GOVERNMENT & POLITICS

News from the Swamp: More tax cuts?

In the Executive Branch: President George W. Bush this week said that he is considering calling for further cuts to corporate-tax rates at just the time when Democrats are promising to raise taxes for the “rich.” Of course, his approval rating is higher than that of Congress. “Our tax structure makes us less competitive,” the President said, noting that nations such as Britain, France and Germany have lower corporate-tax rates than the U.S. “There’s a chance that we may be able to devise a simplification that will enable us to have a tax code that is more competitive,” he added. “I’m inclined to want to push hard.” All we can say is, Mr. President, push hard! An accompanying reduction in the federal budget would be great, too. Unfortunately, that’s not likely to happen.

In the House: Defense bill passes

The House passed H.R. 3222, the 2008 defense-appropriations bill, 395-13. This $459-billion package is smaller than what President Bush requested, but it still ranks among the largest defense budgets in history. New weapons systems such as the Joint Strike Fighter and the F-22 Raptor received allocations, and service members received a 3.5-percent raise. However, missile defense was cut by four percent—bad news for a program that is woefully under-funded at its current $8.5-billion level.

We’re shocked to report that no money was allocated for the ongoing fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Democrats have decided to wait until September to launch yet another attempt to force a retreat from Iraq. Expect the Leftmedia to be alive and kicking between now and then with stories about how we’re losing in Iraq.

Stealing House votes

If they can’t earn votes to pass legislation, Democrats appear perfectly comfortable with stealing them. Late last week, Republicans passed an amendment to the agriculture bill that would have prevented federal benefits from going to illegal aliens. The vote was 215-213 when the gavel fell, but Demos kept fishing for votes and finally declared the proposal dead at 212-216.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) apologized for what he called an accident that took place during heated debate. Still, he didn’t offer to fix the problem. Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) is putting together a panel to look into the matter. Better still would be letting the public know in no uncertain terms just what the Democrats are up to. Rewriting entries in the Congressional Record, keeping earmark information from the public and re-voting on closed roll calls are just the actions we know about. What else is going on in the “Democratic” Congress?

Judicial Benchmarks: Judge Pearson reviewed

From the “Court Jesters” File: Judge Roy Pearson of Washington, DC, may soon find himself looking for work. You may recall that earlier this year he infamously sued Custom Cleaners for losing his pants. The suit demanded $54 million in “damages.” The Commission on Selection and Tenure of Administrative Law Judges sent Judge Pearson a letter not only decrying his antics with the lawsuit, but also criticizing his work as a judge over the last two years. He isn’t out on the street yet, but he may soon need a good pair of pants for job interviews.

How the candidates spent the weekend

The Republican presidential candidates appeared on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday to field questions from host George Stephanopoulos and other journalists. Rush Limbaugh questioned the wisdom of a Sunday morning debate among Republicans, as most of their base is in church. “Don’t you think it would be best to schedule the Democrats then?” asked Limbaugh. It’s a good question—certainly better than most of those that were fielded. Typical Leftmedia prods included abortion, which was the opening topic, and the concept of raising taxes to quell our latest infrastructure worries. Rudy Giuliani’s response is worth repeating: “There is a liberal Democratic assumption that if you raise taxes, you raise money. We should have a good program for [investing in infrastructure], but the knee-jerk liberal Democratic reaction, raise taxes to get money, very often is a very big mistake.”

The Democrat candidates spent the weekend promising to raise taxes on evil corporations, reject lobbyist money, summarily end our involvement in Iraq and pursue a host of other items that can’t be allowed to happen. They did so at the YearlyKos Convention, an annual gathering of Markos Moulitsas Zuniga and his Leftist blogging brethren. The candidates have not underestimated the power that the extreme liberals hold, and they didn’t want to miss a chance for some face time in the loony bin. However, they all managed to pass up the chance to appear at the Democratic Leadership Council, which was helpful in putting Bill Clinton in the White House. Spurning potential moderate votes for the fringe is a tactic the candidates appear to have embraced during this early stage in the campaign. What happens when the time comes to drift back to the center? Could get ugly.

Speaking of things getting ugly, Rudy Giuliani’s daughter Caroline was outed this week for being a member of the Barack Obama Facebook group. Once the information was reported, her profile promptly disappeared from the site. Caroline is Rudy’s daughter by his second wife, Donna Hanover. Media reports indicate that Giuliani and their other child, Andrew, are on the outs. Dragging the kids in; not a good sign.

This week’s ‘Keen Sense of the Obvious’ award

“We can’t make John black, we can’t make him a woman. Those things get you a lot of press, worth a certain amount of fundraising dollars.” —Elizabeth Edwards

There are some who may argue that he already displays too many characteristics of the latter…

Appeals Court gives Jefferson a gift

The Federal Appeals Court in DC ruled that the FBI violated the Constitution in its May 2006 seizure of documents from the House office of William Jefferson (D-LA). The raid occurred after $90,000 in cash was found in Jefferson’s freezer and a business associate of his went to jail for bribery. The documents have been sealed while Jefferson’s attorneys and federal investigators sort out which materials are protected under the Speech or Debate Clause.

The ruling will likely have little effect on the government’s case against Jefferson, and it appears they have enough to nail him without the materials collected from his office should they ultimately be ruled inadmissible. The trial is set to begin in January.

NATIONAL SECURITY

Warfront with Jihadistan: Never mind the facts

Do they want America to succeed? The usual suspects on the Left apparently cannot wait until General David Petraeus provides his September report before they declare the “surge” a total failure. The latest talking point is “monumental improvement” —as in “we will need to see monumental improvement in Iraq, not just the current blips of success,” said Rep. Charlie Wilson (D-OH). House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s staff has admitted that she “is not willing to concede there are positive things to point to in Iraq.” Most important in this age of non-stop political campaigning, the loony Left that increasingly dominates Democrat politics demands withdrawal of U.S. troops no matter what the situation on the ground may be. Says Code Pink(o) spokeswoman Medea Benjamin: “No matter what the Petraeus report says, we will continue to call for the speedy and safe withdrawal of all US troops.”

Ponder that for a moment: “No matter what the report says.” We salute Code Pink at least for having the stones to say openly what they believe, unlike congressional Democrats, who use vague and malleable terms like “monumental improvement” to make it seem as though they’re open to persuasion, rather than being closed-minded in their desire to abandon Iraq. They know that the American people, while understandably unhappy about Iraq, would be even more unhappy about an abject surrender and withdrawal. The majority party obviously doesn’t have the strength of its convictions. Instead, carefully weighing domestic political costs and benefits, they continue to pretend that they want America to succeed, while all but openly declaring their willingness to surrender.

Haditha murder charges dropped

Charges against two Marines in the Haditha incident were dropped yesterday. In November 2005, three enlisted Marines from Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, engaged what they maintain to have been insurgents in Haditha, Iraq, after a comrade was killed by a roadside bomb. When the smoke cleared, 24 men, women and children were dead. Rep. Fightin’ John Murtha (D-Haditha) immediately accused the Marines of murder “in cold blood.” After months of investigation, however, that charge proved to be a shameless piece of slander. Lt. Gen. James Mattis, commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force will not court-martial Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt and Capt. Randy Stone. The evidence showed that Sharratt and his two Marine companions during the fight had in fact killed several insurgents. All of the dead were shot facing forward and at a distance, indicating that those killed were not executed. Charges that Capt. Stone did not properly report the incident were also dropped. Lt. Gen. Mattis also noted that the Iraqis had a powerful motive for lying, given that the family might receive $2,500 for each victim. Five Marines still face charges in the incident.

On the Homeland Security front: 9/11 and FISA

President Bush finally got his chance to sign the Homeland Security bill to heighten domestic security. He also made note of the provision to protect Americans from undue prosecution for reporting potential terrorist activity, a Republican victory, and an updated visa waiver program. Democrats were pleased to go into August recess with this bill signed, as they can now go back to their constituents and brag that they got the job done. It could have been a better bill, of course, but liberals stood in the way.

Meanwhile, last week we highlighted President Bush’s ongoing battle with the Democrat-controlled Congress to update the 30-year-old Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to meet post-9/11 intelligence needs. That battle rages on, with President Bush having signed into law—just under the wire before Congress’ August recess—a stopgap measure under the auspices of FISA. This temporary law permits intelligence agencies to conduct warrantless wiretaps for calls from suspected terrorists made from foreign countries to the U.S. Naturally, smooth-brains from leftist camps are deploring this “tremendous loss” of liberty. They don’t seem nearly as concerned, however, for the loss of liberty that innocents will suffer should a bombing campaign be executed on U.S. soil as they are with the fear that the NSA might actually succeed in monitoring an overseas call to the U.S. made by a friendly neighborhood Taliban—oh, the humanity!

Although the nascent FISA adjunct-rule sundowns after only six months the Demos were hard-pressed to deliver even this brief window of opportunity. It nonetheless arrives not a moment too soon. The measure provides intelligence agencies much-needed relief in prosecuting operations against suspected terrorists on foreign soil, as well as in preventing the loss of innocent lives, both at home and abroad. Summing up the importance of the new law, President Bush noted, “When our intelligence professionals have the legal tools to gather information about the intentions of our enemies, America is safer.” Safer still would be getting Congress to make this legislation permanent, though that is most unlikely.

Not the Big Apple, the Big Brother

On the wrong end of the surveillance spectrum is New York City. Under the watchful eye of party-hopping billionaire mayor Michael Bloomberg, post-9/11 New York is playing catch-up with London for the title of the world’s most-surveilled city. Cameras have popped up by the thousands to act as a “deterrent” and “investigative tool” —many of which belong to private companies that provide access to the police, a common practice. The idea of safety through general surveillance is by no means new, and New York increasingly sounds out an eerie echo of 19th-century British philosopher Jeremy Bentham’s idea of the Panopticon, a society tightly controlled by the ever-present threat of being caught on “candid camera.” Unlike the NSA’s terrorist-surveillance program, these watchful eyes are not targeted at suspects.

Not content with the existing camera infrastructure, the city seeks funding for a system modeled on London’s “Ring of Steel” CCTV scheme, a network of thousands of surveillance cameras that blanket the city, capturing license-plate numbers, recognizing faces, reading lips, detecting a person’s signature gait and body shape, and even in some cases, interactively speaking to the citizenry. George Orwell, call your office.

Immigration: Drugs, state laws and video games

Cipriano Ortiz-Hernandez of Mexico owned the house in the U.S. to which Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, also of Mexico, shuttled drugs across the border. Charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute more than 2,200 pounds of marijuana, Ortiz-Hernandez pleaded guilty last week. The terms of his plea bargain are not being released, but sentencing will take place 2 November.

You may recall that Aldrete-Davila was shot in the buttocks by U.S. Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean when found with 743 pounds of marijuana in his van. Aldrete-Davila was granted immunity by prosecutors in exchange for testimony against the Border Patrol agents. As yet, President Bush has not heeded the call to pardon Ramos and Compean. If you have not already done so, please join the nearly 66,000 Patriots who have already signed our petition, Free the Texas Three and Secure Our Borders.

Meanwhile, many states continue seeking ways to do the job the federal government isn’t interested in: Securing our borders. States this year have brought up 1,404 immigration bills and passed 170 of them. By comparison, 84 were enacted last year. Most of these laws dealt with penalties for employment, obtaining of identification and smuggling penalties.

In the video game world, a new game called “ICED!” is on the market and it deals with illegal immigration. The objective, however, is to play the illegal alien and avoid capture by the authorities. “The game allows you to get into the body of a person, so you can experience what they are going through,” said Mallika Dutt, head of the nonprofit Breakthrough, which produced the game. “There are very few opportunities to get that perspective.” We’re moved. Really.

BUSINESS & ECONOMY

House energy bill: Same old failed ‘solutions’

“We are turning to the future,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) as congressmen turned out the lights for the August recess. Pelosi’s proclamation came after the brilliant economists in the U.S. House of Representatives slapped our nation’s oil companies with $16 billion in higher taxes. In fact, as anyone with the slightest degree of economic aptitude understands, they really slapped you, the consumer. Still, 221 of our esteemed representatives think that “Big Oil” should be punished for high prices at the pump—and those higher taxes (i.e. costs) are supposed to make prices go down.

Also passed was a companion bill to “encourage” energy efficiency by expanding the use of biofuels, wind power and other renewable-energy sources. Of course, this encouragement comes in the form of regulation—investor-owned electric utilities will be required to use renewable energy to generate at least 15 percent of their electricity. Of this new cost of doing business (to be passed on to consumers, mind you), Rep. Tom Udall (D-NM) said, “This will save consumers money.” Up is down, black is white, in is out, left is right…

Make no mistake—we at The Patriot are all for proper conservation, yet economics can’t be ignored. These tired old regulatory ideas have been trotted out before and they have failed every time. Undaunted, liberals keep turning to them. In short, realism must guide our nation’s energy policy—the very realism that is in such short supply on the Left.

Bush blamed for bridge collapse

The liberal left has perfected the art of inductive reasoning, as evidenced by their recent knee-jerk reaction to the tragic Minneapolis bridge collapse. No sooner had the ripples settled on the mighty Mississippi than liberals concluded that the collapse was a result of failed Iraq policy (or global warming, take your pick). According to Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), chair of the Senate transportation appropriations subcommittee, “The reality remains that we have outdated and failing structures around the country and the trust fund used to fix them is rapidly going bankrupt… We can’t continue to spend billions in Iraq as our infrastructure at home crumbles…” Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) agreed: “Priorities in our country have been out of whack the last few years. We’ve spent like almost $500 billion in Iraq.” Like, yeah, for sure, dude.

Sounding like a broken record, the news media spouted more of the same. MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough claimed, “Certainly American voters would probably decide it would be wiser to invest in our own aging infrastructure than continuing to throw good money after bad in Iraq.” CNN’s Lou Dobbs sweepingly concluded, “We’re not even succeeding in rebuilding the infrastructure and creating new infrastructure in Iraq,” and MSNBC’s Craig Crawford noted, “I’ve looked up what it would take to fix the nation’s infrastructure. It’s about $532 billion a year. It just so happens to be about what we’re spending in Iraq.”

What Crawford and others fail to cite, however, is that it also “just so happens” that in 2005, the federal government spent more than 60 percent of its $2.47 trillion budget on entitlement programs. If Democrats and the MSM adhered to their own reasoning, they would find nearly $1.5 trillion that could have been used to fix failing infrastructure. This logic is akin to blaming the electric bill for a family budget crisis when a yacht stands parked in the front yard.

The BIG lie

“What happened at both ends of the Mississippi and is happening in cities across the country are tragedies, but they aren’t random accidents. They are the direct price of the right wing in power. Scornful of government, intent on cutting taxes and slashing spending, they systematically have shorted public investment in our basic infrastructure—in bridges and roads, in rail lines and air systems, in parks and schools.” —Je$$e Jack$on, professional vulture

Income Redistribution File: ‘An expensive catch’

A few baseball fans cheered this week—and millions more jeered—as Barry Bonds, otherwise known as the San Francisco Giant Head, hit career home run number 756, surpassing the legendary Hank Aaron on the all-time list. Steroid allegations have swirled around Bonds for years, adding an asterisk to the record in most folks’ minds.

A college student from Queens caught Bonds’ record-breaking blast, but he likely didn’t know that the IRS considers such valuable souvenirs as taxable income. “It’s an expensive catch,” said tax lawyer John Barrie. “Once he took possession of the ball and it was his ball, it was income to him based on its value as of yesterday.” That value is estimated in the half-million dollar range and with a 35-percent tax, his student-loan debt to the feds was just eclipsed by about $175,000. According to Barrie, the student could still owe even if he does not sell the ball, and the IRS might choose to assess capital gains taxes as the ball gains value. Then again, the problem might be solved by correctly valuing the ball. A brand new Rawlings Official Major League Baseball goes for $12.99 at Amazon. For 756, that sounds about right.

CULTURE

The Frontiers of Junk Science: Newsweek

Newsweek is, once again, promoting the “green” globalist climate agenda—and in when these folks talk “green,” they mean the color of money.

Not since that weekly tabloid charted a retreat and surrender path out of Iraq a few months back have its editors published such a stupefyingly nescient cover story as this one, which features a spectacular photo of the Sun, with the large caption “Global Warming Is A Hoax.*”

And what of that asterisk? In small print, the cover smugly notes, “Or so claim well-funded naysayers who still reject the overwhelming evidence of climate change.”

We at The Patriot Post are not “well-funded naysayers” who reject evidence of climate change—nor are the growing ranks of other organizations that refuse to comport with Albert Gore’s eco-theological orthodoxy. Fact is most of the dissenters would agree that the climate is changing—and has been from the beginning of time.

The real “hoax” is the false dichotomy created with Newsweek’s cover and others like it. The division is not over “climate change” but why the climate is changing. The lie being perpetuated by the Leftmedia and Al Gore’s cadre of bed-wetting pantywaists is the assumption that climate change, and the greenhouse effect, are one and the same.

Notably, the first entry on Newsweek’s “Global Warming Timeline,” which accompanies the cover story, is dated 1896, when a Swedish chemist speculated that carbon-dioxide emissions might be related to climate change. The next entry is not until 1979, when a National Academy of Sciences report warns of global warming. The gap between these entries is notable because, for most of the interim period, scientists were issuing apocalyptic predictions of global cooling and the coming ice age, as in the 28 April 1975 article in Newsweek titled “The Cooling World.”

Having thus proved that its journalism isn’t to be taken seriously, Newsweek forged ahead in its current issue, even trotting out a photo of two polar bears on a “receding ice floe.” Apparently, the magazine’s crack editors hadn’t heard that when Al Gore used a similar photo to make his globaloney case, scientists who study polar bears debunked his assertion, noting that polar bears often drift on lone pieces of ice, waiting patiently for unwitting seals to present themselves as dinner on a platter.

And in a see-through attempt to strengthen its shoddy case, Newsweek is running the article during the hottest month of the year.

(For a rational summary of climate change issues, link to “Global Warming: Fact, Fiction and Political Endgame”.)

This week’s ‘Al-pha Jackass’ award

Labeling opponents of his global warming crusade “an organized campaign, financed to the tune of about $10 million a year from some of the largest carbon polluters to create the impression that there is disagreement in the scientific community,” Al Gore recently rehashed his claim that big-oil interests are “trying to manipulate opinion.” The AP headlined the story: “Gore: Polluters Manipulate Climate Info.”

But who here is the real manipulator? Gore has consistently refused to debate the merits of his global-warming campaign. Recently, the self-designated environmental expert—whose climatologic education includes a degree in government from Harvard and studies at Vanderbilt University Divinity and Law Schools (what unique qualifications)—rejected a challenge from author Dennis Avery, a trained agricultural economist and former agricultural analyst for the U.S. Department of State. According to Avery, “If global warming truly is the most important public policy issue of our day, then it is high time the public got to hear the arguments from both sides matched up against each other.” Not so, according to Gore, who lives in his own world where “there is very little disagreement” on the issue.

It seems, as headlines go, that a truer one would have read, “Gore Pollutes, Manipulates Climate Info.”

Firefighters to sue city over parade of shame

The Thomas More Law Center of Ann Arbor, Michigan, has announced plans to sue the City of San Diego on behalf of four firefighters who were forced to take part in the city’s “Gay Pride” parade where they were subjected to “gross sexual gestures” and “vile sexual taunts from homosexuals lining the parade route.” Openly homosexual San Diego Fire Chief Tracy Jarman remarked that the parade “is a fun event and all employees are encouraged to participate.” Apparently, Jarman’s method of “encouragement” came in the form of ordering the four men—all husbands and fathers—to participate despite their contrary requests to skip the fun. Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, said, “This is another example of how radical homosexual activists in positions of authority force their agenda on unwilling citizens. Although the local media avoided mentioning the debauchery and the obscenity that pervaded the parade, the general public should know what went on and how these firefighters were forced to participate against their will.” What ever happened to liberal tolerance?

From the Village Academic Curriculum File

Secular liberals in this country have for years waged a battle to root Christianity out of as many of this nation’s traditions and institutions as they possibly can. Their successes include prohibiting schoolchildren from reciting the Lord’s Prayer in public schools and persuading courts to order the removal of crosses from buildings, in some cases even if those crosses are on private property.

Given the exuberance with which these groups pursue the phony doctrine of “separation of church and state,” it is curious that resistance has not been directed toward the University of Michigan at Dearborn, which plans to install $25,000 foot-washing stations in several restrooms to accommodate the prayer rituals of Muslim students. Apparently, school bathrooms are deteriorating from the foot-washing practices of Muslim students, including the pooling of water on bathroom floors and the detaching of sinks from walls. Ignoring for the moment that Muslim students are being rewarded for what effectively amounts to the vandalism of public property, where are the secular progressive groups such as the ACLU that relentlessly attack Christians for their religious practices? Not a word.

It was also reported this week that the most prominent Muslim group in America, The Council on American Islamic Relations, has been accused of hiring terrorist sympathizers. This group is also accused of providing funds intended for charity to the terrorist group Hamas. It should come as no surprise that leftists such as those at the ACLU do not advocate against the practices of these Muslim groups because they share a common goal: the destruction of Christianity.

And last…

“Poems from Guantanamo: The Detainees Speak” is a new book published by the University of Iowa Press. It features 22 poems by 17 Guantanamo detainees. Despite being edited by the Pentagon, the poems are quite dark. After all, doom and gloom are de rigeuer for today’s trendy jihadis, their eyes fixed on martyrdom. The reality of their confinement, however, is much brighter than the dire doggerel they have penned. Thus, instead of offering their verse for your perusal, we present this more honest assessment of life at “Club Gitmo”:

My captors torment me with too much prayer time and a new Koran,

My friends are all here with me.

In my despair, I have nothing but entertainment for comfort,

For it is television which sustains me in my horribly cozy quarters

Surrounded by a disgusting lack of filth and no want for toiletries

To which I am a stranger.

May I live to see a day unfilled by placid contemplation, exercise and good meals!

May I live to flee from this free expert medical care!

May Allah be praised—ooh, a Twinkie!

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 granted their lives in defense of American liberty.)