"Free Speech" in America and out of America

Two articles in today's Washington Post show us just how delicate free speech is in America and how it does not exist in some countries that believe they are the model for the world's freedoms.

Palin event canceled due to 'an onslaught of personal attacks
By Emi Kolawole

Former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin was scheduled to speak at an event for a Colorado nonprofit group May 2, but the event was canceled the day after it was announced due to "an onslaught of personal attacks" against Palin.

Palin was to speak at the Patriots & Warriors Gala at the Infinity Park Event Center in Glendale, Colo., which was billed as an awards banquet and fundraiser for military families in need and for a grief camp for children who had lost loved ones in combat.

But the event, sponsored by the Sharon K. Pacheco Foundation, was canceled Saturday, a day after it had been announced to the media. A press release posted on the sponsoring organization's Facebook page reads, "Due to an onslaught of personal attacks against Gov. Palin and others associated with her appearance, it is with deep sadness and disappointment that, in the best interest of all, we cancel the event for safety concerns."

The press release goes on to say that no direct threats were made against Palin, nor were any made against members of the organization's staff, but in light of the shooting rampage in Arizona last month, the negative rhetoric "raises concern for her safety and the safety of others despite the call for civility in America."

"The organization deeply respects Sarah Palin," reads the release, "and appreciates her willingness to come and honor our military. The organization plans to host the event at some point in the future, featuring another speaker."

The cancellation of the speaking engagement frees Palin to attend the NBC/Politico Republican presidential primary debate at the Reagan Presidential Library in California, also scheduled for May 2. But none of the potential 2012 Republican candidates have said they will attend.
(h/t Denver Post)

What a spoiled lot we are when we do not allow free speech of an opposing view to ours.
The same is true for the organizations who threaten and bully in Switzerland.  You will notice though, it was organized by an organization based in New York.  I am ashamed for some of my country men.

Bush trip to Switzerland called off amid threats of protests, legal action
by Peter Finn

A planned trip to Switzerland by George W. Bush was canceled after human rights activists called for demonstrations and threatened legal action over allegations that the former president sanctioned the torture of terrorism suspects.

The New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights and several European human rights groups said they were planning to file a complaint against Bush and wanted Swiss prosecutors to open a criminal case against him once he arrived in the country. (ed.note there is nothing like a holier than thou to make the issues clear, politics is the issue)
In what would have been his first European trip since leaving the presidency, Bush was scheduled to speak in Geneva on Feb. 12 at a dinner in honor of the United Israel Appeal. A lawyer for the organization said Bush's appearance was canceled because of the risk of violence, and that the threat of legal action was not an issue.

"The calls to demonstrate were sliding into dangerous terrain," the lawyer, Robert Equey, told the Swiss daily Tribune de Geneve.

A spokesman for Bush said the former president regretted that his speech was canceled.

"President Bush was looking forward to speaking about freedom and offering reflections from his time in office," David Sherzer said in an e-mailed statement.

Sherzer said that Bush has traveled to Canada, Brazil, China, Japan, South Korea and the Middle East since leaving office.

Organizers of a rally outside the Hotel Wilson, where the speech was scheduled to take place, had called on demonstrators to each bring a shoe, an effort to echo the assault on Bush during a news conference in Baghdad in 2008 when an Iraqi journalist threw a shoe at him. ( oh yes, definitely politics!)The Center for Constitutional Rights said in a statement that they had planned to bring the complaint under the Convention Against Torture on behalf of two of men, Majid Khan, who remains at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and Sami al-Hajj, a former Al Jazeera cameraman who was released in May 2008. The 2,500-page complaint will not be filed in court, but will be released Monday at a media event in Switzerland."Whatever Bush or his hosts say, we have no doubt he canceled his trip to avoid our case," the Center's statement said. "The message from civil society is clear: If you're a torturer, be careful in your travel plans. It's a slow process for accountability, but we keep going."

A Swiss Foreign Ministry spokesman told the Associated Press that the country's Justice Ministry had concluded that Bush would have immunity from prosecution for any alleged actions while in office. The Center for Constitutional Rights disputed that interpretation, arguing there is no such immunity under the Convention Against Torture.
The Center, and its European partners, earlier filed suits against former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other Bush administration officials in Germany and France. Those cases were dismissed.

Internal Republican Problems in Texas

I've been getting all the emails pro and con on as to who should be the speaker in the Texas House.  This is a good wrap up of what is going on - or maybe not going on.  It has been a real anthill of activity since the November elections.  This is from the Trailblazer's Politics blog. (Dallas News)

Speaker's race: Any votes moving beneath froth?
by Robert T. Garrett/Reporter

"The Tea Party in Texas has been working overtime to ensure that we have conservative leadership in the Texas House," says the unknown producer of this anti-Joe Straus video, which appears on the website StopJoeStraus.com , itself something of a mystery. Since I first noticed the site a few weeks back, I've asked the most visible organizer of the push for a more conservative speaker, Michael Quinn Sullivan, president of Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, if he has learned who's behind StopJoeStraus.com.

"I have not," he told me today.

This video, with its network-news-type graphics, is more sophisticated -- or jaded -- than some of the anti-Straus fusillades we've seen up to now.

I say jaded because it's ironic to see an ostensibly conservative issue campaign cite the liberal Texas Observer as its authority for spreading fear that Joe Straus' family ties to gambling mean that casinos are sure to start popping up like dandelions across the state. The article about Straus' gambling bloodlines was written last spring by the estimable Andrew Wheat of the watchdog group Texans for Public Justice, and just those words alone should grab the attention of the tort reformers among us.

But speaker's race politics does make for strange bedfellows. To guard his right flank, Straus, R-San Antonio , has produced the video below, which puts forth his Republican credentials. Also, as a tea party blog known as Ramparts 360 recently noted, Straus has hired quite a diverse cast of political consultants and his most outspoken defenders in the House Republican Caucus have included some members he really went to the mat -- or the checkbook -- to assist in last year's election.

Speaking of the caucus, if you've been on vacation, you might have missed that its Straus-supporting chairman, Rep. Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood, has agreed to hold a meeting on Jan. 10, the day before the session starts; Straus opponent Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, wants Taylor to call for "a vote to determine the Republican preference for speaker," which would be nonbinding but potentially trouble-causing for the incumbent; and Straus has reacted by saying, in effect, big deal, I've got more than enough Republican votes to carry the day -- whether it's opening day or the day before.

You will want to go to the site, read the whole thing, and then follow some of the other postings. The only way to have a fair appraisal of this situation is to read all the links, pro and con, watch the videos, all the comments (one of which gives the story behind the video mystery) then make up your mind.

Some important links for today

From the Washington Post Politics:
Crist pulls way ahead of Rubio
Pelosi's enforcer not afraid to battle Rahmbo
Oil spill pits Palin against the Republican Party

From Washington Post AP news:
Supreme Court upholds anti-terror law
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court has upheld a U.S. law that bars "material support" to foreign terrorist organizations, rejecting a free speech challenge from humanitarian aid groups.
The court ruled 6-3 Monday that the government may prohibit all forms of aid to designated terrorist groups, even if the support consists of training and advice about entirely peaceful and legal activities.
 
From Washington Post Foreign Service:
Iran bans 2 IAEA inspectors from entering Iran
 
Editorials and Op-Edsand columnists:
Obama's energy pipe dreams
Robert J. Samuelson

"Just once, it would be nice if a president would level with Americans on energy. Barack Obama isn't that president. His speech the other night was about political damage control -- his own. It was full of misinformation and mythology. Obama held out a gleaming vision of an America that would convert to the "clean" energy of, presumably, wind, solar and biomass. It isn't going to happen for many, many decades, if ever."

Barton's BP comments highlight GOP's propensity for gaffes
by Davis S. Broder (ed. note: I wish this weren't so true. Barton may have been correct but it was not the time to do the attention grabbing apology.)

The unreadiness team

THE REPORT is chilling. Optimistically titled "U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team Makes Progress in Securing Cyberspace, but Challenges Remain," it paints a disturbing picture of a national security disaster waiting to happen.

Louisiana and Rhode Island -Politics and Disasters

From The Providence Journal online:

Edward Achorn: Our political culture: When it rains on Rhode Island, it pours

Nature is mightier than any human being, and no politician can prevent damage from a disaster on the scale of Hurricane Katrina or the record rainfall that wreaked havoc last week.

But the political culture does have much to do with how well prepared a state is to meet a disaster and mitigate the damage. If a state is steeped in corruption and if its voters permit their politicians to spend tax dollars in ways other than serving the public interest, nature can inflict extraordinary damage indeed.

Hurricane Katrina was worse than it had to be for Louisiana, for example, because the state’s (including New Orleans’s) political leaders were too incompetent to prepare adequately for the storm. And, after the storm, its shakedown culture thwarted taxpayer-funded aid from getting to the people. Within two years, the special Hurricane Katrina Fraud Task Force of the U.S. Department of Justice had charged 188 people in Louisiana with fraud.

“Half of Louisiana is under water and the other half is under indictment,” a longtime congressman, Billy Tauzin, famously quipped of his state.

As Rhode Island dries out and confronts the damage, we may learn in coming weeks whether our culture also made things worse.

It is good to know that an editorial writer recognizes that the political culture of the gimme state of Louisiana had the most to do with the flooding and its aftermath.
Read it all.

Who Spends the Most?

Bookwormroom has this post on an article from the SF Chronicle.  It is about California spending but it is so telling. And appalling. And shameful.

Two unions spend $319.2 million over 10 years to affect California political process

Here’s a list of the the biggest spenders in California politics for the past decade:

These 15 groups spent more than a combined $1 billion over the past 10 years to influence public policy:

– California Teachers Association: $211.8 million

– California State Council of Service Employees: $107.4 million

– Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America: $104.9 million

– Morongo Band of Mission Indians: $83.6 million

– Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians: $69.2 million

– Pacific Gas & Electric Co.: $69.2 million

– Chevron Corp.: $66.2 million

– AT&T Inc.: $59.6 million

– Philip Morris USA Inc.: $50.7 million

– Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians: $49 million

– Southern California Edison: $43.4 million

– California Hospital Association: $43 million

– California Chamber of Commerce: $39 million

– Western States Petroleum Association: $35.2 million

– Aera Energy LLC: $34.6 million

Source: California Fair Political Practices Commission

Bookworm lives in the San Franciso area and sees first hand what the union control of a state can do. Note the unions are the biggest spenders by far.  She has written much more about this. Read it all.

Friday Links from the Washington Post

Official: Son of al-Qaeda-linked terror leader killed in U.S. strike

Four NATO troops killed on sixth day of Marja offensive in Afghanistan

Republican Marco Rubio is anti-Crist challenging Florida governor in Senate primary
Dana Milbank leads off with a play on words, he probably thinks that is really clever, but as a Christian I take offense to it. This is what he follows it with:

The anti-Crist came to Washington on Thursday. In the ballroom of the Marriott Wardman Park, they acted as if he were the Messiah.

Michael Gerson has this: A primer on political reality
Be sure to read this one. 

It's nonsense to say the U.S. is ungovernable
by Charles Krauthammer
The meat of the article is down into it:

It's 2010, and the first-year agenda of a popular and promising young president has gone down in flames. Barack Obama's two signature initiatives -- cap-and-trade and health-care reform -- lie in ruins.

Desperate to explain away this scandalous state of affairs, liberal apologists haul out the old reliable from the Carter years: "America the Ungovernable." So declared Newsweek. "Is America Ungovernable?" coyly asked the New Republic. Guess the answer.

That is just a part, read it all.

This is just a part of what they are offering today, to see what all they offer go to
Washington Post.

Should we ask a Politician to Commit Political Suicide?

That is the question Walter Williams is asking and discussing in this article From the American Spectator. After writing what the constitution actually says,

"Who is to blame for a federal government that spends a third of our income, regulates most every aspect of our lives, and has snuffed out the personal liberty envisioned by our founders? It is tempting to blame politicians whom we elect and send to Washington.

It is tempting to blame politicians whom we elect and send to Washington. I shared that view until a luncheon conversation I had with the late Sen. Jesse Helms of North Carolina during the 1980s. ...

....he asked me to tell him how could he remain senator from North Carolina and vote against crop subsidies. He said that if he voted against crop subsidies, North Carolinians would run him out of office and elect someone else whom I’d find worse than he."

My conversation with Sen. Helms was an epiphany of sorts: how reasonable is it for us to ask or expect a politician to commit what he deems to be political suicide?

Go to the American Spectator to read the entire article. It is up to the usual standards and fine writing of Walter E. Williams.

VDH asks Who is Afraid of Big Government?

Victor Davis Hanson in Pajamas Media.
You need to read it all but here are some parts to whet your appetite for more:

There is no reason to review all the standard reasons why the American people are terrified of an all-powerful federal or state government. The case has been made in thousands of elegant treatises and books, and is best reflected in the Constitution and the written work of the Founding Fathers.

But let me list a few other, less elegantly expressed worries, many anecdotal in nature.

1) Juvenal’s “Who will police the police?”

One of the scariest things about government is its exemption from laws by virtue of its monopoly on lawmaking and enforcement. I see this every day, from the mundane to the profound.

Go to any downtown in America, and one can see how some supposedly efficient, job-creating con-artist once promised a new hotel, stadium, or enterprise zone, then convinced the city council to steal land from some and hand it over to others (e.g., him)—and left an ungodly mess in his wake.....

.....On the more mundane level, this week I saw the following examples of government exemption. A local police car randomly did a running stop at a 4-way intersection (should I have called 911?); a city bus driver (very common) cell phoning against California law (report him to the cop running the intersection?); a city garbage truck spewing trash out its top as it sped down freeway 41 (call his cousins at the state EPA?)....

2) The Power of Envy

Government service offers veritable tenure and steady wages for the price of bypassing the American dream of “getting rich” in the private sector. Most follow the odds and realize that a federal bird in the hand is better than two in the private bush.

Yet legions of government (and often union) employees by needs must audit often far richer others, whether at the IRS, the county planner’s office, the zoning authority, or the state regulator. And here the public auditor can, by virtue of his unassailable position, quite easily stymie his private sector upstart counterpart.....

....I am all for codes, building inspectors, and plant regulators, but an excess of such investigators quickly creates a priestly class who take their own frustrations out on supposedly better off others.

3) Patronage

In California there are hundreds of worthless state boards with six-figure, governor-appointed officials. We assume that in our term-limited state, these sinecures are the refuges of former state assembly and senate politicians. In fact, as soon as we elect our state officials, we accept that they will cut deals with state executives to provide for their upcoming retirements—“I’ll vote for this, if in 4 years I get that spot on the state water board or the state fair practices committee”.....

4. The Greek four-step

I once lived in Greece for over two years, and visit there every other summer. Any casual observer could have predicted its present fiscal meltdown, which is emblematic of big government socialism....

5. Ministry of Truth

Government has the power of symbols to create alternate, scary realities. This week driving to and from the coast, I crossed several stretches of “The Honorable Joe Blow” freeway, and saw dozens of signs that essentially said “this project brought to you by big government stimulus.”....

....We all need government for defense, security, and infrastructure. But the more of it, the more dangerous—and creepy—our lives become.

Obviously I have left much of his essay on the cutting room floor, this is just a taste of all he had to say. Read it all here.

Did They Really Need a Poll to Figure This Out?

From the Washington Post

New poll finds voter anger drove results of Mass. election

by Dan Balz and Jon Cohen

Dissatisfaction with the direction of the country, antipathy toward federal-government activism and opposition to the Democrats' health-care proposals drove the upset election of Republican senatorial candidate Scott Brown in Massachusetts, according to a post-election survey of state voters.

The poll by The Washington Post, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard University's School of Public Health underscores how significantly voter anger has turned toward Democrats in Washington and how dramatically the political landscape has shifted during President Obama's first year in office.

I guess you have to remember the Washington Post does have an agenda; is inside the beltway;  just doesn't really get what is going on here in flyover country and finds it hard to believe not everyone, even in Massachusetts, is wedded to belief in "the Kennedys" and the liberal agenda. 
There is a lot more information in the article, read it here.

Hold Congress Accountable

Mayor Bloomberg is not my favorite politician but he has hit the nail on the head with this one.

Bloomberg Blasts Obama's War On Wall Street, Says Congress Salaries Should Be Held In Escrow For 10 Years Until We See How Their Laws Worked Out
by Henry Blodget

New York mayor Mike Bloomberg is outraged by Washington's attack on his city's primary source of tax revenue. And he has lobbed in a tit-for-tat plan to hold Congress accountable, too.

Go read the rest of the story.

Thank You Massachusetts

title and article from American Spectator by Manon McKinnon

You stood up for yourselves, you went to the polls and -- hallelujah -- you did a great thing for the rest of us. Unlike you, we have been politically helpless to stop this march to dependency, this latest power grab, and this next government expansion into our lives that is wrongly dubbed "health care reform." You alone had the chance to stop it, and you did by electing Scott Brown to the United States Senate. You are America's heroes!
Long before you even went to the polls the opposition's excuse crowd was explaining why you were going to reject their candidate. You thought Martha Coakley was dull or arrogant or uninterested or unfriendly. She took breaks from campaigning; she didn't go door to door or stand in the cold to shake hands; and she made awful gaffes. Like she didn't even know who Curt Schilling is. So all those talking heads took to the airways to say what a lousy candidate she is, no wonder she lost. Certainly, they insisted, the choice made by the voters of the Bay State had nothing -- absolutely nothing -- to do with those issues that motivated the folks at all those town halls last summer. And definitely you were not thinking of the same issues that produced those events named after the original Boston Tea Party -- such as too much taxing and spending and government intrusion into our lives. Nope. You elected the candidate who feels the same way you do, but only because Ms. Coakley does not know a Red Sox from a Yankee.

But the rest of us suspect that you did have some other thoughts. We have a hunch that issues such as independence, self-reliance, individual initiative, and local responsibility are as much on your minds as they are on ours. That you know our freedoms are worth keeping and that you -- and we -- don't like being asked to give them up. Whether you call yourselves Democrats, Republicans or Independents, turning your rights and responsibilities over to bureaucrats is lousier than even Martha Coakley's campaign. So thank you, Massachusetts, thank you so much.

Victor Davis Hanson has some Advice for President Obama

But first he has some good reading for you.

The Way Our World Works
The Strange Thing About Nemesis…

…is that the deity picks its victims on the basis of irony and arrogance. For every media-frenzy about ethical lapses of columnist Armstrong Williams taking Bush administration money for hawking No Child Left Behind, there is a Jonathan Gruber, the MIT go-to pundit on health care, who raked in $400,000 from the Obama administration for?—hawking Obamacare.

For every racially insensitive Trent Lott, Senate party leader, there is a racially insensitive Harry Reid, Senate party leader. For every illegitimacy story about Levi Johnston and Sarah Palin’s daughter, there is a John Edwards’ love child. For every supposed Bush fabrication, there is Barack Obama on You Tube swearing he will air all the health care debate on C-Span (sort of like his old public campaign financing promises, or closing Gitmo within a year, or getting out of Iraq by March, 2008, or …).

There is a lot of good reading between the above and below this, so read it all if you can. If not here are the suggestions:
 
Modest Suggestions for Obama

1) Each time you invoke Bush and proceed to trash him, just substitute al Qaeda. Try it today or tomorrow. Or better yet, close your eyes, take a deep breath and envision Sarah Palin, and as your blood pressure rises, say “Bin Laden”. Then go out to address the country on anti-terrorism. Your credentials as a mean SOB anti-terrorist fighter would soar.

2) In the long promised spirit of bipartisanship, each time you think of a new strange way of praising the Islamic world, just substitute Bush. Your “there is no purple state America” credentials would be reestablished.

3) Instead of talking about all the uninsured and exploited, try suggesting that millions of Americans should buy catastrophic health care plans and pass on big-screen TVs, I-phones, and DVD players. And why not tax at 10% (since we now are in the age of taxes) all remittances sent back to Latin America ($50 billion last year). Not all of that sum is sent by impoverished illegal immigrants, but much of it is, and ensures that workers here will have less disposable money to pay for their own health care. We could set up plans with the $5 billion in revenue and send a message to cover one’s own expenses before sending money to family back home.

4) Do not hire any more cabinet officials or government agency heads with Ivy League degrees. Enough already. Nothing had destroyed the reputation of Yale-Harvard-Princeton more than the present administration. Geithner did not learn how to pay his taxes. Summers sleeps through meetings and has contradicted almost all that he used to believe in; Holder wants to accommodate the architect of 9/11 with a show trial in New York, but try the CIA agents who interrogated him. The old Yalie Van Jones thinks Bush was in on 9/11. And Barack Obama of Harvard Law Review believes the Muslims gave us everything from the printing press to the Renaissance and Enlightenment. One contractor, surgeon, engineer, or pilot is worth five lawyers and academics. The Ivy League seminar explains a lot of the problems with the now imploding Obama administration—so much self-referential talk of elite standards, so little actual proof of any at all.

5) Get ready and brace yourself. 2009 was spent sowing the seeds of foreign adventurism through apology, kowtowing, trashing the prior administration, reaching out to thugs, neglecting allies, and talking up the corrupt UN. 2010 will be spent reacting to the harvests of that bitter investment. Right now we are down at the OK corral, with a lot of seedy gunmen looking sideways to see who fires the first shot in expectation that he can get what he wants with a little flashy holster work. If he gets away with his threats and braggadocio, down the road a real shoot-out will follow.

Climate Gate Becomes Pressgate

An article in Andrew Breitbart's BigJournalism asks that question along with questions for the media and a discussion of the biased, liberal coverage of Climategate.
As Climategate Becomes Pressgate, Questions for the Media

Trillions of dollars are at stake in the man-made global warming debate. The Climategate scandal – where leaked emails and computer programs involve dozens of prominent scientists worldwide – has almost everything one would want in a good scandal: conspiracies, fraud, possible destruction of documents, and lots of heated exchanges. But the media has been reluctant to look into the problems and even when the controversy has been acknowledged it has been quickly dismissed as unimportant.

It is a long article that covers a lot, go read it here.
I post these many links to articles on climate because they are as important as the healthcare bill when it comes to changing our lifestyles and how much the will cost us in national and personal wealth. Pay attention, they want your country.

Update: This from the Small Dead Animals Blog, posted by Kate
Now is the time at SDA when we juxtapose!
December, 2009...

January, 2010...
Climate science faces a new controversy after the Met Office denounced research from the Copenhagen summit which suggested that global warming could raise sea levels by 6ft by 2100..

So I, Rockport Conservative, went to the Times Online site to read the whole thing.
I suggest you read it, too. It is a very good elaboration of the pressgate question, or should I say, an answer.
You can make the sea level rise insert large enough to read easily if you hold down the control key while scrolling the mouse wheel up.

Politico Lists 25 Politicians to Watch in 2010

From Politico:

Nearly everything that occurs in Washington this year will take place against an important and unavoidable backdrop—the combined total of more than 500 House, Senate and gubernatorial races on the 2010 ballot.

Within that expansive political universe, there is a small galaxy of candidates and officeholders whose actions—or reactions—are especially consequential and worth watching because of the role they will play in shaping the legislative or political environment.

Here is POLITICO’s list of 25 of politicians to watch in 2010.

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.)
Rep. Artur Davis (D-Ala.)
Rep. Bob Inglis (R-S.C.)
Maine State Senate President Libby Mitchell (D)
Marco Rubio (R)
Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.)
Gov. Bob McDonnell (R-Va.)
Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.)
Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.)
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.)
Gov. Deval Patrick (D-Mass.)
California Attorney General Jerry Brown (D)
Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.)
Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden (D)
Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.)
Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas)
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.)
Sarah Palin (R)
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.)
Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.)
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas)
Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.)
Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.)
Rod Blagojevich (D)
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo (D)

I'm surprised Michelle Bachman is not on the list.  For details and explanations as to why each politician is listed go here.

Thomas Sowell Speaks Clearly Again

From Real Clear Polictics:
Random Thoughts on the Passing Scene
by Thomas Sowell
Sometimes we seem like people on a pleasure boat drifting down the Niagara river, unaware that there are waterfalls up ahead. I don't know what people think is going to happen when a nation that already sponsors international terrorism has nuclear bombs to give to terrorists around the world.

Since this is an era when many people are concerned about "fairness" and "social justice," what is your "fair share" of what someone else has worked for?

Here is a math problem for you: Assume that the legislation establishing government control of medical care is passed and that it "brings down the cost of medical care." You pay $500 a year less for your medical care, but the new costs put on employers is passed on to consumers, so that you pay $300 a year more for groceries and $200 a year more for gasoline, while the new mandates put on insurance companies raise your premiums by $300 a year, how much money have you saved?

I seldom read fiction-- and I tend to regard autobiographies as fiction.

In response to news of President Obama receiving the Nobel Prize for peace, an e-mail from a reader recalled a black classmate's comments upon graduating from high school many years ago. When asked to list the advantages and disadvantages of being black, the black student facetiously listed as an advantage "being praised for infinitesimal accomplishments."

Many colleges claim that they develop "leaders." All too often, that means turning out graduates who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling other people what to do. There are already too many people like that, and they are a menace to everyone else's freedom.

Some people are so busy being clever that they don't have time enough to be wise.

No one likes to admit having been played for a fool. So it will probably take a mushroom cloud over some American city before some Obama supporters wake up. Even so, the true believers among the survivors will probably say that this was all George Bush's fault.

Stepping beyond your competence can be like stepping off a cliff. Too many people with brilliance and talent within some field do not realize how ignorant-- or, worse yet, misinformed-- they are when talking like philosopher-kings about other things.

There has probably never before been as drastic a decline in the quality of vice presidents as there has been when Dick Cheney was replaced by Joe Biden. Yet the New York Times is lionizing Biden as a wise counselor to President Obama. When you support the liberal agenda, that makes you brilliant ex-officio in the media, whether or not you are vice president-- and whether or not you have even common sense.

Government pressures on mortgage lenders to accept less than the full amount they are owed may win votes for politicians, since there are far more borrowers than lenders. But how much future lending can be expected when the lenders know that politicians are ready to intervene at any time to prevent them from getting their money back?

Some people think that the Obama administration is going to get rid of Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner, making him the scapegoat for its economics failures. This would be consistent with the President's acting as if the people under him are not carrying out his policies. But if they get rid of Geithner too early, that will not help if things still do not get better after he is gone and before the 2010 elections.

People who are urging us to do things to win the approval of other countries seem to put an excessive value on other country's approval, as distinguished from their respect that we can lose by such bowing to "world opinion." Do the world champion New York Yankees try to curry favor with teams that are also-rans?

Can you name the only .400 hitter who never won a batting title during his whole career? Or a pitcher who stole home? If you are one of the first ten to answer either of these questions, you will receive a free copy of my most recent book, "The Housing Boom and Bust."

Copyright 2009, Creators Syndicate Inc.

Is This the Real Reason?

Why Republicans Can't Get Elected
-By Warner Todd Huston

The reasons that I could never get elected to any government position is the same reason why conservatives have a tough time getting elected and, if they end up elected, can’t govern in this era of the ill-educated voter. First I’ll lay out my main principles…

Leave me alone
Stop taxing me
Shove your regulations

That’s about it. Though there are complexities and nuance contained in them, these are the main tenets of modern conservatism simply put. And therein lies the problem. How can one get elected when his basic tenets are that government should do less, stay out of our lives, and mostly go unnoticed and unseen? In essence a conservative is saying: “Elect me and I’ll do nothing for you.” It’s a tough message to sell in a day when people have lost touch with the American principles that are contained in those very tenets.

Go read the rest of it, he has some very good points.
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites

A Lot of Good Thinking at American Thinker Today

Just go there and read it all.
There is something of interest on a great many subjects.

Competitive Enterprise Institute takes Action

"Climate Gate" Development: CEI Files Notice of Intent to Sue NASA
By Chris Horner

Today, on behalf of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, I filed three Notices of Intent to File Suit against NASA and its Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), for those bodies' refusal - for nearly three years - to provide documents requested under the Freedom of Information Act. The information sought is directly relevant to the exploding "ClimateGate" scandal revealing document destruction, coordinated efforts in the U.S. and UK to avoid complying with both countries' freedom of information laws, and apparent and widespread intent to defraud at the highest levels of international climate science bodies. Numerous informed commenters had alleged such behavior for years, all of which appears to be affirmed by leaked emails, computer codes and other data from the Climatic Research Unit of the UK's East Anglia University.

All of that material and that sought for years by CEI go to the heart of the scientific claims and campaign underpinning the Kyoto Protocol, its planned successor treaty, "cap-and-trade" legislation and the EPA's threatened regulatory campaign to impose similar measures through the back door.

CEI sought the following documents, among others, NASA's failure to provide which within thirty days will prompt CEI to file suit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia:

- internal discussions about NASA's quiet correction of its false historical U.S. temperature records after two Canadian researchers discovered a key statistical error, specifically discussion about whether and why to correct certain records, how to do so, the impact or wisdom or potential (or real) fallout therefrom or reaction to doing so (requested August 2007);
- internal discussions relating to the emails sent to James Hansen and/or Reto A. Ruedy from Canadian statistician Steve McIntyre calling their attention to the errors in NASA/GISS online temperature data (August 2007);

- those relating to the content, importance or propriety of workday-hour posts or entries by GISS/NASA employee Gavin A. Schmidt on the weblog or "blog" RealClimate, which is owned by the advocacy Environmental Media Services and was started as an effort to defend the debunked "Hockey Stick" that is so central to the CRU files. RealClimate.org is implicated in the leaked files, expressly offered as a tool to be used "in any way you think would be helpful" to a certain advocacy campaign, including an assertion of Schmidt's active involvement in, e.g., delaying and/or screening out unhelpful input by "skeptics" attempting to comment on claims made on the website.

This and the related political activism engaged in are inappropriate behavior for a taxpayer-funded employee, particularly on taxpayer time. These documents were requested in January 2007 and NASA/GISS have refused to date to comply with their legal obligation to produce responsive documents.

This is the entire blog post, but go over to American Spectator and take a look. Be sure to look at the comments of this post. My husband is a scientist who has been very distressed at the political trend of the publications mentioned in the comments.

Sen Leahy Doesn't Have a Clue

I admit it, I'm a C-span junkie, I always have Washington Journal on in the mornings. As I watched Senator Leahy on C-span this morning I could only think he doesn't get it. Angry caller, after angry caller explained why terrorist shouldn't be tried in a criminal trial.

He only tried to address their "fears." Finally a man called him out on that and asked why he was calling it fear when it obviously was anger. They were fighting mad. Of course, he swatted that one off like he were a pesky fly. He is probably in a safe district but there are plenty of other senators and representatives who should really be watching their backs.

We Won Two Big Ones, Not so much on the other one

There is much euphoria on the wins in New Jersey and Virginia, as there should be, but we didn’t make it in New York 23. That was a flawed race from the beginning and I thought Hoffman could win. I am ashamed for the performance of the incumbent. I thought when she withdrew from the race she would do the right thing. Apparently she doesn’t know how. That is just a sad spectacle of a politician.

The new mantra for the conservatives on New York: Wait till Next Year.  We need to keep that in mind for a lot of the races that will happen next year.  Keep on Fighting for the recovery of our country.