The Foundation

“A good government implies two things; first, fidelity to the objects of the government; secondly, a knowledge of the means, by which those objects can be best attained.” –Joseph Story

Government & Politics

The Recession Is Over?

In case you missed the news, the recession is over. As of June 2009, no less. So say the economic sages at the National Bureau of Economic Research, the arbiter of these things. According to the NBER, the recession began in December 2007 and lasted 18 months – the longest since the Great Depression. That it’s over is good news, but there’s a “but.”

“On the other hand,” writes The Wall Street Journal, “the recession was only two months longer than the 16-month downturns of 1973-1975 and 1981-82, the two other most serious post-World War II periods of falling economic growth. The 2007-2009 downturn was painful but not extraordinary in historical context. What is different about this period is the relative weakness of the economic recovery.”

For years after 1982, GDP growth was at least 4 percent. Today, GDP remains below that of the fourth quarter of 2007. One difference is that in 1983, Ronald Reagan’s cuts in marginal tax rates were taking hold, while in 2010, the economy is bracing for trillions of dollars in tax increases in January. The current administration’s “recovery” policies have also been a major drag on economic growth, no matter how they may crow about their “success.”

Since January 2009, the economy has lost 3.2 million jobs, and the current 9.6 percent unemployment rate is higher than the 9.5 percent in June 2009 when the recession supposedly ended. U.S. household net worth fell by another $1.5 trillion in the second quarter, and is now $10.7 trillion less than at its high point in 2007. Foreclosures are at record highs.

Perhaps all of this is why some of the jobs now being shed are those of Barack Obama’s economic advisers. He may say on the campaign stump that Tea Party supporters are “misidentifying who the culprits are” for this economic trouble, but heads are rolling at the White House. “This is tough, the work that they do,” Obama said. “They’ve been at it for two years, and they’re going to have a whole range of decisions about family that will factor into this as well.” As in spending more time with family.

Lawrence Summers, chairman of the president’s National Economic Council, is heading back to Harvard. Apparently, the “Recovery Summers” is over. Other recent departures include budget director Peter Orszag and head of the Council of Economic Advisers Christina Romer. Meanwhile, Herb Allison, who took charge of the Troubled Asset Relief Program in April 2009, is stepping down. That leaves Treasury Secretary Timothy “Turbo Tax Cheat” Geithner as the lone remaining member of Obama’s original economic team.

We’ll say it again: In order to generate real economic growth, tax rates must remain level (or, even better, decline), regulation must ease and, in general, government must shrink. Of course, Obama and his refurbished economic team are unlikely to come to the same conclusion.

Baby Please, Come Back to GOP

Hoping to recapture the magic of ‘94 and show that they “get it,” Republicans announced their new election plan to some fanfare Thursday. Called “A Pledge to America,” the plan is modeled somewhat on 1994’s “Contract with America.” It’s introduced with watered-down language from the Declaration of Independence – “Whenever the agenda of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to institute a new governing agenda and set a different course.” That’s not exactly the firm stand taken by our Founders, but it’s befitting the overly cautious Republican Party inside the Beltway.

That said, there are some positives in this pledge, primarily a rededication to the Constitution and the original intent of its framers. To fulfill this promise, Republicans pledge to “require each bill moving through Congress to include a clause citing the specific constitutional authority upon which the bill is justified.” We have proposed just that before, and we’re glad to see it in the Pledge.

The Pledge is basically divided into five areas: stopping the imminent Jan. 1 tax hikes by making current rates permanent and thereby helping to create jobs; rolling back government spending to fiscal 2008 levels; repealing ObamaCare; reforming Congress and the legislative process; and repairing damage done to our national security. They should read our Patriot Declaration for more ideas.

The Pledge, however, won’t win the election for the GOP. In fact, the best thing going for them right now is that they’re not Democrats. Well, not quite, anyway. Furthermore, until Republicans actually keep their promises once elected, we will remain skeptical.

On Cross-Examination

“I can’t say the GOP 'Pledge to America’ left me either shaken or stirred. I guess it’s okay politics at the ya-boo level, but the blather quotient in this document is awfully high. To my eye it has a deckchair-rearranging look about it. … [T]he Pledge is probably a neat tactical move at this point in the game. It’s just that our problems are much bigger, deeper, and more systemic than you’d know from reading the thing. I think this is generally understood, and accounts for the feeble showing of the Republican party in polls. As evidence that congressional Republicans have truly learned the lessons of 1994-2006 and will clean up their act if given majorities in November, it’s not very convincing.” –National Review’s John Derbyshire

Democrats Run From Their Record

How bad is it for Democrats? They’re running against their own programs. ObamaCare, cap-n-tax, you name it, they’re against it now. This situation reached absurdity when five Democrat members of Congress ran ads claiming to have voted “no” on TARP. The five are Frank Kratovil (MD), Dina Titus (NV), Mary Jo Kilroy (OH), Kathy Dahlkemper (PA) and Glenn Nye (VA). The inconvenient truth is, according to FactCheck.org, “None of the five lawmakers who are running these ads is listed in the roll call vote. That’s because none of them had taken office yet.” But if they had been in Congress, they would have been against it. Yeah, that’s the ticket.

This Week’s ‘Braying Jackass’ Award

“I still remember Sasha, when she was three months old … had meningitis, and she had to get a spinal tap, and they had to keep her [in the hospital] for three or four days. … I still remember that feeling of just desperation, watching the nurse take her away to provide treatment for her. But I was thinking, what if I hadn’t had insurance?” –Barack Obama at a “backyard discussion” in Virginia about health care

Obama lectures the press to leave his girls alone, yet turns around and uses them as a political prop whenever it suits his own leftist policy initiatives.

However, he does “take the blame” for public opposition to ObamaCare. “Sometimes I fault myself for not being able to make the case more clearly to the country.” He may think that if only he had talked more about it, voters would get it, but as the first provisions kicked in this week, it’s more likely that voters will now blame Democrats for every health care problem.

Murkowski Begins Write-In Campaign

Soon-to-be ex-Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) refused to accept defeat in the August Republican primary, announcing this week that she is beginning a write-in campaign to retain her seat in November. Murkowski’s loss to Gulf War veteran and former U.S. Magistrate Judge Joe Miller made her the latest in a line of establishment politicians beaten in party primaries this year. Like a few of those spurned politicians – Florida Governor and “Independent” senatorial candidate Charlie Crist and soon-to-be former Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter come immediately to mind – Murkowski is a sore loser.

Write-in campaigns are tough, and no one in Alaska has ever topped 27 percent. Probably the best Murkowski can hope to do is split the GOP vote and send Democrat Scott McAdams to the U.S. Senate. But Murkowski has a strategy that includes drawing out the supporters of her mentor, the late Republican Sen. Ted Stevens, as well as the anti-Sarah Palin crowd, though that group’s reliability is uncertain. Despite leaving the governor’s mansion a year-and-a-half early, Palin remains popular in Alaska, and her supporters there are more numerous and more motivated than her detractors.

Still, this is a task that Murkowski no doubt relishes, considering the bad blood between the two. In the 2006 governor’s race, Palin ended Lisa’s father Frank Murkowski’s bid for re-election in the GOP primary. Palin then went on to call for Ted Stevens’s resignation when he became embroiled in corruption scandals, while Murkowski stood by the longtime senator. Earlier this year, Palin threw her support behind Miller in the primary. The “Murkowski” Senate seat belonged to her father for 21 years before he became governor in 2002 and appointed her to it. Now Murkowski believes she’s entitled to the seat, regardless of what the voters say. She apparently didn’t catch the message that 2010 is not the year of the entitled.

From the ‘Non Compos Mentis’ File

The Leftmedia are in full attack mode against Delaware GOP Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell. Just days after O'Donnell defeated longtime Rep. Mike Castle in the Senate primary, village idiot talk-show host Bill Maher dug up a 1999 interview in which O'Donnell, a devout Catholic, confessed that she “dabbled in witchcraft” because her friends in school were “doing these things.”

Now, the media have become fixated on O'Donnell’s high school years in a transparent character assassination attempt because, obviously, the issues don’t favor Democrat Chris Coons. Few are asking questions about Coons, who called himself a “bearded Marxist” in college, nor is anyone focusing on Coons’ term as Newcastle County executive, when spending and property tax increases skyrocketed. The spotlight is likely to stay on O'Donnell until the media starts “dabbling” in reporting news instead of slinging mud.

Jimmy Carter Is Still Relevant, If He Does Say So Himself

Former President Jimmy Carter offered several examples of his political ignorance this week while promoting his latest book, “White House Diary.” First, he claims a strange kinship with the Tea Party movement, stating that his own campaign for the White House was similar to what is taking place in the current political climate. “I was a candidate that was in some ways like the Tea Party candidate,” he said. “I was a complete outsider. I capitalized legitimately on the dissatisfaction that was permeating our society.” Carter’s 1976 White House victory came during a period of economic distress, distrust of the government after Watergate, and the aftermath of the Vietnam War.

That, however, is where the narrow similarity to the Tea Party ends, and the broader similarity to Barack Obama begins. Voters would soon regret turning to Carter to fix the mess, and his failed policies significantly weakened the economy and our national security and ultimately destroyed his presidency. Things were so bad, in fact, that a “misery index” was devised to qualitatively measure the amount of devastation. Carter laments the what-ifs of the 1980 election, still misreading it after all these years. “Had we not had the hostage crisis,” Carter said, “Had I not had Kennedy as my opponent, who sapped away a portion of the Democratic wing, I would have been re-elected.” Carter refuses to acknowledge that his Republican opponent, a man named Ronald Reagan, might have had something to do with it.

Perjury in Black Panther Case?

We’re closer to the next election than we are the last, but the fallout from the Black Panther case percolates on. Recall that New Black Panther Party members stood outside a Philadelphia polling place in Nov. 2008 brandishing a billy club, shouting racial epithets and otherwise intimidating white voters. This week, the watchdog group Judicial Watch obtained internal e-mail logs from the Department of Justice that suggest that senior officials had a hand in making the decision to pull the plug on the case, contradicting sworn testimony by Thomas Perez, the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. Perez said in May that the decision was, “a case of career people disagreeing with career people.”

While it’s doubtful that Perez will be on the rack for these allegations anytime soon, the incident reveals both the difficulty of extracting information on how a slam-dunk case was dropped and the lengths to which Attorney General Eric Holder may be going in not pursuing certain cases based on race. It took a Freedom of Information Act request by Judicial Watch just to receive the logs and a summary of what particular e-mails stated, with a court ordering the disclosure.

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National Security

Woodward’s Book Stirs Pot

Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward is publishing a new book about the Obama administration titled “Obama’s Wars.” Columnist Victor Davis Hanson pans “Woodward’s methodology of using almost exclusively unnamed sources, which, on one hand, encourages concerned players to be preemptive and get their one-sided stories out as ‘background’ or face slander from others who beat them to the punch, and on the other hand, reports thoughts and unspoken impressions in the manner of a novelist.” However there are some revelations that, if true, are further confirmation of Obama’s positions.

Not surprisingly, Obama’s primary concern in Afghanistan was not accomplishing objectives, but how to get out in a way that was politically expedient. “Everything we’re doing has to be focused on how we’re going to get to the point where we can reduce our footprint,” he’s quoted as telling aides.

Second, and a bit more shocking, Obama’s cavalier attitude about terrorism was evident when he told Woodward in July of this year, “We can absorb a terrorist attack. We’ll do everything we can to prevent it, but even a 9/11, even the biggest attack ever … we absorbed it and we are stronger.” What callous disregard for the lives lost on 9/11. What startling foolishness to state that we could “absorb,” say, the detonation of a nuclear device in one of our major urban centers, perhaps even Washington, DC. We’re not interested in absorbing anything. Obama’s job as commander in chief is to protect our national security proactively, not manage its demise. Unfortunately, under this administration national security is nothing more than a distraction from a grand domestic agenda to “fundamentally transform” America.

Repeal of ‘Don’t Ask’ Fails

Senate Republicans successfully blocked a Democrat effort to repeal the law prohibiting homosexuals from serving openly in the military, known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” The repeal was attached to the $726 billion defense appropriations bill. Republicans filibustered and Democrats fell four votes short of breaking it. Arkansas Senators Mark Pryor and Blanche Lincoln, the latter of whom faces a tough fight for re-election, voted with Republicans, as did Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), but only as a procedural move that allows him to revive the bill at a later date. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who led the filibuster effort, said that the debate should wait until the Pentagon releases the results of its survey regarding the repeal of “Don’t Ask.” It’s unlikely that the issue will come up again before the election, but this much is certain: Our war-fighting capability is weakened when the military becomes a laboratory for the Left’s social engineering.

Democrats had also added the so-called “DREAM Act,” which would create a path to citizenship for some children of illegal immigrants. We consider illegal immigration to be a national security issue, but somehow we doubt that’s why Democrats attached this amendment to the defense appropriations bill.

Putin Positions for 2012 Presidential Return

It appears that what goes around comes around in Russian politics. Vladimir Putin, the current Prime Minister of Russia and president from 2000 to 2008, is positioning for another run for the presidency in 2012. Government sponsored websites for a Putin 2012 run have popped up, and Russian news services continue to publicize Putin’s recent “manly” campaign-type activities, including flying, hunting whales and attending biker rallies. Dmitry Medvedev, Putin’s handpicked lap dog, is the current Russian president, but it appears that he will serve only one term. The Russian constitution forbids serving more than two consecutive terms as president, and it’s not surprising that Putin’s plan all along has been to use Medvedev as a placeholder until he could serve again.

In reality, Putin has continued to hold the reins of power all along. After leaving the presidency to become prime minister, he had many presidential powers shifted to his prime minister position, leaving Medvedev as a figurehead who handled high-level foreign contacts and performed ceremonial roles. No doubt, those powers will be transferred back to the presidency in 2012. Additionally, Putin had the Russian constitution changed so that, starting in 2012, the presidential term will be six years instead of the current four, meaning that Putin likely will be running Russia until at least 2024.

As Putin is not a great friend of the United States or the West and seeks to recapture the former Soviet Union’s glory, a return to near-Cold War relations, or worse, could be in the cards. Given this, the American people would do well in 2012 to replace the current West-loathing occupant of the White House with someone whose primary goal is the security and survival of America.

Profiles of Valor: U.S. Air Force CMSgt Etchberger

“Plausible denial” was the word in 1968, when some U.S. military personnel were taking the battle to the communist enemy in Cambodia and Laos as “civilians.” What was undeniable, and what finally became crystal clear decades later, was the heroism and selflessness that was exhibited by one of those men, United States Air Force Chief Master Sergeant Richard Loy Etchberger. In March 1968, a remote radar site in Laos, known as Lima Site 85, was attacked and eventually overrun. Etchberger, one of the defenders at that site, remained in his position despite heavy fire that had killed or wounded most of his comrades. Fighting with everything at his disposal, including calling in air strikes, he battled back. When med-evac helos finally came, he put his wounded comrades aboard first, braving enemy fire to get them up to safety before he himself was mortally wounded. Though he had received posthumously the Air Force Cross for his actions that day, Etchberger will now receive his full due: the Medal of Honor.

Business & Economy

Income Redistribution: Cost per Job ‘Created’ Is Sky High

History shows that there are two foolproof ways to drive up costs: increase demand or involve the government. For the latest illustration of the latter, just look west. According to reports recently released by Los Angeles City Controller Wendy Greuel, for the $111 million in stimulus funds received by two L.A. departments, only 55 jobs have been created. That’s a whopping $2 million spent per job. Greuel says that eventually the departments will create or save (those infamous words again) 264 jobs, but even that would still keep the price per job at $420,000, far higher than what the workers will receive.

Explaining the preposterous price tags, Investor’s Business Daily notes that part of the money “goes to the capital costs and profit of the contractors. But much of it also gets absorbed into the normal process of government contracting” (read: bureaucracy). Even Greuel admits the numbers are disappointing, stating, “With our local unemployment rate over 12 percent we need to do a better job cutting the red tape and putting Angelenos back to work.”

Of course, the Obama administration still wants to convince us that the stimulus is working. It seems that while Americans are stretching dollars to make ends meet, Washington is stretching our patience with its tales of economic growth, job creation and recovery.

Hillary Clinton Buys Stoves for Women

“Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has announced a new program to introduce cleaner cook stoves around the world,” reports CBS News. “Clinton said the Alliance for Clean Cookstoves will set a goal of placing cleaner stoves in 100 million homes by 2020.” According to Clinton, some three billion people worldwide use stoves that put out toxic fumes and chemicals that cause various respiratory illnesses. That may be a serious problem, but we’re not sure why it’s necessary for the U.S. government to contribute $50 million to launch this program. The answer might be that the effort also is billed as a way to fight climate change. And no amount is too high to deal with that phantom problem.

UK Considers Government Checks for Everyone

Socialism screams “power to the people,” but in the United Kingdom one government agency wants to bypass the people. Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC), the nation’s taxing authority, has suggested that employers send paychecks directly to the government, which will deduct taxes and send the remainder to employees via bank transfer. HMRC claims the savings to employers could be about $780 million, though the agency admits the plan is “radical.”

Richard Baron, head of taxation at the Institute of Directors – the largest business-leader membership association in Europe – says having HMRC process salaries is “completely unacceptable.” And George Bull, head of tax at Baker Tilly, notes the risks are significant: “If HMRC has direct access to employees’ bank accounts and makes a mistake, people are going to feel very exposed and vulnerable.” Should HMRC take too much, Tilly explains, repayment could take weeks or months. Yes, mistakes do tend to be in the government’s favor.

Across the pond in New York, the United Nations is urging countries not to cut funding for the poor, national debts notwithstanding. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stated, “We should not balance budgets on the backs of the poor.” Translated: the rich mustn’t keep their money if it means the poor remain poor. Perhaps Ban’s next idea will be for nations to forward paychecks directly to the UN so required alms could be collected. Just to be sure, you know.

Culture & Policy

Climate Change This Week: If You Can’t Win the Argument, Change the Terms

Thirty years ago, environmentalists fretted about “global cooling” only to reverse field a decade or so later and warn us that “global warming” would melt the polar ice caps and inundate our large coastal urban areas. When that didn’t work, the dire warnings turned to the threat of “global climate change.” Still, the so-called experts can’t seem to convince us mere mortals that we need to change our carbon-belching ways.

Undaunted, the climate crowd has created a new buzz phrase, one sure to induce panic among the masses: “global climate disruption.” As if change isn’t normal and weather oddities don’t occur often enough to become nearly routine. By using this argument, these prophets of doom tried to play up Hurricane Earl as a killer storm sure to wreak destruction, while escaping blame when it turned out to be a mild nor'easter.

By making the random events of weather part of a scheme to shift power and control to a few favored interests, these eco-fascists masquerading as do-gooders hope to use the force of law to tame Mother Nature. Good luck with that. Let’s hope their next outdoor gathering meets with high winds and a torrential downpour, just to show them who’s really the boss.

A Tale of Two Journalists

Molly Norris used to have a life and a career in Washington, as a cartoonist for Seattle Weekly, an alternative paper. But not any longer. She has now – at the urging of the FBI – gone underground, forfeiting her identity and her job. Is Norris a criminal? No. She just had the poor judgment to draw a cartoon entitled “Everybody Draw Muhammad Day,” which led to the issuance of a fatwa – or Islamic death sentence – against her. Perhaps she had forgotten the 11th Commandment: Make fun of Christians and Jews all you want, but thou shall not inflame Muslim ire.

The fatwa was issued by imam Anwar al-Awlaki, a man The New York Times described in October 2001 as “a new generation of Muslim leader capable of merging East and West.” Al-Awlaki, who was born in the United States and headed a mosque in Virginia, is now conducting his dirty work from a hiding place in Yemen.

Barack Obama has remained silent on this matter, conspicuously so because only recently he lectured all of us on the freedoms afforded by this country. Of course that was in relation to the building of the Cordoba House mosque two blocks from Ground Zero. When it comes to the injustice that has befallen an average American like Molly Norris, he has nothing to say.

While some in the field of journalism are threatened with death for making a joke, others are rewarded for their hatred. Recall Helen Thomas, the poster child for women in journalism, who was canned after making incendiary comments at a conference celebrating Jewish heritage. Thomas’ statement that Jews should “get the hell out of Palestine” and “go home” to Poland, Germany, America and “everywhere else” was caught on tape so that not even leftists could defend her.

Even after her weak apology, no one would touch her with a 10-foot pole. No one, that is, except the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Next month the 90-year-old Thomas will be given a lifetime-achievement award at CAIR’s Leadership Conference & 16th Annual Fundraising Banquet in Arlington, Virginia. Clearly, her final flourish as a “journalist” was appreciated by someone.

Media Spikes Leftist Murder Attempt

Community College Dean Al Dimmit was minding his business the other day when he was suddenly grabbed and his throat slashed, but he wasn’t the intended victim. His attacker believed he was slashing Missouri Democrat Governor Jay Nixon, who had not yet reached campus for his scheduled visit. Dimmit, fortunately, survived.

For the most part, this vicious attack has been relegated to the local Kansas City media, and there is little question why. Would-be assassin Casey Brezik’s Facebook page is an ode to the brainwashing tactics of the Left. If his politics had leaned, even ever so slightly, to the right, he would have been burned in effigy by every publication from The Huffington Post to The New York Times. But Brezik, a 22-year-old student, leaves no one in doubt about his beliefs. He takes a break from his anti-religion sentiments only to declare a Holy War after the proposed burning of the Koran in Florida, and quotes his hero, Che Guevara, on the evils of “imperialism.” So the mainstream media has used one of the most popular tools in its arsenal: the spike. The Associated Press, on the other hand, dutifully reported Brezik’s anti-government sentiment, no doubt hoping the rest of us would associate him with a Tea Party.

And Last…

As we mentioned above, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) is waging a write-in campaign to retain her seat after losing the GOP primary. The campaign hit an unfortunate snag this week, however, when an ad ran informing voters of her continuing candidacy. As the trickiest part of the effort may be to get voters to spell her name correctly, it certainly didn’t help matters that her own ad misspelled her last name. The ad suggested that viewers visit LisaMurkwski.com. To add insult to injury, that particular URL leads to an anti-Murkowski site owned by a supporter of Republican candidate Joe Miller. The ad was soon corrected, but the damage – and hilarity – had been done. Alaska’s soon-to-be former senator can only hope that her state’s voters are better spellers than she is.