The Patriot Post® · Digest

The Foundation

“To take from one, because it is thought his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers, have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, the guarantee to everyone the free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it.” –Thomas Jefferson

Government & Politics

Framing the Tax Debate

“Tax deal” is the buzz phrase of the week in Washington, as Barack Obama and congressional Republicans came to an agreement Monday on a two-year extension of current income tax rates for all Americans. Predictably, the Left went hysterical. House Democrats promptly held a voice vote to reject the compromise unless undisclosed changes are made to it, though the Senate began debate on a larded-up version of the proposal Thursday night with a test vote scheduled for Monday. As usual, the devil is in the details – and, in this case, the definitions.

Obama, his fellow Democrats and their acolytes in the media continue to frame the debate in terms of tax “cuts” versus the budget deficit – as if tax rates before 2001 were the natural order of things and to keep rates where they are is a “cut” that will increase the deficit. On the contrary, without the deal, everyone’s taxes will rise by hundreds or even thousands of dollars next year. With the deal, no one’s income taxes will be cut. In fact, some taxes will skyrocket. The estate (death) tax will be resurrected at 35 percent with a $5 million exemption – up from 0 percent this year, but down from the previous 55 percent. The only new cut would be a temporary payroll tax reduction of two percentage points.

The facts, however, don’t stop the Left from their dishonest characterization. “The far-reaching package … would add more than $900 billion to the deficit over the next two years,” The Washington Post lamented. Ditto for The New York Times, the Associated Press and others. This assumes that economic behavior won’t change if taxes go up, meaning federal revenue will increase by the exact amount of the tax increase. Ergo, if Congress prevents the tax hike, that lost revenue adds to the deficit. It’s a wrong assumption, demonstrable by the fact that federal revenue actually went up after the Bush tax cuts went into effect.

Meanwhile, Obama was so concerned about the “cost” that he insisted that unemployment benefits be extended for another year. Now that will actually cost nearly $60 billion, and it will cause the unemployment rate to remain higher than it otherwise should. On top of that, Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Tom Harkin (D-IA) secured various energy subsidies in exchange for their votes, and more pork is almost sure to follow.

The fact that Obama conceded to any deal is notable. The Wall Street Journal concludes, “Obama has implicitly admitted that his economic strategy has flopped. He is acknowledging that tax rates matter to growth, that treating business like robber barons has hurt investment and hiring, and that tax cuts are superior to spending as stimulus. It took 9.8% unemployment and a loss of 63 House seats for this education to sink in, but the country will benefit.” The flop is so complete that even former economic adviser Larry Summers warned of a “double dip” recession if taxes go up. John Maynard Keynes, call your office.

Though Obama did accept the deal with the GOP, he proved to be a rather disagreeable compromiser, calling Republicans “hostage takers” and the American people the “hostages.” Obama thus not only reneged on an oft-repeated campaign promise to repeal the Bush-era tax cuts “for the rich,” he also proved utterly ungracious to those lawmakers with whom he had just struck a deal. “[B]ecause of this agreement, middle-class Americans won’t see their taxes go up on January 1st, which is what I promised,” he said. “[But] I’m as opposed to the high-end tax cuts today as I’ve been for years. In the long run, we simply can’t afford them. And when they expire in two years, I will fight to end them.”

Some conservatives are opposing the bill because of the aded deficit spending. Club for Growth President Chris Chocola said, “The plan would resurrect the Death Tax, grow government, blow a hole in the deficit with unpaid-for spending, and do so without providing the permanent relief and security our economy needs to finally start hiring and growing again.”

Yet given that Democrats still control the White House and, until January, both houses of Congress, this deal may be the best we can hope for now. Republicans should fight to resist wasteful spending, but tax hikes must be prevented. If they are, taxpayers will keep billions of their hard-earned dollars over the next two years. With that renewed tax stability for small businesses, unemployment should go down, though not as much as if the rates were permanent. In 2012, Republicans could be in far better position to win a permanent solution.

The Great Orator of the Democrat Party

“This isn’t the politics of the moment. This has to do with what can we get done right now.” –Barack Obama

The BIG Lie

“This is not as significant a boost to the economy as the Recovery Act was, but we’re in a different situation now. I mean, when the Recovery Act passed, we were looking at a potential Great Depression and we might have seen unemployment go up to 15 percent, 20 percent – we don’t know.” –Barack Obama, who promised that unemployment wouldn’t exceed 8 percent if the “stimulus” were enacted

This Week’s ‘Braying Jackass’ Award

“I’ve said before that I felt that the middle-class tax cuts were being held hostage to the high-end tax cuts. I think it’s tempting not to negotiate with hostage-takers, unless the hostage gets harmed. Then people will question the wisdom of that strategy. In this case, the hostage was the American people, and I was not willing to see them get harmed.” –Barack Obama, trotting out a despicable metaphor that was dutifully picked up by other Democrats and the media

The Free Enterprise Model

The Patriot Post‘s goal is to defeat the Socialist agenda of those in Washington and fight for Essential Liberty and Rule of Law. Proudly, we didn’t qualify for government handouts from TARP or the so-called stimulus. We rely on the free market – in other words, readers like you.

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Nate Jackson
Managing Editor

New & Notable Legislation

To date, not one of the 12 annual appropriations bills that fund the federal government has passed Congress, so House Democrats lumped them all together, along with a few other goodies, such as the food “safety” bill passed by the Senate last week. The massive bill, which passed 212-206 Wednesday, would cap total Cabinet department spending at last year’s level of $1.2 trillion, which is 4 percent less than the administration wanted. The bill is now in the Senate, where its prospects are uncertain.

A procedural vote to bring legislation before the Senate repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” failed Thursday, 57-40. The vote, however, may not yet end months of bickering, as supporters are still angling for passage by year’s end.

“The Senate moved Thursday to delay a politically charged showdown vote on legislation carving out a path to legal status for foreign-born youngsters brought to this country illegally,” the Associated Press reports, “putting off but probably not preventing the measure’s demise.” The DREAM Act was intended to provide a pathway to citizenship for the children of illegal aliens, brought to this country not of their own free will, but also not the proverbial “anchor babies” that our Constitution has been misconstrued to allow. Senate Republicans had vowed to block any legislation until the aforementioned tax issue is settled. The DREAM Act had passed the House, though nearly 40 Democrats defected to oppose it.

Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ) introduced a resolution this week that would require all legislation to cite an enumerated power in the Constitution granting authority for that legislation. The resolution has 34 co-sponsors. Should it miraculously pass, it will be interesting to see how many times legislation is justified by invocation of the catchall Commerce Clause.

Hope 'n’ Change: Take 222 and Call Us in the Morning

The Obama administration has quietly issued even more waivers to allow companies to duck out of a provision of ObamaCare, with half of them granted in the past three weeks. The total now stands at 222. Companies that receive the waivers can avoid meeting certain limited coverage provisions for their employees. The government started issuing the waivers when it became clear that many companies would end up dropping coverage for workers because it would become prohibitively expensive.

McDonald’s, Universal Orlando, Waffle House and even the Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Ogdensburg are just a few of the recipients of these waivers. Of course, even unions are getting in on the game, including the Bricklayers Local 1 of Maryland, Virginia and DC; the United Food and Commercial Workers Union in Mount Laurel, New Jersey; and the Service Employees International Union Local 1 Cleveland Welfare Fund. Next year we hope to see House hearings on the issue with this question being posed: If ObamaCare was such a good idea, then why did the government find it necessary to exempt so many from its provisions?

From the Left: Democrat Corruption Never Ends

New York Democrat Rep. Charles Rangel’s censure in front of the House of Representatives last week and his non-apology apology for tax evasion, abuse of power and other ethics violations didn’t bring an end to his troubles. The Federal Election Commission is looking into a complaint that Rangel used money from his National Leadership PAC to fund his legal defense. Lawmakers can use money from individual campaign funds only for legal fees, leaving Rangel once again under suspicion for running afoul of the rules. Which excuse will he use first on this one? Perhaps the “I didn’t know it was wrong” approach may still carry weight, but come next year, he won’t have a friendly speaker to help him weasel out of trouble.

In other news, U.S. District Judge G. Thomas Porteous, a Clinton appointee, became just the eighth federal judge in U.S. history to be removed from the bench. The Senate voted unanimously on one impeachment charge and with a solid majority on three others. The charges included accepting cash and favors from attorneys stemming from drinking and gambling problems, as well as lying to Congress at his confirmation hearings and filing for bankruptcy under a false name.

Obama Gets the National Motto Wrong

On Monday, some members of Congress called on Barack Obama to correct the record after he misidentified the national motto in a speech in Jakarta, Indonesia, last month. “In the United States, our motto is E pluribus unum – out of many, one,” he said, comparing it to the motto of Indonesia, “Bhennika Tunggal Ika – unity in diversity.”

The national motto, of course, is “In God We Trust,” and has been since 1956, when it was changed from E pluribus unum. Obama, though, has a habit of leaving God out of the discussion. On several occasions, he has quoted the Declaration of Independence and spoken of being endowed with unalienable rights while leaving out the all-important “by our Creator.”

In a letter, the representatives wrote, “By misrepresenting things as foundational as the Declaration of Independence and our national motto, you are not only doing a disservice to the people you represent, you are casting aside an integral part of American society.” As Ronald Reagan once put it, “If we ever forget that we’re one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under.”

National Security

WikiLeaks Founder Imprisoned, Awaiting Extradition

The WikiLeaks saga continued this week as the site’s founder, Julian Assange of Australia, was found and arrested in London on allegations unrelated to WikiLeaks. Assange faces sexual assault charges in Sweden, though this seems to amount to little more than accusing the leaker of unprotected intercourse. He has not yet been formally charged with any wrongdoing, though he was denied bail at a court hearing following his arrest. Sources report that U.S. and Swedish officials discussed the possibility of Assange’s extradition to face espionage charges.

Prior to his arrest, Assange sent an encrypted “poison pill” file to numerous supporters around the world. The file allegedly contains documents dealing with subjects such as international banking and insurance, BP and Guantanamo Bay. Assange warned that if anyone tried to stop WikiLeaks, he would give his supporters the file’s encryption key, triggering a new deluge of state and commercial secrets. In other words, “Let us keep leaking or we’ll keep leaking.”

Unfortunately, Assange’s criminal followers didn’t wait for his orders to cause mayhem. In an electronic assault on Wednesday, WikiLeaks supporters attacked Visa and MasterCard for refusing to process donations to WikiLeaks and threatened PayPal as well. To add insult to injury, WikiLeaks’ online payment processor has threatened to sue Visa and MasterCard.

Sadly, there was confirmation this week that at least one of the recently leaked documents could cause considerable harm to the U.S. The February 2009 document is classified Secret and is a veritable target list for terrorists. It identifies over 100 facilities and strategic locations that the U.S. considers critical, including an Israeli weapons manufacturer, communications cables, power plants, metal and chemical processors, and even pharmaceutical facilities where critical medicines are manufactured. Naturally, the Straits of Hormuz, through which much of the West’s vital petroleum passes, was also listed.

Combining all the above with yet another espionage case reported this week – that of a low-level Navy clerk with top-secret clearance who offered access to the Pentagon’s computer networks – it’s clear that the U.S. intelligence community, its diplomatic corps and its monetary and private property systems are under direct attack from those who want to bring us down. Unfortunately, it appears that nothing short of a nuclear attack will cause the Obama regime to act.

Another Great Leap Forward

The looming real budget cuts about to hit the Defense Department would be unfortunate in any setting but are likely to present especially acute problems for U.S. forces five or 10 years down the road due to growth in both quantity and quality of Chinese military systems over that time. While U.S. forces are looking at cuts across the board, and already find it difficult to field meaningful numbers of best-in-the-world systems such as the F-22, China is beginning to hit its stride in the production of military systems that compete with U.S. quality.

Chinese fighter aircraft in particular are beginning to encroach on the dominance of American F-15s and F-16s in technical sophistication and flight performance – not surprising, considering the F-15 entered active service with the U.S. Air Force in 1976 and the F-16 in 1980. China’s new F-11B, an improved and entirely Chinese-made upgrade of the Russian SU-27, poses a particular threat to older U.S. aircraft. With the F-22 program capped at 187 aircraft, and with any fight to defend Taiwan requiring U.S. aircraft to fly from distant bases, it is becoming a real possibility that U.S. forces could lose air superiority.

Back to the Future

Russian Puppet, er, President Dmitri Medvedev recently remarked that failure to reach an agreement on European missile defense limits might lead Russia to embark on a new nuclear arms race with the West. Ronald Reagan could not be reached for comment, but we’re certain he had a good laugh at Medvedev’s remark. Russia is not in any position to have an arms race with Belgium, let alone the United States and NATO. However, with the most anti-missile defense president ever currently occupying the White House, and with the aforementioned defense budget crisis currently affecting the United States, don’t be surprised if NATO caves and gives Russia what it wants – a crippling limit on European missile defenses.

Security Theater and the Airline Zoo

The Department of Homeland Security is taking its “If You See Something, Say Something” campaign to Walmart. A total of 588 stores in 27 states will feature video messages at checkout counters to encourage shoppers to warn law enforcement of suspicious activity – and they don’t mean those “people of Walmart” photos that circulate the Internet. While DHS can’t seem to do anything about our porous borders, poor airport screening procedures, and inability to handle intelligence information, they’re asking a private company to encourage citizens to spy on one another – for safety’s sake.

In related news, London’s Daily Mail reports that an airline passenger at Abu Dhabi International Airport “was arrested after security officials discovered he had carried snakes, birds and a squirrel in hand luggage on a long-haul flight” from Jakarta, Indonesia. We’re just waiting for Janet Napolitano to see this one and instruct the TSA to implement more security measures in the U.S.

Profiles of Valor: U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta – Update

A few weeks ago, United States Army Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta became the first living service member to be awarded the Medal of Honor for actions in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. You can read the story here.

Now, it has been reported that during the ceremony, Giunta’s family – including a World War II vet – and fellow soldiers were relegated to the third row and further back to make room for a few Democrat congressmen.

Is this an indication of how little respect Democrats have for our warriors? To ask the question may be to answer it.

Business & Economy

Regulatory Commissars: Net Neutrality

“The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is poised to add the Internet to its portfolio of regulated industries,” reports The Washington Times. “The agency’s chairman, Julius Genachowski, announced Wednesday that he circulated draft rules he says will ‘preserve the freedom and openness of the Internet.’ No statement could better reflect the gulf between the rhetoric and the reality of Obama administration policies.” Indeed, Genachowski’s assertion that bureaucratic red tape will increase freedom is laughable. To illustrate, the draft of proposed regulations has 550 footnotes and isn’t even available to the public.

An example of the rationale for the proposed regulations is that streaming video uses enormous amounts of bandwidth. Netflix alone accounts for 20 percent of all peak bandwidth usage, and in a sense it competes with Internet providers such as Comcast, which also offers on-demand programming while supplying the bandwidth their competitor is using. Comcast wants Netflix to pay for this usage, on top of the bills their customers are already paying. Enter the FCC with, among other things, a proposal to allow Internet providers to bill for usage. AT&T already does this with new smartphone plans.

In April, however, a federal appeals court struck down the FCC’s attempt to regulate the Internet because federal law allows it to control broadcast television and radio airwaves only. “In order for the FCC to do this,” acknowledges FCC Commissioner Robert M. McDowell, “it needs for Congress to give it explicit statutory authority to do so.” It’s unlikely that a Republican Congress will grant this authority, but then again, we never underestimate the GOP’s ability to blow it.

Finally, for a clear and informative explanation of terms in the net neutrality debate, Pajamas Media’s Charlie Martin has an outstanding breakdown on why net neutrality has been politicized and could turn into the “Fairness Doctrine” for the Internet. That would be anything but fair.

A Bunch of Botched Benjamins

Just months after the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve jubilantly announced the creation of the most high-tech, counterfeit-resistant $100 bills in U.S. history, production has come to a screeching halt. It seems 1.1 billion of the bills – representing $110 billion in face value – are unusable, thanks to a creasing problem in the printing presses, which causes the paper to fold and part of the bill face to be left blank. As if that’s not bad enough, the new bills cost about 12 cents each to make – double the cost of the old design.

Officials are not sure what caused the problem, but one thing is certain: fixing it will be no easy task. As CNBC reports, “Because officials don’t know how many of the 1.1 billion bills include the flaw, they have to hold them in … massive vaults until they are able to develop a mechanized system that can sort out the usable fills from the defects.” Officials estimate that mechanized sorting would take approximately one year – manually sorting the bills could take between 20 and 30. In the meantime, this expensive goof means the government spent about $120 million in taxpayer dollars to produce money that, right now, isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on.

Schwarzenegger Gets Religion on Spending

After seven years of fiscally reckless leadership by the Governator, Californians may actually have reason to remember with nostalgia the days of former Democrat Governor Gray Davis. Before Davis’s recall in 2003, the state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office projected the 2003-2004 budget deficit would be $21.1 billion. Now, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, “California will have a $25.4 billion deficit by June 2012 if the Legislature and governor fail to take actions to reduce spending or raise revenues.” In this fiscal year alone, the Chronicle reports, overspending has hit $6.4 billion.

Entering stage right nearly eight years late, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger practiced his hard-nosed role: “I guarantee no matter how you look at it, you will not find more money,” he said. “There is no more money, except when the economy comes back. The most important thing is … you’re spending more money than you’re taking in.” Well, eight years can seem an eternity, and the governor’s been talking for at least that long. In his opening remarks at a January 2004 budget press conference, he said, “[T]he politicians have made a mess of the California budget. Now it’s time to clean it up.” Funny how Arnold’s had nearly eight years to “clean it up,” and he’s actually managed to make things worse than they were under Davis.

Culture & Policy

Climate Change This Week: Crazy From the Heat in Cancun

Opulent parties, praying to a Mayan goddess and figuring out ways to sell out American interests for the purpose of “greening” our planet – welcome to the United Nations’ global warming conference in sunny Cancun, Mexico. At least the current record low temperatures there are making things comfortable, unlike the frigid blast that hit Copenhagen during last year’s conference.

The conferees are still wrestling over the same problem they dealt with in Denmark – how to replace the failed Kyoto Protocol that the U.S. Senate never ratified and developing industrial powers China and India ignored because they were exempted. Meanwhile, countries such as Japan, which did sign the original treaty and agreed to its restrictions, won’t sign a successor unless those developing economies are included. To do so, Japan says, “makes no sense.”

The Kyoto pact expires at the end of 2012, which lends an air of desperation to the conferees as they attempt to hammer out a successor proposal. In the face of the melting glacier of evidence for global warming, that desperation also shows in some of the rhetoric emitting from participants – particularly those who are unlikely to be contributors to the pact but would reap the benefits of its wealth redistribution. One example is Bolivia, whose proposed International Tribunal for Climate Justice would become a setting to punish developed nations for the crime of “ecocide.” Another study released in time for the conference calls global warming a key cause of illegal immigration – the National Academy of Sciences claims that in the coming decades 6.7 million people will be displaced from Mexico by climate change.

Of course, the agreement being sought includes a “global climate fund” which will serve as the wealth transfer mechanism. Depending on the option selected, developed countries commit to a joint effort of $100 billion (if suitable emission mitigation actions are undertaken) or, failing that, a flat fee of 1.5 percent of their GDP. Certainly the current U.S. administration wouldn’t mind this, but good luck getting the Senate and the American people to buy into this same bill of goods. If the climate crazies fail in Cancun, though, they will try, try again next year in the similarly agreeable climes of South Africa.

From the ‘Non Compos Mentis’ File

Helen Thomas was at it again last week, this time making anti-Semitic comments at an Arab Detroit workshop and silencing Leftist speculation that her previous outburst was an aberration or age-related lack of tact. Thomas’s decades-long career as a White House correspondent ended in June after she groused, “Israelis should get the hell out of Palestine.”

“We are owned by propagandists against the Arabs,” Thomas informed the workshop’s 300 attendees, “There’s no question about that. Congress, the White House, and Hollywood, Wall Street, are owned by the Zionists. No question in my opinion.” For this and other incendiary comments condemning America’s involvement in the Middle East, the former press corpse reporter received a standing ovation.

Not everyone was applauding, however, including Thomas’s alma mater, Wayne State University in Detroit. Shortly after the workshop, the school announced it was ending the unfortunately named Helen Thomas Spirit of Diversity Award. Thomas had the nerve to be angry about the decision, calling it a “sad day for students” and accusing the University of “making a mockery of the First Amendment.” The fact that she’s made a mockery of journalism for so long seems to have escaped her.

Meanwhile, the Southern Poverty Law Center is busy labeling dozens of conservative organizations “hate groups.” According to CNS News, “Among the groups being designated by the SPLC are the American Family Association, Concerned Women for America, the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission, Coral Ridge Ministries, Family Research Institute, Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, Illinois Family Institute, Liberty Counsel, MassResistance, National Organization for Marriage and the Traditional Values Coalition.” Yeah, nothing says “hate” like Traditional Values.

Faith and Family: It’s a Wrongful Life

This is not the title of the latest Hollywood melodrama, but a term of art recently coined by the Court of Appeals in Brussels. Last week the Court ruled that the parents of a disabled child are entitled to recover damages due to their physicians’ failure to detect the condition in utero, thereby denying its mother the right to a “therapeutic abortion.”

After first determining that the doctors had not caused the disability, the court went on to explain that “the injury [that] must be compensated is not the disability itself, but the fact of being born with such disabilities.” In the court’s opinion, the legislature had authorized therapeutic abortion, not only for the health and well being of the mother, but for the child as well; therefore, on the child’s behalf, the court would rule that it should never have been born.

Belgium is not the first to so rule. In the U.S., such suits are called “wrongful birth,” and there have been thousands of them since Roe v. Wade in 1973. Most of the time, such matters are settled out of court, for no one wants to haul a child before a jury and argue that the child should have been aborted.

And Last…

As usual, things inside the Beltway are as slippery and dangerous as an icy road – literally. Last Friday morning, anticipating snow over the weekend, the Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA) sent out trucks to prep the roads. Unfortunately for Beltway travelers, the trucks had the wrong mixture. Normally, the SHA uses a mixture of salt and water before bad weather, but this time, two tank trucks were mistakenly loaded with liquid magnesium. When used for melting packed snow and ice, liquid magnesium works well, but applied to dry pavement at above-freezing temperatures, it makes roads very slick. Sure enough, many accidents were reported before the SHA sent salt trucks to fix the mistake.

The incident reminded us of the tax deal currently being batted around the Beltway. Just when the economy needs some salt on the roads (tax-rate stability) to weather the bad economy, Democrats come along with a truckload of liquid magnesium (more spending) to grease the skids. The only difference is that Democrats are trying to convince us that the road is supposed to be slick.