GOVERNMENT & POLITICS

News from the Swamp: Congressional election results

Democrats were victorious nationwide Tuesday, gaining majorities in Congress reminiscent of the early 1990s. The silver lining is that perhaps 2010 will be reminiscent of 1994 as a result. In the House, Democrats picked up at least 18 seats, bringing their total to 254 as we went to press. Republicans retained only 173 seats, leaving eight seats undecided. Perhaps the most telling example of the tidal wave against the GOP in this year’s election was the fact that John Murtha held on to his seat, despite having called his constituents “racist,” and then apologizing and saying he meant to say “redneck.” Firebrand conservative columnist Ann Coulter had another word for them: “retards.” Indeed, Murtha’s challenger, retired U.S. Army Lt Col William Russell, managed only 42 percent of the vote.

In the Senate, Democrats picked up at least six seats for a majority of 57. Republicans are hanging on with 40 seats, though the Republican candidate leads in all three undecided races. Georgia’s Saxby Chambliss appears to be headed for a 2 December runoff with Democrat challenger Jim Martin after failing to gain 50 percent of the vote (Chambliss has garnered 49.9 percent so far). Minnesota’s Norm Coleman faces a recount in a stiff challenge from “comedian” Al Franken, who declared this week that “being a racist and a sexist was a good calling card for the Reagan administration.” Franken trailed the incumbent Republican by less than 300 votes as of Thursday night. Alaska’s Ted Stevens somehow is hanging on to a lead for his seat in spite of now being a convicted felon. If he wins, Republican leaders promise that he will either resign or be expelled. There are conflicting laws regarding whether Gov. Sarah Palin will appoint a replacement for Stevens, but both laws agree on holding a special election within 60 to 90 days. Still, if the GOP somehow comes away with 43 seats, it will still be tough for Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to keep “moderates” such as Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine from defecting.

The Democrats’ large majorities no doubt mean America is in for at least two years of full-steam-ahead socialism. Priorities include raising taxes on everyone (not just the wealthy, despite their promises to the contrary), even more severe environmental regulations, a policy of defeat in Iraq and Afghanistan and reviving the so-called “Fairness Doctrine” to stifle conservative objections to any of the above.

On the other hand, Republicans were beaten because they deserved it. Eight years of spending and generally behaving like drunken Democrats convinced Americans to vote for the real thing instead of the imitation. It’s safe to say that “compassionate conservatism” was an unmitigated disaster. If Republicans get back to their conservative roots, they will not wander in the political wilderness for another generation.

There are optimistic signs: Newt Gingrich, the architect of the 1994 Contract with America and subsequent GOP takeover of Congress, is rumored to be considering the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee. Also, Minority Whip Roy Blunt stepped aside Wednesday, making way for No. 3 Rep. Eric Cantor (VA) to take the spot. Other leadership positions appear to be up for grabs, though Minority Leader John Boehner (OH) will retain his post. Something should change, because business as usual is getting Republicans – and the country – nowhere.

Obama begins selecting staff

In the aftermath of the election, Barack Obama has begun putting his administration together, causing the markets to plunge 10 percent Wednesday and Thursday. First on Obama’s list was fellow Chicagoan Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) for White House chief of staff. “Obama’s choice of Emanuel – a veteran of the Clinton years with a quick wit, a legendary temper and a strong grasp of policy – signaled a potential mood shift away from the serene ‘no drama’ ethos that defined his campaign,” reported The Washington Post. By “mood shift,” the Post means that the Chicago political machine will be moving to Washington. Senior campaign aides David Axelrod and Robert Gibbs are also under consideration for key roles. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is rumored to be in consideration for the Environmental Protection Agency. Meanwhile, Sen. John F. Kerry (D-MA) was spotted jumping up and down with his hand raised, shouting, “Pick me!” as Obama looks for a secretary of state. After all, Kerry played one in 1971 with the Viet Cong in Paris.

From the ‘Non Compos Mentis’ File

“If you are hungry, you’re not that interested in freedom of the press. If you are impoverished, you are interested in keeping yourself warm against the cold, and it’s harder to think in Jeffersonian rights-of-man terms. Once those first two freedoms are secured, the others tend to follow. It’s a very conservative argument that without order, nothing else is possible.” –Newsweek editor John (we lost in Iraq) Meacham contending that Barack Obama’s candidacy and platform are conservative

Campaign watch: Networks focus on polls, not substance

The Media Research Center’s Business & Media Institute reports, “The last week before the 2008 Presidential Election gave the broadcast networks one more opportunity to give viewers real information on the candidates’ economic proposals, but instead they obsessed over polls and horse race coverage by nearly 8-to-1.” BMI continued, “Between Oct. 27 and Nov. 3, the three broadcast networks – ABC, CBS and NBC – aired ‘horse race’ campaign stories and referenced polls a total of 101 times. Compared to just 13 segments offering substantial analysis of the candidates’ policy proposals, the networks covered the horse race and polls nearly eight times as often as they covered the issues.” Of course, when the media was discussing the “issues,” it was vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s wardrobe or strife in the McCain campaign. As it turns out, however, the polls were pretty accurate this time – but was that because they were accurate measurements, or self-fulfilling prophecies?

Meanwhile, it turns out there may have been actual strife in the McCain campaign. Anonymous “top advisors” waited all of one day to run to the Leftmedia with their complaints. One aide told Newsweek that the Palins were the “Wasilla hillbillies,” or as we non-Beltway types like to call them, normal Americans. Another said that “McCain talked to her occasionally” and that “it was a difficult relationship.” The efforts of bitter campaign staffers to cover their own rears by smearing Palin appear to be little more than admission of guilt for not running the kind of campaign necessary to win.

It was John McCain himself who was most prescient about these reports. In July, he said, “Every book I’ve read about a campaign is that the one that won, it was a perfect and beautifully run campaign with geniuses running it and incredible messaging, et cetera. And always the one that lost, ‘Oh, completely screwed up, too much infighting, bad people, etcetera’.”

Palin cleared in new report

Late Monday, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was cleared of any wrongdoing in a separate investigation into the firing of the state public safety commissioner. Naturally, the report was too little, too late. The report submitted by an independent counsel for the Alaska Personnel Board found no probable cause that Palin violated the Alaska Executive Ethics Act when she fired Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan. He had refused to remove a state trooper for numerous departmental infractions – a trooper who also happened to be the ex-husband of Palin’s sister. With this episode behind her, now Palin can return to governing the state and continuing to build her national brand in the GOP. It is likely we will see her again in 2012.

From the Left: More from the Obama family

In the waning days before the election it was reported that Zeituni Onyango, Barack Obama’s 56-year-old aunt, was in the country illegally and had given money to Obama’s presidential campaign. Onyango, the half-sister of Obama’s father, was ordered to leave the country in 2004 after her request for asylum had been denied, but she was living in taxpayer-subsidized housing in Massachusetts, where it happens to be against the law for agencies to inquire about a person’s immigration status. She contributed a total of $265 to Obama’s campaign over the course of several months, and the money was returned by the campaign once the story became public. It is against federal election law for candidates to accept money from foreign nationals. This incident is hard proof that the Obama campaign was accepting illegal donations.

However, when The Washington Post reported the story, all they could manage to report was that Onyango’s identity and immigration status (really a lack of status since she is here illegally) may have been leaked to the press illegally. So, let’s make sure we have this straight: She contributed money illegally to a political campaign, and she has been living in the U.S. illegally for four years while taxpayers basically cover all her living expenses, but it will be someone at Immigration and Customs Enforcement who gets into trouble for leaking the truth.

Bloomberg signs term extension into law

With the stroke of a pen New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg negated the will of the people this week by signing into law a bill that extends the city’s term limits law from two to three terms for the mayor and city council. New York’s Mayor had sought a place for himself on the national stage, but after all the progressive light had been soaked up by Obama, he found himself needing a place to go since two voter referendums in 1993 and 1996 had limited him to his current two terms in office. Under the guise of shepherding New York through its financial crisis with his business acumen, Bloomberg and City Council members, who also were loath to return to private life, banded together to change the rules of the game. Bloomberg, who bought his last two elections with the billions he had made in the private sector, is already favored to win the 2009 mayoral race.

Bloomberg’s first item of business after signing the term-limit extension was to announce that the city can’t afford the promised $400 property tax rebates for homeowners as the city faces a budget shortfall of $4 billion. He’s also mulling an income tax hike and deep budget cuts.

NATIONAL SECURITY

Warfront with Jihadistan: New Gitmo storyline

Read All About It! New York Times Gets Religion! – After six years of leading the charge in slandering the Bush administration as torturers, after equating Guantanamo Bay to a modern-day Buchenwald, after bemoaning that the detainees in Gitmo didn’t have access to all the rights and privileges of a defendant in civil court, the Times suddenly realized that there just might be some very dangerous people in Gitmo. Now the Times’ Chosen One is president-elect, and come January, he will face all these problems and more. Suddenly, it’s “sobering intelligence claims against many of the detainees” and “tough choices in deciding how many of Guantanamo’s hard cases should be sent home.” Indeed. How far the erstwhile “Newspaper of Record” has fallen – it took them six long years to admit this basic truth. And they wonder why their readership is drying up.

Guantanamo Bay is just the tip of the iceberg of serious national security issues that Barack Obama will find staring at him starting in January. The day he takes office, all his pandering remarks over the last two years that were aimed at placating the moonbats will collide with the fact that he and he alone is ultimately responsible for the safety of the United States. Will he close down Gitmo and throw the detainees into ordinary courts for processing? The case of Zacarias Moussaoui might give him pause – it took four and a half years from indictment to verdict in the Moussaoui case, and Moussaoui pled guilty. Will he continue the practice of intercepting foreign signals that are routed through the United States – which the Times has steadfastly insisted on calling “warrantless wiretapping?” Time will tell. We suspect that the Times, just as it is now trying to brush all their previous slander under the rug, will lead the mainstream media in throwing many of Senator Obama’s past statements down the memory hole, sparing him the scorn they heaped so gleefully on President George W. Bush as he was preventing further attacks on U.S. soil over the last seven years.

Department of Military Readiness: Prepare for budget cuts

Thanks to the global financial meltdown teamed with the election of a leftist regime that hates the U.S. military, it looks as though the Pentagon will be yet again targeted for significant budget cuts. All across the services, budget planners are already analyzing spending scenarios that, at best, would freeze current budgets or, worse, slash them significantly. As in previous Pentagon budget-cutting frenzies, the obvious targets for savings are new arms programs. It doesn’t help when many of these new programs continually rack up huge cost overruns – at least $300 billion for the top 75 weapons systems, according to the Government Accounting Office – although it should be noted that new technology development is inherently unpredictable. Some top targets for reductions or termination include the Joint Strike Fighter, the Navy’s new destroyer, and the ground-based missile defense system. (Speaking of missile defense, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev wasted no time firing a shot across Obama’s bow, threatening to deploy Iskander missiles “to neutralize, when necessary,” the U.S. shield. It seems Joe Biden was right.)

Naturally, budget pressures will increase tensions between the Pentagon and the newly left-leaning tag team of Congress and the White House over how best to balance funding our troops fighting the Long War and developing new weapons systems that will be needed in future wars. Unfortunately, some newly emboldened members of Congress aren’t worried about a proper military budget balance at all. Rep. Barney Frank (Marxist-Mass), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, has already said he would like to reduce military spending by 25 percent. Other U.S. socialists say it would be easier to cut military spending rather than programs such as Social Security and Medicare because most people’s retirement savings have dwindled due to the financial crisis. The next year will be a critical time for all Patriots to let Washington know in the strongest terms possible that they will not allow the Obama regime to disarm America’s military.

Profiles of valor: US Army Sgt. Ruske

United States Army Sgt. Gregory Ruske, a reservist from Colorado Springs, was on tour in Afghanistan in April when he proved to be a hero. Ruske was assigned to Combined Joint Task Force 101, operating in Afghanistan’s Kapisa province. His platoon was on patrol in a remote area not accessible by vehicle when Taliban fighters attacked. Ruske supplied cover fire as most of the platoon moved to protective cover. He took a bullet to the hip but kept fighting. Ruske noticed that two Afghan National Police officers were pinned down in the open, under heavy fire. One officer was able to run for cover, but the other had been wounded and was attempting to crawl to safety. Ruske then ordered his squad automatic weapon gunner to spray the enemy with a Z-shaped pattern of fire giving him enough cover to run to the aid of the Afghan officer. He and Spc. Eric Seagraves grabbed the officer’s arms and dragged him toward a wall for cover before realizing the officer’s leg was shattered.

After the ambush was defeated, Ruske received treatment for his wound and then visited the Afghan whose life he had saved. The Afghan made a full recovery. For his bravery and selfless actions under fire, Sgt. Ruske became just the fourth Army reservist to receive the Silver Star for heroism in the War on Terror. “I don’t consider myself a hero,” he said. “I was just an ordinary guy put in an extraordinary situation. I reacted based on my upbringing, training and compassion, and thankfully, it worked out in the end.”

BUSINESS & ECONOMY

Unemployment hits 14-year high

The unemployment rate climbed in October to a rate not seen since the last time Democrats held the White House and vast majorities in Congress. “Employers shed another 240,000 jobs in October, the government reported Friday morning, the 10th consecutive monthly decline and a clear signal that an accelerating slowdown is assailing households and businesses,” reported The New York Times. The unemployment rate is now 6.5 percent, up from 6.1 percent last month.

Democrats in Congress were already clamoring for more “stimulus” spending initiatives to help a sluggish economy regain its footing. Proposals include $60 billion for extended unemployment benefits and food stamps, as well as giving federal aid to struggling states. Democrats then plan to add another $200 billion in stimulus spending. Everything looks like a nail to someone with a hammer.

Income Redistribution: Your government at work

Illustrating the government’s perverse inability to control Medicare costs (despite saving $6 billion on prescription drugs in 2008), the government remains hamstrung by laws forcing government payment for costlier treatments instead of for the least costly alternative. A federal court recently ruled against allowing the Secretary of Health and Human Services any discretion to determine the amount paid for every item and service covered by Medicare and bypassing the inefficient payment formulas set by Congress. To change the formula requires an act of Congress, and such acts occur far too infrequently to accommodate changes in the healthcare market. If only the court regarded the Constitution as highly as they do acts of Congress.

Under the leadership of the next Congress, it is unlikely the liberal majority will divert any time from pursuing income redistribution to consider updating its dated and complicated payment formulas to enable the government to save taxpayer dollars. Keep this in mind the next time Medicare trustees report the unfunded long-term liabilities of Medicare exceed $48 trillion and congressional liberals hatch new plans to force more Americans onto the rolls of an already bankrupt government program.

Middle class success

It seems the middle class Barack Obama has pledged to rescue is actually doing quite well on its own. According to a new Goldman Sachs study, the worldwide middle class populace – defined as those with annual incomes between $6,000 and $30,000 in purchasing power parity terms – is growing. In fact, not only is it growing, it is ballooning to the tune of approximately 70 million people per year. At this rate, which researchers expect to continue, annual middle class growth will reach 90 million by 2030.

Democrats may spin these statistics to mean income is dropping for millions of people, but the numbers belie that claim. The number of people living on less than $1,000 per year plunged to 17 percent in 2000, down from 50 percent in the 1970s. Additionally, estimates place at fewer than five percent the number of people worldwide surviving on less than a dollar per day.

Last year, Obama sponsored the Global Poverty Act, which would tax America 0.7 percent of her gross national product to reduce global poverty – spreading the wealth not only within America’s borders but also beyond. Apparently, he didn’t get the memo that the middle class is doing just fine without him.

CULTURE & POLICY

Around the nation: Ballot initiative report

Ballot initiatives around the nation produced a mixed bag of results on Election Day. The bad news first: Voters in South Dakota rejected for the second time in two years a ban on abortion, excepting rape, incest or health of the mother. The exceptions were added to increase the chance of passage, but the measure still lost by 10 points. Likewise, Colorado voters rejected a measure defining life as beginning at conception. If nothing else, these voter referendums disprove the assertion of abortion supporters that overturning Roe v. Wade will make all abortion illegal. A ballot measure dealing with the other end of life was passed in Washington, granting terminally ill patients the option of doctor-assisted suicide. Oregon is the only other state with such a law.

The good news: Voters in Arizona, Florida and California passed measures defining marriage to be between one man and one woman. Meanwhile, Arkansas voters passed a measure prohibiting same-sex couples from adopting children. Of particular interest was California’s Proposition 8 – a response to the California Supreme Court’s ruling earlier this year that banning same-sex marriage was discriminatory. The Court overturned a previous ballot measure by judicial diktat and the voters responded by reasserting their will, despite a thoroughly biased rewriting of the ballot initiative language from Leftist Demo Attorney General Jerry “Moonbeam” Brown to falsely describe the proposition as one that “eliminates the right of same-sex couples to marry.” Barack Obama spoke out of both sides of his mouth on Proposition 8, saying, “I believe marriage is between a man and a woman. I am not in favor of gay marriage. But when you start playing around with constitutions, just to prohibit somebody who cares about another person, it just seems to me that’s not what America’s about. Usually, our constitutions expand liberties, they don’t contract them.”

Other ballot measures around the nation included five major energy and environmental initiatives. Typifying a strange day at the polls, voters in California and Colorado unexpectedly defeated measures to increase taxes to pay for “green” goodies or more regulations on energy use, while Missouri voters approved mandating an increase in renewable energy.

Judicial Benchmarks: Dirty words in the Supreme Court

From the “Court Jesters” File: While many of us may have wanted to use assorted expletives on Tuesday, the Supreme Court was charged with deciding their fate as it balanced the First Amendment and parental concerns about obscene language.

The case, FCC v. Fox TV, originated with the 2002 and 2003 Billboard Music Awards, where celebs Cher and Nicole Ritchie used some of George Carlin’s Seven Dirty Words. The FCC, in response to the concerns of parents’ groups like the L.A.-based Parents Television Council, began to enforce a new policy barring “fleeting expletives” such as those used by Cher. But last year, the U.S Court of Appeals in New York shot down this measure as “arbitrary, vague and possibly unconstitutional.” The government now has its shot with the highest court in the land to make such policies, and the heavy penalties accompanying their violation, stick.

Since the days of radio it has been a federal crime to “utter any obscene, indecent or profane language.” But many argue that the rule is archaic in this day and age, and irrelevant; children are exposed to obscenity on the Internet, cable and satellite TV. But Timothy Winter, president of the Parents Television Council, disagrees. “They are using the public airwaves for free.” Winters stated. “We don’t think we should have to tolerate a race to the bottom to see who can go further.”

Village Academic Curriculum: Pledge cards

Mum’s the word in Hayward, California, where school board officials won’t say what – if any – action will be taken in the case of a Faith Ringgold School of Arts and Sciences teacher who distributed pro-homosexual “pledge cards” to her kindergarten students. The cards, produced by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, asked the kindergarteners to pledge to “not use anti-LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) language or slurs; intervene, when I feel I can, in situations where others are using anti-LGBT language or harassing other students and actively support safer schools efforts.”

School district spokeswoman Val Joyner told the media she was looking into the situation but could not confirm or deny any disciplinary action for Miller and added that she would not be doing additional media interviews.

School board member Jeff Cook, however, believes action is in order. “We have a general rule that all instruction should be age appropriate, and this clearly was not.” Cook, who lost re-election to the board on Tuesday, had indicated his position would probably play a role. “I have been warned that publicly breaking ranks from the school district on this issue will likely ensure my defeat for re-election,” he wrote. “Then so be it.”

On its website, the City of Hayward prides itself on its “accepting and caring environment.” Apparently, though, that environment excludes anyone who questions the agenda of those who would promote gender-disorientation pathology.

And last…

If this is a preview of the hope and change to come, we want none of it. A long line formed in Indianapolis Wednesday comprising several hundred Obama campaign workers who were waiting to get paid. “I want my money today! It’s my money. I want it right now!” yelled one former campaign worker. The Obama campaign said 375 people were hired as part of the Vote Corps program in Indianapolis. Workers put in three-hour shifts for a $30 pre-paid Visa card, but when they showed up for their cards Wednesday morning at 10:00, there was a note on the door indicating no one would be there until 1:00 p.m. When no one showed by 1:20 p.m., the natives got restless. Extra police officers were called in and barricades were set up, though no arrests were made. The news didn’t get any better, either. When paychecks were finally handed out, many workers complained that they were short. “They gave us $10 an hour. So we added it. I added up all the hours so it was supposed to be at least $120. All I get is $90,” said one. “It should have been $480. It’s $230,” said another. While we’re not confident in the arithmetical abilities of Obama’s supporters, it’s obvious that to their candidate, spreading the wealth means keeping more for himself.

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.)