Vol. 09 No. 31
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THE FOUNDATION
"In politics, as in religion, it is equally absurd to aim at making proselytes by fire and sword. Heresies in either can rarely be cured by persecution." --Alexander Hamilton
GOVERNMENT & POLITICS
ObamaCare opponents beware
Calling All Informants
The White House this week took to quoting John Adams in an effort to "debunk" criticism of and opposition to ObamaCare. "Facts are stubborn things," said the administration. After videos resurfaced of Barack Obama saying in 2003, "I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer universal health care program," and in 2007, "I don't think we're going to be able to eliminate employer coverage immediately. There's going to be potentially some transition process," damage control became imperative.
Linda Douglass, the communications director for the White House's Health Reform Office, came to the rescue with a video of her own, claiming that opponents were simply cherry-picking quotes to create a "very false impression." The trouble is, simply repeating Obama's claims about Americans keeping their insurance plans isn't the same as disproving the critics. Facts are stubborn things, Linda.
Not only is this administration intellectually lazy, it is thuggish. "There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care," says the aforementioned post. "These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can't keep track of all of them here at the White House, we're asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov." Got that? Team Obama wants you to be a snitch; they want you to report even casual conversation with those who oppose ObamaCare directly to the White House itself.
Red State blogger Erick Erickson says that could be illegal. "According to 5 U.S.C. § 552a, United States agencies, including the Executive Office of the President, shall 'maintain no record describing how any individual exercises rights guaranteed by the First Amendment unless expressly authorized by statute or by the individual about whom the record is maintained or unless pertinent to and within the scope of an authorized law enforcement activity.'"
Next, the erstwhile community organizer and his Chicago thugs attacked community organizers around the country for attending town hall meetings hosted by congressmen and expressing their disapproval of Washington's takeover of health care. According to some Democrats, American citizens, when they actively protest the policies of the ruling party and the president, are a "mob" that is out to "hurt our president," not Americans exercising their constitutional rights to free speech, free assembly and petition to the government. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) went so far as to claim that the protesters were "carrying swastikas and symbols like that." Class act, that Speaker of the House.
Meanwhile, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) strongly implied that ObamaCare opponents are all just pawns of the insurance companies: "I hope my colleagues won't fall for a sucker punch like this. These health insurance companies and people like them are trying to load these town meetings for visual impact on television. They want to show thousands of people screaming 'socialism' and try to overcome the public sentiment, which now favors health care reform." He added, "There are health insurance companies that are ... very profitable and they don't want to see this reform so they are helping to organize these rallies."
To recap then, more than half the population is opposing massive, unconstitutional government intervention in health care only because profit-making health insurers told us to. And Obama supporters are supposed to rat out their friends and family for opposing this unprecedented Socialist power grab. Witness the Democrats' version of America.
Quote of the Week
"'Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom.' We have heard that many times. What is also the price of freedom is the toleration of imperfections. If everything that is wrong with the world becomes a reason to turn more power over to some political savior, then freedom is going to erode away.... Ultimately, our choice is to give up Utopian quests or give up our freedom. This has been recognized for centuries by some, but many others have not yet faced that reality, even today. If you think government should 'do something' about anything that ticks you off, or anything you want and don't have, then you have made your choice between Utopia and freedom." --economist Thomas Sowell
News From the Swamp: ObamaCare Costs More
The House Energy and Commerce Committee voted 31-28 last Friday to approve health care legislation. The Senate Finance Committee is nearing a "compromise" bill, as well. The only real compromising going on, however, is that of the principles of so-called fiscally conservative "Blue Dog" Democrats. A public option insurance plan still dominates the House bill and the estimated cost is still about $1 trillion over 10 years, though we don't believe that low-ball figure for a moment. As The Wall Street Journal notes, "The press corps has noticed the Congressional Budget Office's estimate that the House health bill increases the deficit by $239 billion over the next decade. But government-run health care won't turn into a pumpkin after a decade. The underreported news is the new spending that will continue to increase well beyond the 10-year period that CBO examines, and that this blowout will overwhelm even the House Democrats' huge tax increases, Medicare spending cuts and other 'pay fors.'"
According to CBO director Douglas Elmendorf, new revenue to pay for health care would grow at 5 percent per year for the decade following 2019, while spending will increase at more than 8 percent per year. Worse, the Journal adds, "[T]he CBO score almost surely understates this deficit chasm because CBO uses static revenue analysis -- assuming that higher taxes won't change behavior. But long experience shows that higher rates rarely yield the revenues that they project. As for the spending, when has a new entitlement ever come in under budget?" Democrats may indeed win approval for their plan by claiming it will be "deficit neutral" through 2019, but that's what we call the BIG lie.
From the 'Non Compos Mentis' File
"President Obama and I are working closely with Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate and health care experts to make sure we get the details of health reform right. But we can't let the details distract us from the huge benefits that reform will bring." --Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who admitted that she has "no idea" about a provision in the health care bill that requires her to "develop standards for the measurement of gender." Details, details...
The Truth About Cash-for-Clunkers
The Obama administration has been raving about the success of "Cash for Clunkers" (officially named the Car Allowance Rebate System, or CARS), and this week Congress dutifully approved $2 billion more for the program. Why the popping of champagne corks? First, the demand for the program was so great that consumers burned through the $1 billion allotted for the rebates in a matter of days. Second, with the amount of flak the administration has taken for its mismanagement of the economy and the health care debate, any perceived victory is welcome. But this is simply not the victory that Obama wants us to believe it is.
Even in the handful of days that the program was active, CARS was plagued by administrative problems -- just like any other government program. The government Web site that dealers were told to use to submit buyers' rebate applications crashed repeatedly due to the high volume of requests. Dealers also had a difficult time registering for the program. Fine-print stipulations about the types of cars and light trucks that could be turned in and which ones could be bought led to customer confusion. Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA) said, "If this is how the government is going to handle billion-dollar programs affecting all Americans, I ask, whatever will we do if this administration takes control of our health care?"
Meanwhile, the positive impact on the automotive industry and the economy, and indirectly on energy consumption and the environment, is grossly overstated. The upsurge in new vehicle sales that CARS is expected to bring will likely to be short lived -- all it did was condense several months of expected new vehicle sales and old vehicle trade-ins into a shorter period of time. No new wealth is being created; it's just moving from one pocket to another. And destroying thousands of older, cheaper automobiles negatively affects the economy. Having trouble finding an inexpensive used vehicle for your newly driving son or daughter? Thank the CARS program.
Beyond all these issues, Fox News' Glenn Beck reported that the federal government posted an ominous message at the Clunkers Web site stating that while logged into the Department of Transportation CARS system, users' computers would be considered property of the federal government and therefore all materials on the computers could be scanned, recorded, monitored, inspected and disclosed to any element of the government, including law enforcement. After Beck's program aired, the government quickly "clarified" that users who logged into the site had no explicit or implicit expectation of privacy, which sounds essentially like what Beck reported, just in better legalese.
This should be considered an outrage of epic proportions, but the response from watchdog groups has been muted. The ACLU, which challenged every move the Bush administration made during his eight years in office, had this to say: "[I]t is hard to believe that [the Obama administration] would do something like this." Unfortunately it's not hard to believe that the ACLU's selective view of civil liberties would cause them to be asleep at the switch while Socialists run the White House.
Sotomayor Confirmed to Supreme Court
Sonia Sotomayor became the first wise Latina justice on the U.S. Supreme Court Thursday as the Senate confirmed Barack Obama's nominee to replace David Souter by a vote of 68-31. While Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) was absent because of illness, nine Republicans voted for Sotomayor -- Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe (ME), Richard Lugar (IN), Mel Martinez (FL), Kit Bond (MO), Judd Gregg (NH), George Voinovich (OH), Lindsey Graham (SC) and Lamar Alexander (TN).
There is a key difference between the Republicans who voted for Sotomayor and those who didn't. If this is all about politics as the be-all and end-all, as the Leftists believe, then a Republican vote for Sotomayor is defensible on political grounds -- that "elections have consequences," a president deserves deference to his judge picks, and a vote against Sotomayor may alienate Latino voters who adhere to identity politics. If, however, this is about something larger and greater than politics -- a view of the Constitution that gives political positions their form and meaning -- then a "Nay" vote on Sotomayor, to preserve the Constitution she treats cavalierly, is the only defensible position.
This Week's 'Braying Jackass' Award
"Those who oppose [Sonia Sotomayor] for fear of her unique life experience do no justice to her or our nation. Their names will be listed in our nation's annals of elected officials one step behind America's historic march forward." --Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), employing the Obama administration's straw-man approach to political discourse
We're still trying to come up with anyone who opposed Sotomayor "for fear of her unique life experience." And Durbin hails from the Party that smeared and filibustered judicial nominee Miguel Estrada in 2001...
New & Notable Legislation
The House voted against removing funding for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada, but Sen. Harry Reid is doing his best to get the Senate to kill the project in his home state. Together with President Obama, Reid is working to withdraw funding, claiming, wrongly, that the project is scientifically unsound. For some reason they believe it's safer to keep used nuclear fuel stored at 104 facilities around the country within 75 miles of 161 million Americans than it would be to bury it 2,000 feet below a mountain in the middle of the desert.
The government moved one step closer toward dictating private sector pay with passage of a House bill to give shareholders and the government more say in establishing executive compensation in public companies. The Senate never picked up previous similar measures, but in an era of growing socialist tendencies, that is little comfort.
In the spirit of keeping America from drifting toward the monarchy that President Obama seems to want, Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) sponsored H.R. 3226, the Czar Accountability and Reform Act. This bill would bar the use of appropriated funds to pay expenses or salaries of "members of task forces, councils, or similar offices established by the president and headed by a person appointed inappropriately to such a post without Senate advice and consent." The bill stands little chance of passing, but it demonstrates that people are taking notice of the ongoing executive power grab.
The Justice Department's Black Panther Scandal Continues
The pursuit of justice in the Black Panther voter intimidation case is moving forward on two fronts. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) obtained an opinion from the Congressional Research Service last week that charges against the three Philadelphia men who intimidated and threatened white voters on Election Day 2008 could be re-filed without violating the Constitution's Double Jeopardy clause. Also, the independent U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has called upon the Justice Department to explain its dismissal of the original case against the men.
In May, the Obama Justice Department summarily dismissed charges brought by the Bush Justice Department in January against the New Black Panther Party, its Chairman Malik Zulu Shabazz (former lieutenant to Louis Farrakhan), Minister King Samir Shabazz and member Jerry Jackson for intimidating voters and making racial threats and insults at a polling place in Philadelphia. Samir Shabazz was also carrying a nightstick. The Justice Department said it no longer had sufficient evidence to follow through with the case despite the fact that the event was caught on video and that there were several witnesses.
DOJ also says charges against Mr. Jackson were dropped because "he was a resident of the apartment building" where the incident took place. The building was in fact an elderly care facility and Jackson never lived there. But even if he did, would his residency grant him license to shout racial epithets at and otherwise threaten voters? Incredibly, Jackson's credentials as a Democrat Party poll watcher in Philadelphia were restored in May.
Wolf repeatedly called upon Attorney General Eric Holder to explain why the Department acted the way it did. Holder refused to respond. Apparently, he belongs to that "nation of cowards" he spoke of earlier this year; the one that's afraid to "have frank conversations about the racial matters that continue to divide us."
Jefferson Convicted of Bribery
"Former congressman William J. Jefferson was convicted of corruption charges Wednesday in a case made famous by the $90,000 in bribe money stuffed into his freezer and a legal battle over the raid of his Washington office that reached the highest levels of the U.S. government," reports The Washington Post. "Federal jurors found the Louisiana Democrat guilty of using his congressional office as a criminal enterprise to enrich himself, soliciting and accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to support his business ventures in Africa." The FBI raided Jefferson's freezer in 2005 and found the frozen cash, but he was re-elected anyway in 2006. Finally ousted from Congress in the 2008 election and now convicted, Jefferson faces 150 years in prison. Our republic would be better off if that happened to more of his cohorts on Capitol Hill.
From the Left: Making Up a Docket Instead of a Document
Once again, former CBS News anchor Dan Rather is creating news rather than reporting it. This week, he sued to reinstate two CBS executives, network president Leslie Moonves and former news division president Andrew Heyward, as defendants in a $70 million breach of contract suit he filed against CBS. The pair were named in Rather's original 2007 lawsuit but a New York State Supreme Court judge removed them as defendants last year, stating Rather had no case against them.
Meanwhile, as Rather tried to enrich himself through the legal system, he made a call for his cohorts to be enriched by our government, saying in an address to the Aspen Institute that he "personally encourage(s) the president to establish a commission on public media." Media czar, anyone? Further, he noted the industry had been damaged by "corporate and political influence." A master of seeing the forest despite the trees, that Dan Rather. Now turn the telescope around.
The former CBS Evening News anchor, who was forced out after a scandal just prior to the 2004 presidential election involving forged documents about former President George W. Bush's military service, now produces an hour-long program called "Dan Rather Reports" for the little-watched HDNet. At least that's what we've heard.
'Agents of Change' -- But Deserving?
Each year, the president determines a list of people he deems worthy for the Medal of Freedom, our top civilian honor. This year President Obama listed 16 "agents of change" he found worthy of the honor, a list notable for its diversity.
A name that sticks out, however, is former President of Ireland Mary Robinson. While her time as president of the fair isle wasn't particularly noteworthy, her tenure as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights revealed an astounding anti-Semitism, a blind support of the Palestinian cause, and a most undiplomatic bashing of President Bush over our treatment of enemy combatants. In short, Robinson is a woman who thrived on "irritating" America while deriding our efforts against Islamic terrorism.
So why the high honor for Mary Robinson, one which also will be bestowed on notable thinkers and doers like Stephen Hawking, Sandra Day O'Connor and Jack Kemp? (Then again, Ted Kennedy is also receiving one despite his lack of thinking and doing 40 years ago.) It's yet another signal that America may be turning its back on old friends in the vain hope our enemies may come to like us.
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