenthold.

To the average reader, that may sound laudable, but consider this: The American Council on Science and Health says, “The results [of the DDT ban] were disastrous: at least 1-2 million people continue to die from malaria each year, 30-60 million or more lives needlessly lost since the ban took effect,” mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. The Post addressed this by saying Carson’s actions “have remained controversial.” You don’t say! Even the World Health Organization has endorsed the use of DDT to combat malaria in poor countries. The Post, of course, forgot to mention this inconvenient truth. Or perhaps it’s just that modern environmentalism is often far more interested in a political agenda than human life.

And last…

Amnesty International, USA, is a leftist organization whose mission is, “Action for human rights. Hope for humanity.” Clearly, it’s an organization that wishes to be taken seriously, though it didn’t help its case earlier this week with the posting of an utterly childish poll on its website: “Who’s got the worst human rights record? VOTE NOW!” The three contenders for this dubious distinction are Darth Vader for “Torture, enslavement of Wookiees, decimation of the Alderaanian civilization”; Hobgoblin for “Attacks on Spiderman, gassing civilian populations, using innocents as human shields”; or Dick Cheney for “Torture, black sites, ‘disappearances,’ kangaroo courts, indefinite detention, and more!”

At last count, Lord Vader led the poll with 67 percent, but the Vice President was second with 22 percent. Amnesty sternly intones, “All joking aside, the U.S. government, once perceived as a beacon of hope and justice, no longer leads the world on human rights.” No word on whether we have ceded our leadership position to North Korea, Iran, Syria, Sudan or perhaps Communist Cuba itself. All joking aside, of course.

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.)