GOVERNMENT & POLITICS

Campaign watch: Obama inches closer

Hillary Clinton (D-Nial) clobbered Barack Obama in the Kentucky primary Tuesday, but Obama’s comfortable win in Oregon put him within 100 delegates of the Democrat nomination. There are three contests left: Montana, South Dakota and Puerto Rico. Clinton promises to continue her fight—to the convention, if necessary—to get delegates from Florida and Michigan counted as they represent the only hope she has left. At this point, however, their addition to the totals may be academic. The swing of superdelegates toward Obama grows more prominent with each passing day, in part because none of them wants to be seen as standing against the tide of voters.

Clinton continued her dominance over white and lower-middle-class voters in Kentucky, which represents a troubling trend for Obama in the fall. His high-minded rhetoric plays well with coastal liberals, but in the midst of the swooning media frenzy, people seem to forget his poor showing in many battleground states. As his image of an urban ultra-liberal starts to solidify, it will only become harder to keep those key states from drifting to McCain in the general election.

In the race for cash, Obama is still king with $37 million in the bank. Clinton raised $22 million in April despite her shrinking relevance in the primary stakes, though she now has $21 million in debt, not including her loans to herself. Meanwhile, John McCain raised $18 million last month and has $22 million in the bank. But the RNC has $40 million available compared to the DNC’s $4 million.

While all eyes are still on the Democrat race at the moment, the GOP nominee continued his campaign across the country, laying the groundwork for his platform and raising cash. McCain also gave the first hints of his vice presidential pick, inviting Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist and former Massachusetts Gov. and primary opponent Mitt Romney to his retreat in Arizona this weekend. The gathering, which will include other friends of McCain, will be “purely social,” of course.

News from the Swamp: Farm bill vetoed

President George W. Bush vetoed the bloated farm bill this week, despite the fact that it was passed with veto-proof majorities in both houses of Congress. The House immediately voted to override, and the Senate soon followed suit. Amusingly enough, thanks to a “clerical error,” the version of the bill that President Bush vetoed differed from the version passed by Congress. “They’ve proved that they can even screw up spending the taxpayers’ money unwisely,” joked White House Press Secretary Dana Perino. There was some question about having to revote, but Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) insisted, “The veto override will have the force of law.” The trade section left out for the veto will be taken up after the Memorial Day recess. Republicans should be ashamed of this unconstitutional redistribution of income. Indeed, former House Majority Leader Dick Armey said, “It’s probably a microscopic picture of how badly Republicans have lost their way.” We’d say the Democrats should be ashamed as well, but shame is not a concept with which they are familiar.

New & notable legislation

The Senate passed a $165-billion war-funding bill Thursday, 70-26. Of course, the “war funding” comes chock full of domestic goodies for constituents, but the withdrawal provisions were removed. The public fight over the bill was between Senators Jim Webb (D-VA) and John McCain (R-AZ), who were battling over the new G.I. Bill attached to the larger bill. Barack Obama (D-IL) strongly supported Webb’s version, which was part of the bill that was passed. The G.I. Bill, which carries a $52-billion price tag, would pay the tuition of the most costly public school in the service member’s home state, as well as a monthly stipend equal to area housing costs. Predictably, the price would be paid with a one-half percent “millionaire” income-tax surcharge.

Under Webb’s bill, service members would be eligible for benefits after serving only three years. This is causing concern at the Pentagon, which asserts that members may leave the military earlier, quite possibly at a time when the country needs them the most. Webb, like Obama, favors a retreat from Iraq. The Senate bill will now go to the House.

Republican congressman felled by scandal

Rep. Vito Fossella (R-NY) has announced that he will not seek re-election in November after a double-whammy of scandal that shocked constituents and supporters. Fossella was picked up in Alexandria, Virginia, three weeks ago for drunk driving, and it was later revealed that the woman who picked him up from the police station is the mother of a child he secretly fathered during an extra-marital affair three years ago. Fossella is married and has three children. Because his blood-alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit, he is likely to serve five days in jail before the end of the year, becoming only the fourth sitting member of Congress to earn that stigma.

As the New York City area’s only Republican member of Congress, Fossella was considered a solid member of the state’s shrinking GOP delegation. His hometown of Staten Island is reliably conservative, and there is a possibility that Republicans could still hold the seat in November. Fossella therefore chose to serve out his term rather than resign and cause a special-election that the GOP would likely lose to a New York State Democrat machine flush with cash. And Republicans wonder why they’re in trouble.

‘Show Me’ ID

Legislators in Missouri took two steps in the right direction by working to adopt election reform requiring voters to present voter ID at the polling place, and those who register to vote to supply proof of citizenship. Both are common-sense measures other states should implement as well, but we all know who’s blocking them. (Hint: Their party name starts with a D, and they’re famous for having a lot of deceased voters in cities such as Chicago.)

Naysayers decry these measures despite the fact that the “Show Me” State would provide the photo identification free of charge to those who can’t afford the nominal cost to receive one. Democrat Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan estimated that 240,000 Missourians would be disenfranchised, but it’s not clear how she arrived at this figure, which represents about six percent of Missouri’s four million registered voters. Most residents of Missouri would qualify for a legitimate ID simply by holding a driver’s license.

However, because Missouri’s legislative session is not full time, the clock ran out on the voter-ID proposal when their session ended last Friday. While the Missouri House of Representatives passed the bill, the Senate did not take the time to consider it as minority Democrats threatened to filibuster and hold up Republican priority items. So common sense is thwarted again as Democrats fight tooth and nail to protect their voter base of illegal aliens and cemetery residents.

NATIONAL SECURITY

The terrorists’ man in Washington

Last April, in an attempt to kill the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Promotion Agreement, House Democrats removed a requirement that would have brought the bill up for a vote within a specific period of time. This underhanded method of keeping the bill from reaching the White House on President Bush’s watch was the brainchild of Rep. James McGovern (D-MA). Now, the capture of a terrorist’s computer has shed some light on McGovern’s possible motivation for stiffing the United States’ closest South American ally.

On 1 March, the Colombian Army attacked a camp in Ecuador belonging to FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), a Marxist-Leninist terrorist organization that is trying to overthrow the capitalist government. FARC leader Raul Reyes was killed, and his laptop computer was captured. Colombia turned the laptop over to Interpol, whose computer forensics lab confirmed that the 37,872 files on the computer’s hard drive were legitimate and had not been tampered with or created by the Colombian government. The files were a veritable smoking gun, indicating that FARC had (among other things) bought 60 pounds of uranium; that they were interested in building a dirty bomb; that Hugo Chavez had offered $300 million and Russian weapons to the terrorist organization; that FARC was responsible for numerous assassinations and bombings; that FARC had met with “gringos” about Barack Obama; and that FARC had links with a certain Democrat from Massachusetts… named James McGovern.

Indeed, it seems that FARC was trying to do business with McGovern. At the time Reyes’ laptop was captured, McGovern was using a go-between to offer the congressman’s services to FARC as a person of influence in America. The intermediary admits that he wrote some of the letters found on the captured laptop, but he excuses his actions on the basis that it is “a mistake to isolate [FARC].” McGovern also attempted to excuse his treachery, saying that “we need to find an interlocutor who could discuss these things including the safe haven” for FARC. So there you have it: Representative McGovern wants to make sure that Colombia gives a terrorist organization “safe haven.” Not only that, but he did FARC’s communists a huge favor by masterminding the holdup of a capitalist free-trade agreement. While correlation does not equal causation, we don’t think it’s a stretch to say that at least some Democrats oppose the Colombia trade deal because they have more sympathy for terrorists than an anti-terror ally.

Military Correctness: Shooting the Koran

This week, the U.S. Army punished a soldier in Iraq and apologized for his use of the Koran for target practice. Indeed, even the commander in chief himself issued an apology. Truly the war has been lost, not the military war against Jihadistan, but the war of ideas.

It is evident that one of two bad things has happened. We have written off the Islamic world and now assume it can’t handle the occasional slight that is an essential price you must pay for liberty. Or, political correctness and victimology have so pervaded our national consciousness that we have lost our own understanding of and respect for liberty. Neither is acceptable. It seems we were more than willing to humiliate one of our general officers publicly and kiss the Koran because some knuckleheaded staff sergeant vented some frustration in a war zone. This is politically correct nonsense of the highest order. If the sergeant disobeyed a lawful order by his actions, then by all means punish him under the UCMJ. Compared to the many brutal atrocities played out worldwide by our Islamofascist enemies, however, this solitary act by one of our soldiers pales in comparison. The actions of his chain of command are what worry us most. Have we failed so miserably in our efforts to teach the blessings of liberty that we must implement Sharia law in lieu of the UCMJ?

Speaking of political correctness, the Ninth Circus Court of Appeals ruled this week that if a member of the Armed Services is discharged under the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, the military must give a more thorough explanation than restating their policy that “homosexuality is incompatible with military service.” General George Washington agreed that a more thorough handling of the matter was necessary as well. Indeed, not only were homosexuals immediately discharged “with infamy,” but there was at least one instance in which Washington ordered that a soldier who had attempted sodomy be “drummed out of camp… by all the drummers and fifers in the Army never to return.”

Military Readiness: Technology helps

Thanks to the engineers and scientists at the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), our troops are using futuristic technology and weapons to put some serious hurt on our jihadi enemies, with even more advanced weaponry on the horizon. Among the new hi-tech gadgetry is the Wasp, a small aerial vehicle weighing in at only about 11 ounces that can be carried in a backpack and fly nearly undetectable reconnaissance missions for up to two hours, providing imagery to U.S. troops operating in urban areas. The Radar Scope, weighing less than 1.5 pounds and working on AA batteries, allows U.S. troops to “see” through concrete walls to determine if someone is on the other side, a particularly nice advantage for our troops in places like Baghdad. And the Tactical Ground Reporting System (TIGR) brings front-line combat into the Internet age, allowing troops going out on patrol to scrutinize a computerized map that outlines their area of operations, with icons detailing known dangers. Clicking an icon, troops can bring up information on not only past hostile action but also photos and background on local leaders, friendly or not, as well as current videos and reports from recent patrols, information previously unavailable to frontline troops.

In the wings is TransTac, providing on-the-spot Arabic/English speech translation (Star Trek Universal Translator, anyone?), and FOPEN, radar that can penetrate dense foliage to locate enemy fighters and vehicles. How appropriate that an Islamist foe that has declared war on modernity itself is being pounded by modern technology. Keep ‘em coming, DARPA!

Warfront with Jihadistan: Juvenile detention

The Bush administration this week reported on the number of juveniles currently being held in detention in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. The report, which is required under the terms of the UN’s Convention on the Rights of the Child, indicated that there are currently 500 juveniles being held in Iraq, 10 in Afghanistan and two in Cuba, whose status as juveniles is unclear. Given that we have been at war for nearly seven years, and given that our opponents observe no scruples about using juveniles, women, the mentally impaired, and even donkeys as suicide bombers, it is not surprising that many of those apprehended are juveniles. The vast majority are 16 or 17—technically juveniles but by no means “children.”

The ACLU, ever vigilant to defend the civil rights of non-Americans who were apprehended while trying to kill Americans, moaned that these juvenile prisoners were not being held in separate juvenile facilities. “Juveniles and former child soldiers should be treated first and foremost as candidates for rehabilitation and reintegration into society, not subjected to further victimization,” said the director of the ACLU’s human-rights program, Jamil Dakwar. We would suggest that an excellent way to avoid being victimized as detainees would be to refrain from trying to kill Americans and our Coalition friends. Meanwhile, why isn’t PETA raising a ruckus over the rights of the donkey?

BUSINESS & ECONOMY

Regulatory Commissars: More oily politics

As we noted last week, Congress passed a bill that requires the Bush administration to stop putting oil into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve—so it appears they are “doing something” about high gas prices. President Bush grudgingly signed the bill Monday in the face of veto-proof majorities in both houses. A cursory look at the oil market, however, shows that the action had no effect—oil prices are up more than $10 a barrel since the bill was passed.

Undaunted, Congress didn’t stop there. Along with hauling oil executives to another Capitol Hill Inquisition, the House passed legislation Tuesday allowing the Justice Department to sue OPEC members over supply limits. Rep. Steve Kagen (D-WI), who sponsored the legislation, crowed, “This bill guarantees that oil prices will reflect supply and demand economic rules instead of wildly speculative and perhaps illegal activities.” The White House, threatening a veto, warned that the measure “would likely spur retaliatory action against American interests in those countries and lead to a reduction in oil available to U.S. refiners.” Furthermore, as James Taranto of The Wall Street Journal notes, “This idiocy is bipartisan, with a majority of Republicans joining all but two Democrats in supporting the bill. If this bill becomes law and the Justice Department goes ahead with it, remember when you’re paying $6 a gallon that a good chunk of that is going to lawyers’ fees.”

Finally, former Delaware Gov. Pete du Pont pointed out, “America remains the only nation in the world that has curtailed access to its own energy supplies. Meanwhile, China will soon begin drilling for oil off Cuba and in Venezuela.”

But there is hope. New sources of oil are coming on line. Nigeria has added 200,000 barrels per day (BPD) this month, while Iraq and Saudi Arabia have each added 300,000 BPD. Non-OPEC supply will increase by at least 600,000 BPD over the coming months. The world is not running out of oil, and if there had been a supply problem, the market has responded. In fact, we could be heading toward a one-million-BPD oil surplus.

This week’s ‘Alpha Jackass’ award

“And, guess what this liberal will be all about? This liberal will be about socializing… uh, will be about, basically taking over and the government running all of your [oil] companies.” —Rep. Maxine “Chavez” Waters (S-Venezuela) to John Hoffmeister of Shell Oil after he warned that prices will continue to go up unless Congress allows further drilling

Income Redistribution: Trillions added to debt

Imagine receiving a tax bill for $531,472. Well, imagine no more. Thanks to the government’s ballooning social programs, this is now the cost per American household to fund government’s entitlement promises. According to a USA TODAY study, Washington’s long-term financial commitments to programs such as Medicare and Social Security grew by a whopping $2.5 trillion last year and now stand at $57.3 trillion. Add state and local government obligations into the mix, and the figure grows even more—to $61.7 trillion.

Specifically, in 2007, Uncle Sam charged an additional $1.2 trillion in Medicare, $900 billion in Social Security, $106 billion in civil-service retirement, and $34 billion in veteran benefits to its self-issued entitlement credit card. This diametric departure from reports of a shrinking federal deficit—which fell from $248 billion in 2006 to $162 billion in 2007—is because the deficit accounts only for current year costs rather than for lifetime expenses.

Unfortunately, when some Republicans sought a few years ago to ground skyrocketing Social Security costs by offering private savings accounts, Democrats’ scare tactics nixed the idea. Instead, Washington will now continue trying to fund its unchecked spending sprees, and we will continue to search the Constitution for the nonexistent clause that gives it the power to do so. Both efforts will fail.

Medicaid fraud

Afraid to make waves in an election year, the Democrat-controlled Congress is overlooking Medicaid fraud—so long as the perpetrators are the states themselves. In a “fox guarding the henhouse” arrangement, the states determine citizens’ eligibility for the programs, while the federal government reimburses the states between 50 and 83 percent of the cost. This arrangement would work a lot better if the states ceased gaming the system. They deliberately overpay medical providers and then submit the overpaid bills to Uncle Sam for increased reimbursement. The state then demands refunds from providers for the overpaid amounts, thus providing the profit margin.

This arrangement is similar to insurance fraud involving staged injury accidents with a medical provider who is in on the con. Perversely, the federal government does not seek recovery of the billions in refunded overpayments each year, even though there is no political gain for Congress in allowing the graft to continue. Apparently, it’s just easier to look the other way. If congressional liberals were savvier, they would realize they are missing a golden opportunity to save money and cater to an important special-interest lobby. To rein in state fraud, Congress need only authorize trial lawyers to keep a percentage of the recovered proceeds by suing on the federal government’s behalf under a whistleblower law. The overpayment/recovery scheme would soon end. Then again, that might be a bit of a Pandora’s box.

CULTURE

Judicial Benchmarks: Protecting children

Michael Williams went online and offered to trade pictures of his four-year-old daughter being molested, and later posted photos of children engaged in explicit sexual conduct. He was charged and pleaded guilty but challenged the constitutionality of the statute forbidding the pandering of child pornography. In a 7-2 vote this week, the Supreme Court upheld the 2003 law—and Williams’ conviction.

Unlike the other law he violated, which bars the possession of child pornography, this law concerned the advertisement and marketing of such material, even if not for profit (i.e., trading). The majority rejected the defendant’s objection that someone could be convicted even if the pictures were in fact legal (either because the subject was 18 or because it was a computer-generated image). Justice Antonin Scalia noted another law that punishes those who sell what they think (and tell buyers are) classified national-security documents, even if they are really fakes. Because the challenged law punished only those who believed they were selling unlawful material, it was proper to punish them.

To make the law constitutional, Congress needed to draw it narrowly, so it will apply only to a limited number of cases. But it’s still a welcome victory in public efforts to respond to the dangerous combination of advanced technology and human depravity. For this reason, it will depress the ACLU—and delight everyone else.

From the Leftjudiciary: VA abortion law overturned

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit ruled this week that Virginia’s Partial Birth Infanticide Act of 2003 is “unconstitutional” because in some areas it exceeds the federal ban upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court last April. The three-judge panel in Richmond voted 2-1 against the ban, saying it “imposes an undue burden upon a woman’s right to choose a previability second trimester abortion.” (We are still trying to decipher the meaning of the word “previability.”) The federal ban on partial-birth abortion—the procedure during which an infant is partially delivered when the doctor crushes its skull—does not contain an exception for the “health of the woman,” but was deemed a constitutional restriction on the grisly practice by the U.S. Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision. The Virginia ban, likewise, does not contain the vague exception.

The quibble, however, comes from a perceived ambiguity in the Virginia law that might subject a doctor to prosecution if an “accidental” intact dilation and extraction occurred during a standard procedure. In other words, doctors are protected if the baby is dismembered inside the womb and then removed, but if the baby is partially born before being dismembered and removed, and it’s “accidental,” the doctor could still be prosecuted because the Virginia law does not specifically protect them. Judge M. Blane Michael, who wrote the majority opinion, found that unacceptable: “A doctor attempting in good faith to comply with the Virginia Act will accidentally violate the Act in a small fraction of cases.” The dissenting judge, Paul Niemeyer, didn’t buy it. He accused the majority of “ignoring explicit language and undertaking its course to find ambiguity in the Virginia Act so as to be able to strike it down.” Nah, activist judges would never do that.

Climate change this week: How many hurricanes?

Global-warming alarmists take note: A study released by NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory predicts there will be fewer Atlantic hurricanes in the future, should models of greenhouse gas increases prove accurate.

Researchers were, however, quick to point out that increased greenhouse gases could theoretically increase a storm’s intensity. “This study adds more support to the consensus finding of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and other reports… that hurricanes will gradually become more intense as the climate continues to warm,” said Tom Knutson, who participated in the study. Then again, “It’s a bit of a mixed picture in the Atlantic because we’re projecting fewer hurricanes overall,” he added. Mixed bag indeed. Not long ago, a CNN meteorologist, contradicting claims from Albert Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth,” said that “global warming does not conclusively cause stronger hurricanes like we’ve seen,” and that “by the end of this century we might get about a five-percent increase.”

Something else no one saw in the news this week: A petition was unveiled Monday by the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine with the signatures of 31,000 individuals, all U.S. citizens with science degrees (more than 9,000 of them were doctorates), stating in part, “There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gasses is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth’s atmosphere and disruption of the Earth’s climate.”

Finally, in other related global-warming news, the state of Alaska will sue over the recent listing of polar bears as a threatened species, fearing that the listing will cripple oil and gas development, which is crucial for the state.

And last…

It’s tough supporting the troops. This week, Rep. Fortney Hillman “Pete” Stark (D-CA) observed a group of high-ranking military officers in the Capitol gallery watching Congress do its thing. Apparently concerned that these flag officers were just lollygagging about and not doing their part for the war, Stark fired off a letter to Secretary of Defense Gates to express his concern that, “[a]t a time when our nation is at war, our troops are over-extended, and the Administration is literally asking for emergency military spending, what good to the ‘war on terror’ is having U.S. Generals and other top ranked officers spending hours sitting in the gallery of the House of Representatives?” And oh, by the way, get me their names, ranks and serial numbers, too. Unknown to Stark, who recently accused Republicans of sending our kids to Iraq “to get their heads blown off for the president’s amusement,” the officers were part of a class of senior Army War College officers. They were combat veterans all, and they were taking part in an officially approved tour of Congress as part their curriculum. You’re a class act, Fortney.

Meanwhile, fellow Left Coast fruit loop San Fran Nan Pelosi (D-Syria) was gallivanting about the Middle East, uninvited as usual, and undermining U.S. foreign policy. She got a chilly reception in Iraq, where the government kept her at arm’s length until she admitted that the state of affairs within the country had improved, and she stopped whining that U.S. troops must be immediately withdrawn. Then it was off to Israel, where she observed with Pelosian perspicacity that we must keep Israel secure.

And these are the people whose party stands to increase its majority in Congress come November.

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.)