The Foundation

“Public affairs go on pretty much as usual: perpetual chicanery and rather more personal abuse than there used to be…” –John Adams

Government & Politics

If By ‘Transparent’ You Mean ‘Secret’…

After much bribery and arm-twisting, the Senate managed just before Christmas to pass its version of ObamaCare by a 60-39 vote (amazingly, without a single GOP “aye”). Now, the bill heads for conference deliberation televised by C-SPAN, just as the cable channel offered and Barack Obama promised numerous times.

Or not.

Democrats let slip this week that there would be no typical conference committee on the competing House and Senate versions of the health bill, as “leaders” opted instead for private negotiations with “key” congressmen and senators, none of whom is Republican. Once an agreement is reached, each legislative chamber will vote again and send the unified bill to the president.

Without a conference committee, a rule requiring public access to the conference report for at least 48 hours before a vote would conveniently not apply. That means even more liberty-stealing treachery can be slipped into the bill with little notice. Funny how the “public option” doesn’t mean that the public gets to know what’s in the bill.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) nevertheless had the gall to declare, “There has never been a more open process for any legislation in anyone who’s served here’s experience.” In response, Wall Street Journal columnist James Taranto mocked, “Has a more false or awkwardly worded statement ever come out of anyone who has served as speaker of the House’s mouth?”

In spite of Democrats’ best efforts at “transparency,” there are many extra-special things that we actually do know about the bill. For example, on page 1,020, the Senate bill states: “It shall not be in order in the Senate or the House of Representatives to consider any bill, resolution, amendment or conference report that would repeal or otherwise change this subsection.” In other words, the bill creates an eternal law by prohibiting future elected Congresses from making changes to this subsection.

What’s in the subsection in question? The infamous “death panel” – the Independent Medicare Advisory Board (IMAB), whose objective will be to “reduce the per capita rate of growth in Medicare spending” (read: to ration health care).

Meanwhile, the bill contains what amounts to a marriage penalty worth $2,000 or more in insurance premiums each year. The Wall Street Journal explains, “The disparity comes about in part because subsidies for purchasing health insurance under the plan from congressional Democrats are pegged to federal poverty guidelines. That has the effect of limiting subsidies for married couples with a combined income, compared to if the individuals are single.”

Finally, Obama signaled this week that he’s willing to break another campaign promise: The “no tax increases on the middle class” pledge. He threw his support behind the Senate’s tax on higher end “Cadillac” insurance plans, something unions and House Democrats oppose.

The more the public learns about this continuing saga, the more vigorously opposed they become to “reform.” No wonder Democrats want the process to remain secret.

The BIG Lies

“We will have a public, uh, process for forming this plan. It’ll be televised on C-SPAN…. It will be transparent and accountable to the American people.” –Barack Obama, November 2007

“That’s what I will do in bringing all parties together, not negotiating behind closed doors, but bringing all parties together, and broadcasting those negotiations on C-SPAN so that the American people can see what the choices are, because part of what we have to do is enlist the American people in this process.” –Barack Obama, January 2008

“[T]hese negotiations will be on C-SPAN…” –Barack Obama, January 2008

“We’re gonna do all these negotiations on C-SPAN so the American people will be able to watch these negotiations.” –Barack Obama, March 2008

“All this will be done on C-SPAN in front of the public.” –Barack Obama, April 2008

“I want the negotiations to be taking place on C-SPAN.” –Barack Obama, May 2008

“[W]e’ll have the negotiations televised on C-SPAN, so that people can see who is making arguments on behalf of their constituents, and who is, who are making arguments on behalf of the drug companies or the insurance companies.” –Barack Obama, August 2008

“We will work on this process publicly. It’ll be on C-SPAN. It will be streaming over the Net.” –Barack Obama, November 2008

Democrat ‘Constitutional Scholars’ at It Again

When questioned several weeks back about the constitutional authority for ObamaCare, Obama’s publicist, Robert Gibbs, issued this disclaimer: “I don’t believe there’s a lot of – I don’t believe there’s a lot of case law that would demonstrate the veracity” of questions about constitutional authority. Ah, yes, “case law.” That’s code for amending our Constitution by judicial diktat rather than via its prescribed method as stated in Article V.

This week, Gibbs reiterated, “I do not believe that anybody has legitimate constitutional concerns about the [health care] legislation.”

Furthermore, when asked where the authority to mandate that Americans buy health insurance – that they be forced under penalty of fine or imprisonment to engage in a particular commercial enterprise – is located in the Constitution, Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) answered, “Well, I would assume it would be in the Commerce clause of the Constitution. That’s how Congress legislates all kinds of various programs.”

Congress too often uses this clause to do whatever it wants to do (the legislative target might, just might, some day engage in interstate commerce, don’t you know,) but this incorrect interpretation certainly doesn’t make this legislation constitutional.

Quote of the Week

“America’s founders intended the federal government to have limited powers and that the states have an independent sovereign place in our system of government. The Obama/Reid/Pelosi legislation to take control of the American health-care system is the most sweeping and intrusive federal program ever devised. If the federal government can do this, then it can do anything, and the limits on government power that our liberty requires will be more myth than reality.” –Wall Street Journal op-ed by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Liberty University School of Law professor Kenneth Blackwell and American Civil Rights Union senior legal analyst Kenneth Klukowski

This Week’s ‘Alpha Jackass’ Award

“I think it was a mistake to take health care on as opposed to continuing to spend the time on the economy.” –Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE)

After being bribed with $100 million in Medicaid savings for his state in a “cash for cloture” deal, Nelson provided the 60th Senate vote for health care. We’re glad he’s come around, but talk about too little too late.

This Week’s ‘Braying Jenny’ Award

“We want our final product – as I’m sure everyone in the House and Senate would agree – to insure affordability for the middle class.” –Nancy Pelosi, whose main dilemma with the middle class is whether to use a Phillips or a flathead…

News From the Swamp: Democrats Cut and Run

The political world tilted on its axis this week with the announced retirements of three key Democrats – Senators Christopher Dodd (CT) and Byron Dorgan (ND), and Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter. Each Democrat trotted out the standard “spending more time with the family” excuse, but the reality is that all three men were on the endangered list in this year’s election cycle. Dodd in particular has been losing ground in his home state of Connecticut since 2008 when it became known that he was on the receiving end of a sweetheart mortgage deal from Countrywide Financial, one of the firms he publicly accused of causing the subprime mortgage meltdown and the ensuing financial crisis. In fact, Dodd is in such bad shape politically it seems that Democrats have a better chance of holding his seat without him in it.

The retirement announcements, which came within hours of each other, added to several Democrat House retirements announced at the end of 2009. The trend suggests that senior and some freshman Democrats are headed for the exits in expectation of a bruising midterm election. Several Demo strategists and congressional leaders were in full spin mode in an attempt to contain the damage and downplay the significance of these recent developments. Historically, the party in power loses seats in the midterms, so the fact that Democrats are cutting and running isn’t particularly unusual – in more ways than one.

Additionally, Democrats believe a string of congressional Republican retirements may blunt any potentially sweeping gains the GOP would otherwise make this year. What the pols and pundits don’t realize, or what they don’t want you to realize, is that Democrats around the country are increasingly losing public support for passing legislation that is attempting to convert America into a completely socialist country. High taxes, excessive regulation and larger, more intrusive government, combined with a complete disregard for national security in time of war, is a cocktail that is likely to create a bigger shift in November than liberals can imagine.

Meanwhile, Alabama Congressman Parker Griffith recently switched his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican, stating that he could not align himself with a party that was pushing a notoriously bad health care bill. He also added that Nancy Pelosi is divisive and polarizing and he cannot support her. All but one of his staff quit after Griffith’s defection, stating that they hoped to “soon find ourselves in the employment of principled public officials.” Sorry, kids, but you actually just left one.

New & Notable Legislation

Before breaking for Christmas, Congress passed a last-minute bill to increase the federal debt ceiling by $290 billion. This pushes the acknowledged national debt to $12.4 trillion (while total national debt, acknowledged plus unfunded liabilities, pushes over a mind boggling $128 trillion). The increase should carry the government through to only February, at which time a more substantive bill will have to be crafted to deal with the debt issue. The vote in both the Senate and the House was mostly along party lines, and was just about the last order of business before they ducked out for the holidays.

The Senate also managed to pass a $636.3 billion defense-spending bill that includes $128 billion in funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Hope ‘n’ Change: Diversity for Diversity’s Sake?

Compared to several other Obama appointments, the selection of Amanda Simpson to be a senior technical adviser to the Commerce Department drew comparatively little news coverage – even the White House didn’t comment on her appointment. Apparently, America is at a point where selecting a transgender appointee isn’t such a big deal. Though Simpson said that “as one of the first transgender presidential appointees to the federal government, I hope that I will soon be one of hundreds, and that this appointment opens future opportunities for many others.”

As we step into the brave new world of furthering “diversity” in America, we must ask: Would he/she have been selected if he/she hadn’t been born as a he? Simpson was previously a test pilot and Deputy Director in Advanced Technology for Raytheon, but there are certainly many others who had similar qualifications that were overlooked in the process. Obviously, it will be a question which dogs the onetime Hillary Clinton delegate and unsuccessful state legislative aspirant as he/she begins the new job.

National Security

Warfront With Jihadistan: Hot Pants, Cold Shoulders, Lukewarm Policy

“The system worked.” So said of one of Obama’s best and brightest smooth-brains – Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano – following the narrowly averted Christmas Day disaster that was Northwest Flight 253. Napolitano’s subsequent attempts to remove both feet from her mouth only left her deeper in the hole, as evidenced by the Chosen One’s acknowledgment of “systemic failures” that led to the incident. No word yet on whether Napolitano, who heads the organization charged with protecting the nation from such an attack, will soon bear the hypovehicular tread marks from being thrown under the Hope ‘n’ Change Express.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the “undi-bomber,” attempted to ignite PETN, a highly explosive compound used in plastic explosives, during the flight with 288 people on board. The PETN lined Abdulmutallab’s underwear, and the terrorist used an acid-filled syringe as the catalyst-detonator. Fortunately, the reaction was incomplete, resulting in an incendiary, rather than explosive, effect, and Abdulmutallab was severely burned while the plane remained intact. (Considering his injuries, perhaps “eunuch bomber” is a more apt moniker.) Flight attendants quickly put out the fire, and passengers and crew worked together to subdue the terrorist and keep the aircraft safe and secure until landing.

The system worked? Okay, let’s recap, adding a few relevant details: A terrorist from Nigeria, trained in Yemen, pays cash for a ticket and boards a flight in Amsterdam for Detroit. He has neither a passport nor any checked bags and was escorted by a man who did not board the plane. His own father visited the U.S. embassy as early as four weeks before the incident, specifically to warn officials that his son had become involved with jihadis, and the U.S. intelligence community knew all of this before the terrorist boarded the flight. If only they had tried profiling…

Here are some other facts regarding the “system” Napolitano thinks worked so well: Like all other terrorists who are lucky enough to touch U.S. soil, Abdulmutallab immediately lawyered up after being taken into custody. No “unlawful enemy combatant” status for him; he’ll be treated like any other constitutionally protected domestic criminal. Of course, he could have been even luckier – some of those held at Guantanamo actually have been released to terrorist-hosting countries, only to return to the front lines of the war on terror, but we digress. Meanwhile, we’re reminded that we can’t even use the term “war on terror” – it’s now “overseas contingency operations.” Even the term “terrorism” has fallen out of favor, having been replaced by “man-caused disasters.” In fact, the seven-page indictment doesn’t use the word “terrorism.” But at least Abdulmutallab’s visa was revoked – 11 days after the attempted bombing.

No, this “system” – the “man-caused disaster” that masquerades as Obama’s homeland security and counterterrorism policy – most emphatically did not work. It brought America to within one failed detonator of losing nearly 300 lives; it allowed an individual with red flags hanging all over him to board a flight bound for our shores; and it once again forced flight crew and passengers into roles as ill-equipped counterterrorism and law enforcement surrogates.

Meanwhile, Democrats have mobilized their “truthspeak” (a.k.a. lie-making) apparatus to shift blame away from its true source, The Chosen One, citing holdup by the GOP of Erroll Southers’ nomination as Transportation Security Administration Chief – as if that somehow would have saved the day in this case. Moreover, the “holdup” dodge is an interesting tactic to say the least, considering that the Democrat-controlled Senate finally got around to bringing the nomination up for a vote only on Nov. 19 – more than 300 days after Obama assumed office. On top of that, there is the small matter of Southers’ misuse of confidential records to spy on his estranged wife’s boyfriend and then lying about it to Congress. That may have had something to do with any delay that occurred. But then, at least, so far as we know, he isn’t a tax cheat.

The truth is that the current system relies on serendipity, divine intervention and a proactive civilian populace to prevent loss of innocent lives. This, in and of itself but especially after the billions of dollars given to TSA over the years, is wholly unacceptable. To be sure, the fault does not lie primarily with intelligence; if anything, that community has succumbed to paralysis as a direct result of policy infected by political correctness. The real failure stems from this administration’s denial (in spite of contrived statements to the contrary) that we remain at war against Muslim extremists. As Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer summed it up, “Obama may have declared the war over. Unfortunately al-Qa'ida has not. Which gives new meaning to the term ‘asymmetric warfare.’”

Department of Military Readiness: START Treaty

As Barack Obama continues to pretend that the U.S. is not at war with Jihadistan, our Dear Leader also continues to pretend that sacrificing our nuclear arsenal will make our adversaries and enemies play nice with us. As we detailed previously, Obama appears ready to slash U.S. nuclear capability with minimal, if any, Russian concessions, as a follow-up to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty of 1991.

It now seems that Obama is willing to let whatever remains of the U.S. nuclear stockpile rot in place after the new treaty, in spite of a little known 2009 report from a formal U.S. bipartisan commission that examined the safety and capabilities of the existing U.S. nuclear arsenal. The report noted that the U.S. needs new nuclear warheads and research facilities in order to maintain a credible nuclear deterrent. Unfortunately, Obama, wearing his utopian, antinuclear and rose-colored glasses, continues to oppose a new warhead program despite widespread support at the Pentagon, including the backing of Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

Fortunately, the U.S. Senate, which would have to consent to any new arms treaty with at least 67 votes, has warned Obama that any new START treaty is NO GO unless the administration also agrees to a warhead modernization program. In a recent letter to the White House, 40 Republican Senators and Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman reminded the president that, under the National Defense Authorization Act of 2010, any new START treaty legally requires the commander in chief to present a budget for modernizing U.S. nuclear forces. It’s nice to see that the Senate takes seriously its obligation to advise and consent on treaties, and that it’s also willing to warn Obama that, unless the administration ensures that any remaining nuclear weapons will work if needed, START II is DOA.

Business & Economy

Income Redistribution: The Death Tax Dies … For Now

Founding Father Benjamin Franklin once observed that in this world, nothing is certain but death and taxes. That and the predictable Democrat gnashing of teeth when the federal estate tax expired for 2010.

Instead of celebrating the (temporary) end of unfair government double-jeopardy confiscation of a person’s wealth, liberals fretted as if a family now keeping the fruits of their labors was some sort of undeserved gift from Congress. Liberal news reporters even bemoan a “loss” of $14 billion to the U.S. Treasury, although they fail to explain how that reduction in confiscations of private estates would meaningfully dent the trillions of dollars being accumulated in government debt through shameless spending.

Given the destructive power this particularly unfair tax has upon small businesses and family farms, the death tax should never be resurrected. Unfortunately, we can expect a Democrat-controlled Congress bent upon funding its grandiose health care schemes to have an epiphany about the pound of flesh it isn’t extracting from departed Americans. Accelerated collections of the death tax through ObamaCare’s death panels can’t be far behind.

Bailout Bonanza

It’s like Christmas, graduation and a slew of birthdays all in one for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, who recently found themselves the recipients of a limitless supply of blank checks signed by the U.S. government. Just in time (conveniently) to miss the year-end deadline after which congressional approval would be required, the Treasury Department nixed the $400 billion limit on bailout money authorized for Fannie and Freddie. Instead, on the heels of $111 billion in taxpayer dollars already doled out to the ailing mortgage giants, the Feds have adopted a “flexible formula” for bailout bucks. As history shows, even Stretch Armstrong has nothing on the flexibility of Uncle Sam, who can bend laws, wiggle around limitations, and reach over, under and through constitutional constraints to raid taxpayer pockets.

Meanwhile, in an oh-so-shocking (or not) development in the auto bailout saga, Chrysler and GM saw end-of-year sales drop by 3.7 percent and 5.7 percent, respectively, while Ford, Toyota and Honda reported significant sales increases – as high as an impressive 33.5 percent for Ford. Of course, it must be coincidence that the duo with diminishing sales consists of the only two companies bailed out, taken over and now run by Barack Obama.

Around the Nation: A Story of Forgive and Forget

In 2009, a total of 13 states attempted to regain revenue once thought lost by engaging in tax amnesty programs. Tax cheats (like Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner) were encouraged to set things right with state tax collectors and be spared civil and criminal penalties in return. Some states even forgave interest on the delinquent amount just to bring much-needed revenue into their coffers.

The strategy worked. For example, the state of New Jersey was a big winner, collecting over $700 million in just six weeks – far outstripping its own estimate of $100 million overall.

So it’s notable that California isn’t trying that approach. Instead the Golden State is going to the federal government with hat in hand in hopes of closing a $21 billion budget shortfall with taxpayer dollars from other states. If the feds don’t come through with $8 billion, warned RINO Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the welfare recipients and 200,000 state workers will get it. In some circles that’s called a threat.

Yet California has descended economically to the point that its 13 percent of the national population now accounts for about 30 percent of the welfare rolls, and businesses are leaving in droves because of the state’s unfriendly policies. The state’s legislators don’t seem to care because they have theirs – the state offers members of the Assembly a salary of more than $95,000 plus $30,000 extra to cover “expenses.”

California became a state after prospectors stricken with gold fever settled there in the 1840s. Their descendants in 2010 still have gold fever … they just forgot how to work for their prosperity.

Culture & Policy

Climate Change This Week: The Copenhagen Accord

After a year of hype, the “Copenhagen Accord” didn’t live up to its billing. December’s UN summit on climate change quickly disintegrated into a battle of competing national interests, culminating with the 200 participating nations leaving without a binding successor to the Kyoto Protocol. In addition, there is no current plan to reach such an agreement, just a vague reference to the next major UN climate change conference, scheduled to take place late this year in Mexico, where it should be warmer than Copenhagen in December turned out to be.

The Accord was hurriedly hammered out in the eleventh hour after infighting had threatened to scuttle negotiations and thereby rain on the parade of the late-arriving Barack Obama. In the end, the main players were Obama and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, leaving many other nations feeling as though they had been shut out of the process altogether. While that may be the case, it is all but irrelevant, given that the final document does not obligate anyone to do anything. In essence, the agreement calls for both wealthy and developing nations to make a list of common goals (which is unlikely, given the fact that they could not agree at the conference), with some means for an international bureaucracy to oversee “progress.” Wealthy nations also pledged to give $30 billion to help developing nations deal with climate change, with an eye to giving $100 billion annually by 2020. Leaders, however, were vague (not surprising in this economic climate) about the sources for this money.

Finally, the pièce de résistance: a “vow” to keep the global average temperature from rising more than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit over estimated pre-industrial levels. Of course, if we could control that, the summit would have been completely unnecessary.

This is a big blow to those hoping for a financial windfall. Climate change has become big business (as Al Gore’s growing bank account will attest), and those with money to invest in lower-carbon technologies are not going to be so quick to put their hands in their pockets for a pact that isn’t legally binding.

About That Carbon Dioxide…

The e-mail scandal at the University of East Anglia; Al Gore’s misstatements of fact in Copenhagen; the coldest winter since little Algore pulled on his first pair of ‘jammies – the myth of man-made climate change is falling apart piece by piece, and the latest blow is a new study out of England, where scientists are relying not on computer-generated models of the Earth, but the real thing.

Wolfgang Knorr of the University of Bristol’s Department of Earth Sciences has found that in the past 160 years the Earth’s absorption of carbon dioxide (CO2) has remained unchanged. In fact, Knorr’s study found that only 45 percent of carbon emissions caused by man’s progression (including industrialization) remains in the atmosphere as opposed to the 100 percent that the warmers are claiming.

Warming “science” is based largely on the supposition that the Earth can take only so much CO2, and that once its limit has been reached, we’re cooked. But more and more dissenters, who had been silenced for several years by the media and ostracized by colleagues, are now stepping forward. Their position is that the Earth’s ecosystems are much more complex and robust than we understand, and that computer systems used by scientists crying climate change are limited in their comprehension – better known by people with common sense as garbage in, garbage out.

Meanwhile, with winter hardly a month old, just as in March 2009, when a snowstorm buried the “civil disobedience” climate change protest in Washington, DC, Mother Nature is weighing in now with record cold temperatures and snowfall around the nation. In fact, Joe Bastardi of Accuweather.com is predicting that the winter of 2010 will be the most severe in 25 years. Gore had better schedule the next protest during the summer.

Second Amendment: 2009 Gun Sales

It looks as if a correlation between gun ownership and murder rates exists after all – but not the one gun-control crusaders claim. According to 2009 data, more guns mean fewer murders. The FBI’s preliminary 2009 crime report shows that murders from January to June 2009 fell 10 percent from the same period in 2008. Granted, correlation doesn’t always equal causation, but the number of privately owned guns rose in 2009 by about 2 percent. During the first six months of last year, national instant background checks jumped by 24.5 percent over the first six months of 2008.

According to one gun store owner, the problem, even amid the economic downturn, hasn’t been keeping customers; it’s been keeping up with customers. “For most of the year we couldn’t even find guns to sell,” says Kevin Miller of K&D Gunsmithing in San Bernardino, California. “The manufacturers don’t have guns. They say sales are so high in the United States they can’t keep up.” Indeed, gun manufacturer Sturm, Ruger, & Co. reported that first quarter 2009 production skyrocketed by 69.3 percent over first quarter 2008 levels. The most popular guns purchased were those most commonly used for self defense.

Hmm, gun ownership translating into personal safety and lower crime rates. Maybe our Founding Fathers were onto something after all.

To Keep and Bear Arms

Late last month, two men wearing masks broke into the home of a family in Corpus Christi, Texas, in the wee hours of the morning. Upon hearing the noise, the owner of the home grabbed his gun and made his way towards the intruders. Upon confrontation, both parties exchanged fire. One of the attackers was hit and killed while his partner fled the scene. The ensuing investigation by the Corpus Christi Police Department revealed “an occupant, a resident, defending his home,” according to Lt. Isaac Valencia, who further stated, “If you apply the Castle [doctrine], you have a right to defend your home.” And, as noted in the previous story, gun owners do just that every day.

And Last…

As if the failed undi-bomber wasn’t bad enough Christmas news for jihadis, this New Year’s note just came in from the Department of Premature Detonation: “Fourteen suspected terrorists died Tuesday night when the bus they rigged with explosives blew up prematurely,” CNN reports. “The explosion occurred as the suspects were riding the bus in the province of Kunduz,” Afghanistan.

Around our humble shop, we like to call this sort of incident “self-solving.” More to the point, however, it sounds like these jihadis had a bad case of ED – explosive dysfunction.