Letter to the Beacon--December 22-2010

Aw, come on Lefties! Make a New Year's resolution to get some new talking points, some new material, and some new writers. Your repetitious regurgitation of reckless rhetoric is not only devoid of a factual basis but it's become boring!
We've heard the nauseating narrative of "the Tea Party is racist; the Tea Party is anarchy; the Tea Party is hate-mongering; etc." for over a year and you're wrong on all counts. For instance, the Tea Party Patriots do not receive any funding from Rupert Murdoch, the Koch brothers, or Dick Armey. Shall we discuss the Leftist causes and operations funded by George Soros and MoveOn.org and supported by the Huffington Post, Salon, and all the talking heads on CNN and MSNBC?
I'm sure you're aware of the letter published by Salon that called for Sarah Palin to be tortured and killed or the obscenity laden rant of Aaron Sorkin published in the Huffington Post. As for the Ku Klux Klan being a "Far Right Wing movement," that is so nonsensical as to be comical. A little basic research would uncover the fact that PBS was absolutely correct when they labeled the KKK as the "terrorist arm of the Democratic Party."
Any "screeching" you may be hearing is not that of Sarah Palin but the echo of Socialist dreams plunging into the abyss of fiscal irresponsibility created by the current administration. As for her "generalship," you failed to note that over 70% of her endorsements were elected to office during this past election cycle, all on Constitutional and fiscally conservative principles. As for the "depth of an empty spoon" attempt at mockery, this could have only been made out of ignorance. Anyone who has actually read her books, actually read her many editorial policy and opinion pieces, or actually listened to her speeches would easily recognize the depth and breadth of her interests and knowledge. But then, name calling is so much easier than actually discussing policy differences isn't it?
The "empty spoon" is probably more appropriate for feeding pablum to infants who can't handle mature food. As noted by LBJ, "Democracy is a constant tension between truth and half-truth and, in the arsenal of truth, there is no greater weapon than fact." Next year, resolve to get your facts straight. And by the way, I can already see November, 2012 from my house!
William L. Garvin

What’s Up, Doc?

By William L. Garvin

As the roller coaster year of 2010 comes rapidly to a close, what’s up and what’s down may give us a clue as to what 2011 will be like. For instance, used car prices are up because Cash for Clunkers destroyed nearly 600,000 perfectly operable cars. The donation of used vehicles to charity is way down. What a surprise.

Spending to train the unemployed for five million green jobs is up to nearly $90 billion. Unfortunately, the number of jobs actually available is down to 224,500 or less than 5% of the rose colored promises. Meanwhile, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that despite a national recession, federal employment is way up from 2,739,000 in January, 2008 to 2,837,000 in November, 2010. Attempts to disguise this 98,000 increase in federal employees (who probably make more than you do) are way up. Facts are such stubborn things. During this same period, private sector employment is down from 115,562,000 to 108,278,000. You can “save or create” all you want but the bottom line is the private sector has lost 7.3 million jobs during the last year of the Bush administration and the first two years of the Obama administration. That’s why unemployment remains at 9.8% or as the President likes to say “the new normal.”

You have probably noticed that gasoline prices are way up and approaching $3.35 per gallon. Oil prices are now over $90 per barrel. Joe Petrowski, Chief Executive at Gulf Oil and Cumberland Gulf Group predicts that it will top $100 in the first quarter of 2011 and that there is a “one in four chance we’ll take out the $147 highs before Memorial Day.” The complaints of Cheney-Halliburton cronyism and Bush oil connections seem to be way down this time for some reason. Equally far down are the approvals of domestic oil and natural gas exploration by the Department of the Interior. Naturally this keeps the dependence on foreign oil up. Expect gasoline and electricity prices to “skyrocket” (another Obama word!) as cap and trade begins to take hold.

Health care premiums have increased for nearly everyone. Do you know anyone whose premiums have been reduced? The chances of the presidential promise of the family of four saving $2,400 per year is down to virtually zero. Meanwhile, the number of exemptions to ObamaCare is up to 220 with 50 entities easily recognized as union exemptions. Of course, Congress has already exempted itself. The number of doctors accepting Medicare patients is down and the number of doctors accepting Medicaid patients is severely down.

After the first of the year, Social Security “contributions” will be down from 6.2% to 4.2%. That will mean the Social Security Trust Fund will come up short approximately $112 billion. Lame duck congressional concerns about this hastening the predicted demise of Social Security are down along with the “pay as you go” promises of Nancy Pelosi. We’ll also be borrowing up to another $56.5 billion from the Chinese to pay for the extension of unemployment benefits. Naturally the unemployment insurance costs for employers will also have to go up so profits will have to go down. Don’t be surprised when the number of employees also goes down.

The number of employees will also probably decrease when families have to liquidate their small businesses in order to meet the 35% death tax demands of the government grave robbers. Not to worry. According to the New York Times, “end of life counseling” will be up under Medicare. Doctors will now be paid to “…advise patients on options for end-of-life care, which may include advance directives to forgo aggressive life-sustaining treatment.” This was contained in the House version of ObamaCare (Section 1233) but was not included in the final legislation because of public concern that “Granny would be encouraged to pull her own plug.” The House provision called for the counseling every five years but the new regulations will pay for the “service” every year.

With a new Congress being seated in two weeks, the ability to enact Big Government programs will be severely restricted downwards. Without eternal vigilance, the liberals will up their attempts at economic “strangulation by regulation.” Prediction: the roller coaster ride continues.

The Purpose of Procrastination Politics

By William L. Garvin
“The sky is falling! The sky is falling!” Chicken Little

“Everybody panic! Doom is upon us! Quick, we have to do something! Rush this bill through or government will have to shut down! People will be dying in the streets! More pork! More pork! More pork!” Horse feathers! You can’t make silk purses out of sow’s earmarks. This is nothing more than a carefully choreographed crisis to cover up continuing congressional corpulence. President Obama is an unindicted co-conspirator.

Keep in mind that Democrats Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi took charge of Congress in January, 2007. They added Democrat President Obama to their reign of the 111th Congress in January, 2009. They have known for four years that the largest tax hike in history was scheduled to occur in January, 2011. Yet for four years they not only did nothing, they continually trumpeted the need for increases in taxes. Apparently they have experienced a Road to Damascus conversion and now recognize that tax increases stymie not stimulate economic growth.

Expect their new economic faith to be short lived. Evidence of their lack of conviction is that the tax rates will remain the same for only two years. They have every intention of raising rates as soon as they can. The President has said exactly that. Since that’s too far away, the radical Dems continued their anti-business and “hate the rich” class warfare rhetoric in an unusually bombastic and profane fashion. They seemingly delighted in throwing their obscene f-bombs in the President’s direction as well as at the accursed well to do. Curiously, the NAACP seemed totally unaware of these latest vestiges of Democrat racism. Likewise, the ACLU failed to show and challenge these verbal assaults. Maybe all their lawyers were tied up threatening school principals for allowing Christmas trees in their buildings. The horror! Eric Holder and the Department of Justice were likewise unable to respond because they were too busy suing a school principal for denying a vacation request to a teacher. The school said the request was “unrelated to her professional duties” but Holder is certain it’s because she is a Muslim. Step aside union, here comes the Attorney General to the rescue!

The next exhibit is the typical middle of the night vote. Just as with the health care travesty, the blood sucking vampires are more comfortable at midnight when the pork is less visible to the light of day or the taxpayer eye. The left was incensed that they will not be able to bleed estates over $1 million to the tune of 55%. They only got a death tax of 35% for estates over $5 million. The question remains: why should they get anything at all? If you work hard, pay your taxes, save and accumulate wealth, why shouldn’t it all go to whoever you deem fit? It’s your money, it’s your property; it is not the government’s! Certainly the death panels would never hasten one’s demise in order for the government to get its death tax and pound of newly deceased flesh in a more expeditious fashion…would they?

The next chapter in the leftist book of insanity was another of the Democrats 2,000 page Porkulus bills filled with over 6,600 earmarks! Harry Reid brought it to the floor of the Senate before anyone had a chance to read it (or the 1,000 page explanatory abstract was even written) and expected the public to swallow it. Were it not for the public outcry reminding both parties of the message of November, the Democrats would have rammed it through and added another $1.1 TRILLION to the national debt.

Rumor has it that it is the President who sets the agenda for the legislative branch. If so, the President has forgotten all his campaign speeches that were castigating pork and his promises to veto any bill that contained earmarks. If he’s not suffering from amnesia, then the Harry and Nancy Show has become an independent production and no longer listens to the President. Is it possible the President is incapable of controlling his own party? Obviously, none of these major Democrat players are listening to the American people. Procrastination politics is just another artificial crisis for Democrats to tax, borrow and spend. America deserves better.

Talk About Slow Learners!

By William L. Garvin

After having been soundly refudiated in the November elections, you would think that the political establishment would begin to listen to “we the people.” (Note: before the self-appointed grammar police surge forth with their pretentious pontification, “refudiate” was chosen as the 2010 Word of the Year by the New Oxford American Dictionary. Thanks, Sarah!) It appears the President and the congressional leadership is either unwilling or unable to do so.

In California, Democrats ran the table and voters reelected the same old poker players who have bet the pot and lost for the last two decades. The rest of the country threw the Big Government rascals out by a resounding margin. Their message was very clear: STOP SPENDING AND STOP GROWING GOVERNMENT! Big Government isn’t listening!!

It’s no coincidence that leading liberal voices now prefer to “kill the messenger” rather than listen to the message. Such leading lights of liberal luminescence as Jimmy Carter, Al Sharpton, and Charles Schumer have all recently voiced a need to shut down Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and restrict the internet with their inappropriately named “fair use” doctrines. With such friends of freedom of speech, who needs enemies? Censorship of ideas, speech, and opposition is somewhat predictable. How could they successfully engage in a battle of ideas while their core philosophies revolve around eliminating babies (where’s the “choice” for the unborn?), breaking laws (sanctioning, supporting, and continuing illegal immigration), and irresponsible spending (combined with gargantuan growth of government)?

As was recently noted, the difference between a conservative and a liberal is that if conservatives don’t like what they are hearing, they change the station or the channel. If liberals don’t like what they are hearing, they try to shut the stations down. Curiously absent from their concern is the blatant bias supporting the radical/leftist positions by stations such as MSNBC. Similarly, although not quite so strident in their bias, is their parent station NBC. Both of course are owned by General Electric. The CEO of GE, Jeffrey Immelt, is an unabashed supporter of President Obama. In a rather obvious quid pro quo, GE received huge amounts of stimulus funds and also massive bailouts from the Federal Reserve. None of the GE stations are about to bite the liberal hands that feed them. The same can essentially be said for all the main stream media.

For more proof of their bias, why is there so little discussion of the zombie, i.e., “back from the dead” earmarks contained in the recently enacted bill to prevent massive tax increases? Is the reason that there are ear marks or tax breaks for film and television producers because the vast majority of television and film productions have a liberal persuasion? In this new era of deficit hawks, why are Puerto Rican rum producers, race track owners, and American Samoa businesses getting preferential treatment in the form or earmarks? Rubbing salt in the fiscal wound is the earmark for the continuation of subsidies for ethanol production. The $.45 cents per gallon subsidy added up to $7.7 billion last year. Even Al Gore and Friends of the Earth recognize ethanol as another government mandated program gone wrong. Not only is it worse for the environment but it drove up the prices for foodstuffs that relied on corn. Furthermore, Gore actually admitted his early advocacy was for political not environmental reasons.

This continuing Rube Goldberg approach to governance begs the question, “what other Obama mandates are likely to go wrong?” The newly created food police is a very likely candidate. While Ms. Obama may think “we can’t leave it up to the parents,” parents will likely think differently. ObamaCare itself, the signature accomplishment of the brilliant Constitutional scholar has been found to be unconstitutional and an overreach of the commerce clause. Additionally, the Independent Payments Advisory Board, which will determine what will and will not be reimbursed under Medicare, also has the potential to be a more aptly named “death panel.”

The list goes on and on and on where Big Government is certain it knows what is best for you. Keep in mind, it is Big Government that has allowed 10-15 million illegal immigrants to enter this country. It is Big Government that has lost track of 119,000 airplanes. Let’s hope none of them come to visit you soon!

Economics for the Real World

By William L. Garvin

It is almost comical to watch the lunacy of the liberal left as their progressive, socialist, big government economic policies continue to spiral downward in abject failure under the current administration guidance. Since they cannot logically deny the total collapse of the “Summary of Recovery”, the unemployment rate climbing back to a national 9.8%, the pitiful creation of only 39,000 jobs last month, the inability/unwillingness to pass a budget, and their apparent inability to kick their earmark addiction, they are reverting to their usual childish strategy: distract, defame, and distort. The shrill shrieking you hear is nothing more than the infantile temper tantrum of liberal angst imploding in a torrent of name calling, the “last refuge of a scoundrel.” Radicals continue to exercise the same lack of civic responsibility as WikiLeaks but now combine it with a reprehensible and narcissistic lack of civility.

It’s not surprising that having pledged their undying fealty to the least qualified President in history that they would attempt to distort reality. It’s not surprising that they would ignore the crystal clear message of the American voters: STOP SPENDING AND STOP GROWING GOVERNMENT! It’s not surprising that lame duck liberals would pass the Food Safety Act in order to add a new federal employee to every food producing entity that grosses over $500,000. It’s not surprising that they are likely to impose the largest tax hikes in history. It’s not surprising that they would ignore the increase in revenues when taxes were cut during the presidencies of Coolidge, Kennedy, Reagan, and Bush.

It’s also not surprising they would ignore the history that shows consistent decreases in revenue whenever government increases taxes. The brilliant economist, Thomas Sowell, pointedly notes that this is a time tested truism. IRS records show that there were 206 people who reported income over $1 million dollars in 1916. As the big government of Woodrow Wilson ratcheted up the tax rates, this number fell to 21 within five years!

For a contemporary practical application, let’s look at the phenomenon of bottled water pioneered by Evian and Perrier. A newcomer to the Top Ten in this niche is Fiji Water. They trade on the purity of water coming from artesian springs that are deep underground so the water never comes into contact with air before it is bottled. Taking a page out of the Obama/Democrat playbook, the Fijian government decided last week that they should increase the tax on companies extracting more than 3.5 million liters from one-third of one percent to 15 cents per liter. Fiji Water is the only company that is affected by this classic “punish the rich” and “redistribute the wealth” scheme. Unfortunately for Fiji, they killed the goose that laid the golden egg. This last Monday, Stewart and Lynda Resnick (the owners of Fiji Water) announced the closing of their operations, canceled orders from suppliers, and put all their construction projects in Fiji on hold. Congratulations, Fiji, you now have 100% of nothing! Good luck finding a new investor when you’re acting more and more like Hugo Chavez.

In another battle to eliminate private enterprise, Commissar/Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar rescinded the decision to allow offshore oil drilling and extended the moratorium for SEVEN years! “…we need to proceed with caution and focus on creating a more stringent regulatory regime.” ” Regime” was his operative word. “Death by taxation” or “strangulation by regulation” is clearly the Obama Way. Billions of barrels of oil and trillions of cubic feet of natural gas will now be unavailable to meet America’s energy needs. Thousands of badly needed jobs will neither be saved nor created. The Democrat pledge for energy independence goes up in the same puff of smoke as transparency, posting of legislation, and pay as you go. As with Fiji, don’t expect new investment any time soon!

This was all very predictable given the President’s upbringing, education, total lack of private sector/economic experience, and total lack of executive experience. He could have chosen to surround himself with experienced people who would have supplemented these obvious deficiencies. However, he chose an inner circle of cronies cut out of the same inexperienced bolt of cloth. Given the catastrophic failure of the Council of Economic Advisors, the taxpayers should demand their $4.2 million/year back…and fire their boss!

ASAP—Awesome Satire and Parody

By William L. Garvin

“My fellow Americans in all 57 states, the time has changed for come. With our country founded more than 20 centuries ago, we have much to celebrate – from the FBI’s 100 days to the reforms that bring greater inefficiencies to our health care system. We know that countries like Europe are willing to stand with us in our fight to halt the rise of privacy, and Israel is a strong friend of Israel’s. And let’s face it, everybody knows that it makes no sense that you send a kid to the emergency room for a treatable illness like asthma and they end up taking up a hospital bed. It costs, when, if you, they just gave, you gave them treatment early, and they got some treatment, and ah, a breathalyzer, or an inhalator. I mean, not a breathalyzer, ah, I don’t know what the term is in Austrian for that.”
Sarah Palin, Satirical Compendium of Obama Malapropisms

If you could only get information from the modern mainstream media, you would readily come to the conclusion that there never has been a conservative qualified for public office. Conversely, there has never been a liberal who was unqualified. This distorted viewpoint has come about for several reasons.

First, just as with university faculty, the vast majority of journalists self-identify as liberals and Democrat. Thus, they gaze more favorably on those who hold similar views to their own. Secondly, they see themselves as more informed, more intelligent, more knowledgeable and therefore more entitled than the vast majority of citizens. They see themselves as part and parcel of the “ruling class” or the elite of American society. Finally, they see no longer see themselves as objective reporters of fact but as image shapers and king makers.

The contemporary confluence of these critical concepts results in an inequitable and unfair presentation of facts to support their chosen ideology. For example, they continually disparaged George W. Bush as a country bumpkin, a slacker, and just flat out dumb. They chose to ignore the fact that his college grades were superior to their intellectual giant, Al Gore, who received a “D” in science while at Harvard. This was not the nadir of Gore’s academic experience: he dropped out of divinity school after receiving five F’s and then entered and dropped out of law school! According to syndicated columnist, Larry Elder, Bush also scored higher on his verbal SAT than did Rhodes Scholar, Bill Bradley.

Let’s not forget our current gaffe-a-minute Vice-President (as the media generally does) and his not so famous statement about that “…three-letter word—jobs. J-O-B-S, jobs.” That must be the new math. Maybe he was thinking about his strategy to divide Iraq into three parts, a concept that given closer examination would have qualified the author for psychiatric evaluation.

However, if a conservative slips up, then it’s a different story. Then it’s front page news and Pulitzer Prize time! The perfect example came when Sarah Palin inadvertently referred to North Korea as an ally. In the context of the interview, it was clear that she knew the difference between North and South Korea and referred to them appropriately several different times. The media chose to ignore all that in order to fabricate their own self serving story. The already vicious Palin Derangement Syndrome turned into a fresh feeding frenzy nationally and internationally—“she thinks North Korea is an ally!” What balderdash!

To point out the hypocritical double standard employed by the mainstream media, Palin penned a Facebook post that started out with the satirical paragraph quoted above. Observers of the political scene will recognize that it is a compendium of ten verbal slipups made by President Obama with little or no attention from the media. It parodies his predilection for malapropisms when not dictating from a teleprompter. It did not include his continued mispronouncing “corpsman” as “corpse-man” or his repeated failure to recognize our Creator as the source of our inalienable rights. All of these verbal gaffes are easily documented.

Now does President Obama really think there are 57 states (60 if you count the one he had yet to visit plus Alaska and Hawaii) or Europe is a country or Austrian is a language? Of course not. Neither does Sarah Palin think North Korea is an ally. Therein lies the failure of modern media. They show their bias in not only what they print but also what they fail to print, what they cover and what they fail to cover. They can’t be trusted and that’s a sad state of affairs for America.

SOS—Stuck on Stupid

By William L. Garvin

“Stupid is as stupid does.” Forrest Gump

When John Kerry testified before Congress as to the Viet Nam atrocities his fanciful imagination had conjured up, the media swallowed it up and repeated it without any reservation. They blithesomely ignored the fact that if he had personally viewed any of these acts he had a moral and legal obligation as an officer to intervene. It is no wonder that Communist leaders referred to this unholy alliance as “useful idiots” and supported their continuing assault on the morale and moral fabric of America.

It appears as if the useful idiots have been propagating in unhealthy proportions all the while “straining at gnats while swallowing camels.” This new generation of useful idiots now is reconfigured as the ruling class or intellectual elite. They seem to be the primary component of main stream media and political pundits. Fortunately, their modus operandi has become formulaic and predictable. First they will take a general swipe at the Tea Party; then they will take a gratuitous shot at Sarah Palin; and finally, they will congratulate themselves on their superiority and cleverness as they look down upon and lecture the great, unwashed masses. It transparently originates in the Alinsky radical playbook of “isolating, personalizing, and ridiculing” any opposition.

A recent example of this was an extensive grammatical critique of a Tea Party sign which said “You can’t fix stupid, but you can vote it out.” Obviously the author failed to demonstrate a working knowledge of colloquialisms (an informal word or phrase that is more common in conversation than in formal speech or writing) although as a long time sufferer of PDS (Palin Derangement Syndrome) he did manage to toss in an unctuous “you betcha!” Heaven forbid we should ever delve into idiom or dialect as a conversational vehicle.

For those who are having difficulty divining the meaning of “stupid” in the above context, the following clarification is offered. “Stupid” is a state of mind prominently exhibited in Washington, D.C., where they think that it is economically feasible to spend a country into prosperity. “Stupid” is a legal decision to move trials of Islamic terrorists from military tribunals to civilian courts and then managing to get only 1 conviction out of 286 charges! “Stupid” is thinking that the massive loss of Democrat seats in the November election is because of a “lack of communication.”

“Stupid” is reelecting Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid as two legs of the three-legged Obama administration leadership stool after they set the stage for a historical loss of power in both the House and the Senate. “Stupid” is a country that is rich in natural resources that refuses to use them in an environmentally sensitive manner thereby insuring continued dependency on foreign oil. “Stupid” is $600 billion worth of Monopoly money disguised as “quantitative easing” that is guaranteed to reduce the value of any savings you have managed to accumulate.

Furthermore, “stupid” is a state of government mind (control) that refuses to secure our border with Mexico but has no problem conducting searches of every passenger in an airline terminal without probable cause or even reasonable suspicion. “Stupid” is that same state of mind that says you can add 30 million people to the health care rolls and everyone else’s premium will go down. “Stupid” is a court decision that declares it’s okay to charge American citizen students more tuition and fees than illegal alien students have to pay.

“Stupid” is also a prevalent voter condition in coastal states that thinks anyone living west of New York or east of San Francisco is an ignorant rube that needs a nanny state to take care of their every need. Thus this voter condition known as “stupid” is capable of taking someone whose only identifiable skill set is reading off a teleprompter and electing him President of the United States! To this voter condition, if Barack Obama excites a crowd, he’s charismatic; if Sarah Palin excites a crowd, she’s a celebrity or a rock star. If Sarah Palin has a documentary about her home state of Alaska, it’s a reality show; if Barack Obama is a guest on Ryan Seacrest’s show, that’s somehow presidential. Furthermore, despite being an allegedly “brilliant” Consitutional scholar (unsubstantiated), he continues to shred the Constitution.

Upon reflection, maybe that sign should properly read: “You can’t fix Stupid, but you can vote him out!”

California Commits Economic Suicide

By William L. Garvin

A tidal wave of historic proportions swept across America on November 2d. The tsunami was fueled by currents of fiscal conservatism and a repudiation of irresponsible government spending. Unfortunately, the economic wave crashed and receded when it reached the Not-So-Golden State. California voters chose to reelect the same old tired faces with the same old tired tax and spend liberal philosophies.

Apparently voters in this Deep Blue Democrat state don't understand just how serious California's fiscal crisis really is. They should know there is a $19 billion state debt. They should know that California has had to borrow $8 billion from the broken federal treasury just to pay the current unemployment insurance debt load. They should know that California is ranked 48 out of 50 states when it comes to being "business friendly." They should know that 170 businesses left the state in the last year. Countless others just shuttered their doors and windows and closed up shop. They should know that unemployment in this state is over 12% and there is no relief on the horizon.

They should also know that the California Public Employees Retirement System, the California State Teachers Retirement System, and the University of California Retirement System have combined liabilities of $89 billion for the year beginning July 1. According to the Milken Institute study, these three systems alone will have combined liabilities of over 5.5 times the TOTAL state tax revenue by 2012! Some estimates are that unfunded pension liabilities are over one-half TRILLION dollars! Bloomberg News reported at last month's Cities and Debt Briefing that fewer than half the pension funds had sufficient assets to cover even 80% of promised benefits in FY 2009.

So given these dire financial straits, what did SEIU, AFSCME, CTA, and the other public employee unions do? They poured hundreds of millions of dollars into the campaign to insure they would continue to have a Santa Claus legislature and a Sugar Daddy governor. They also turned out the vote to reduce the requirement for approving the state budget from two-thirds to a simple majority. Accordingly, the resistance to increased spending and higher taxes offered by the Republican minority is now rendered null and void. Taxpayers can kiss their wallets goodbye!

After shooting themselves in one economic foot, the voters turned around and shot themselves in the other foot. California could have suspended its self-imposed "Global Warming Tax" until the economy improved but decided not to…even though the tax will do absolutely nothing to prevent global warming! If a business needed another reason not to relocate to California, there's a huge one. If homeowners were worried about making ends meet in a stagnant economy, how about an increase of nearly $3,800 per year for gasoline, natural gas, electricity, and food prices as a result of this feel good foolishness?

Of course the Prop 23 opponents trumpet that 500,000 new green jobs will be created. What a pipe dream. That would only be believable if Prop 19 had passed. For instance, when the government mandated fluorescent light bulbs, the last GE plant making incandescent bulbs closed down and tossed two hundred workers out on the streets. Who makes the fluorescent bulbs? Naturally, it's China, where hundreds of workers have been hospitalized because of exposure to and subsequent mercury poisoning while manufacturing the bulbs.

Then there's Solyndra, "…touted by President Barack Obama as a model for a green energy future." The President proudly announced $535 million in taxpayer loans in 2009 to Solyndra to open a second plant in California, hire 1,000 new workers, and make solar panels. Keep in mind that Solyndra has never shown a profit, cancelled their Initial Public Offering, and had their CEO quit. Not too surprisingly, they have now closed their East Bay plant, stopped expansion on their Fremont plant, and instead of hiring another 1,000 workers, they are laying off between 155 to 175 members of their current work force. They can't compete with other manufacturers in China or the United States. Given the global warming tax coming up, expect them to fail completely or relocate to Texas.

Given our current path to financial ruin, we'll soon be revising the lyrics to an old country song. "All the gold in California…is in a bank in old Shanghai…in a Chinese hedge fund's name."

Which Way Today, USA?

By William L. Garvin

“The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.” Cicero, circa 55 BC

Once again, it is the morning after the Election Day before and America’s course has been charted for the next two years…or has it? Will we continue down the path of decline as did the Roman Empire (with a couple of intermediate experimental stages in Euro socialism) or will we call a halt to the horrendous growth of government, central planning, and elitist rule? Will the President recognize that he is the servant of the American people and listen to their clarion call or will he continue his despotic reign through executive fiat and the strangling red tape of bureaucratic regulation and confiscation? Will the lame duck Congress try to continue their radical agenda or will they yield to their duly elected and more conservative successors? Will the President continue to “punish his enemies” by seizing their property in ever larger amounts and “redistributing” it to his friends and contributors? Given the political chicanery leading up to Election Day in early voting, some of these answers may be slow in coming.

In close races, will we find more boxes of ballots in the trunks of poll workers’ cars such as those that carried Al Franken to victory in Minnesota? Will we again recount ballots time after time until there are enough votes to carry Patty Murray to victory in Washington? Will the newly invented procedure of posting Lisa Murkowski’s name in the polling booths as a write-in candidate be enough to insure her victory? Did the CBS television station in Alaska find a child molester in the Republican candidate’s audience or did they have to hire one for their “story”? Will the main stream media EVER return to their rightful role as the “watchdog of the people” or will they continue to parrot the party line as a propaganda puppet of liberal causes? Will the 600 Democrat ballots in Buck County, Pennsylvania that have already been disqualified be magically reinstated? Will the 8,000 quarantined ballots in that same county receive a “fair and impartial” review?

Will the Department of Justice investigate why the voting machines in Nevada’s early voting that already had Harry Reid’s name checked? Since members of SEIU service and maintain these machines, will they be investigated and held accountable? Why were there reports out of Florida that ALL of the Democrat candidates already had their names checked on the electronic voting machines? Why do we already have reports of fraud in Texas?

In the biggest travesty of all, will our military men and women have their absentee ballots counted at all? The failure of 14 states to insure that these ballots were mailed to our service personnel in time for their votes to be cast and counted lies somewhere between bureaucratic incompetence deserving of termination and criminal malfeasance deserving of prosecution. Is it any surprise that Illinois is the most egregious offender in this category? Since Eric Holder would not pursue the Black Panther voter intimidation case even when additional corroborating testimony came forward, it is highly unlikely that he will see anything of merit in this injustice either.

Unless the integrity of our electoral process is zealously guarded, our constitutional republic will be on a perilous course. Unless our apathetic citizenry begins to educate themselves on the issues and the process, this great experiment in representational democracy will continue to erode and fade until we find ourselves on the ash heap of history. Any political “dirty tricks”, chicanery, or fraud on the part of any political party, affiliated organization, or independent entity that corrupts an open and honest election should be condemned by all and dealt with in the harshest of terms. If our election process continues to be contaminated, if the people lose faith in the selection of our leaders, if the ruling elite seek to maintain power at any cost, if corruption is the rule as opposed to the exception, then be afraid. Be very, very afraid.

This is a great and wonderful country built on extraordinary principles. It still shines as a beacon of freedom to the entire world. As Thomas Jefferson noted: “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.” Be vigilant America…be very, very vigilant!

Hysteria and Histrionics in Namby-Pamby Land

By William L. Garvin

The nonsensical mockery and hysterical shrieking from the “cackle of rads” has an oddly funereal quality to it. Hysteria is clearly setting in as they try to flagellate their main stream media and union minions into spouting liberal propaganda with no semblance of objectivity. It reeks of desperation.

For starters, the only enthusiasm being generated on the Democrat campaign trail that seems authentic is that of Campaigner in Chief, Bill Clinton. Most of his audience is college stages (stooges?) where they probably have forgotten (or condone) his tawdry behavior in the Oval Office. As the architect of the “politics of personal destruction”, which was the modus operandi for handling the Bimbo Eruptions, the good ol’ boy from Hope is the perfect foil for blowing smoke to cover up the demise of the era of Hope and Change. Naturally he’s forgotten that “it’s the economy, stupid!” and in irony of ironies, he is now attacking the character of Republicans! He hasn’t lost his knack for looking the camera directly in the eye and lying to the American people.

As for outright lies, what are we to do with President Obama’s personal promise that the stimulus package would go to “shovel ready projects” when he now admits that there is no such thing as a shovel ready project? It’s also time to get a new campaign riff. The way you’re driving, the “D” isn’t for “Drive”; it’s for “Destruction.” Yes, we want the keys back because the “R” is for “Responsibility,” something your administration sorely lacks.

A horrendous example of said irresponsibility is your Department of Injustice failure to insure that our service men and women get their absentee ballots in time for their votes to be counted. CNN reported that in a survey of only14 states, two of those states and 13 counties had missed the deadline for mailing the ballots. Additionally, in the President’s home state of Illinois, 35 of the 110 voting precincts had failed to mail the military ballots on time. One election official held the military ballots for fourteen days. Maybe it’s because he was too busy hand delivering voter applications and absentee ballots at the same time to 2,600 prison inmates! Of course only cynics would consider chicanery in lieu of coincidence when military voters usually favor conservative views and candidates. That same cynic might also wonder whether or not the prisoner ballots were already completed in advance. After all, they’re not really in a position to complain, are they?

Mr. President, you also ramped up your attacks on the Chamber of Commerce for not releasing their donor list while you have still failed to release the donor list from your election. You never complained when you received over $400 million in assistance from groups that did not release their donor lists. By the way, Democrats have received over $1 million from political action committees associated with foreign companies and the House and Senate Leaders have received about $500,000. So stop with the hysterical shrieking…it’s not very presidential.

Speaking of Senate Leader Harry Reid, you’d better keep an eye on him. His ego is rapidly inflating to the size of your teleprompter. On MSNBC he actually said “…it doesn’t give them comfort or solace for me to tell them, you know, but for me we’d be in a worldwide depression.” We know who the real Savior of the World is, don’t we Mr. President? By the way, for the third time you have omitted “our Creator” as the source of our inalienable rights when you quoted our Declaration of Independence. As a constitutional scholar and avid (sic) baseball fan, you should know that it’s three strikes and you’re out!

Ms. Speaker Pelosi continues to whistle by the graveyard and ignore the fact that Democrats are campaigning against Obamacare and against her. In fact, virtually no Democrat candidate is running on a record; all they are doing is spewing irrelevant bile and distortions against their opponents. It’s the same old pap, extremists, racists, destroying social security, pulling the plug on granny, and class warfare. To quote a television pundit, “Is that all you’ve got?” It’s the same old tired Democrat tactics, the same old tired Democrat candidates, the same old radical Alinsky tactics. It’s time for a real change and we can see November from the house! As they say in Chicago, “vote early and vote often!”

“Fear, Loathing, and Top Down Violence”

By William L. Garvin

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

There is an air of desperation permeating Democrat attempts to paint the opposition in general and the Tea Party in specific as extreme. What is extreme is the depths to which they and their media minions have sunk in attempting to divert attention from the $3.52 trillion in spending last year and the $3.45 trillion in spending this year which has the federal debt now at a staggering $13 trillion!

It was almost comical when Janet Napolitano suggested that we should be concerned about our military veterans as potential terrorists. Never one to ignore a Democrat talking point, Rachel Maddow of MSNBC, in her phantasmagorical alternate reality, tried to connect the dots between Timothy McVeigh, Christian evangelicals, and the Tea Party. Of course, it was necessary to ignore the fact that McVeigh was a self-avowed atheist who professed that politics was his religion.

Her MSNBC counterpart, Chris Mathews (who used to have momentary flashes of lucidity) seems to have gone even further over the edge. He actually used the Chilean mine rescue miracle to spew his personal venom. He pontificated that if the miners were from the Tea Party they would have “…been killing each other after about two days”! In his interview with Richard Trumka of the AFL-CIO, he continued his foolishness: “The message coming out of the Tea Party people…is every man for himself. Basically no more taxes, no more government, no more everything. No more safety net. No more health care for everybody. Everybody just get out there, make your buck, save it, screw the government, move on.” Given his cartoonish characterization, it is only appropriate to quote Bugs Bunny: “What a maroon!” Either Mathews is criminally ignorant and unable to conduct even basic research or he is deliberately lying.

In a compelling essay, Whitney Pitcher pointed out that “Such misrepresentation of the Tea Party movement has become common place among the liberal press. The Tea Party is not about no government, it’s about limited government. It is not about an ‘every man for himself’ mentality; it’s about the voluntary generosity of individuals rather than the obligatory redistribution of wealth. It’s about everyday Americans, not the political elite or the Establishment.” One would think the cocktail party, Ivy League-educated, ruling class would be able to figure that one out.

What is even more troubling is the continuing violence in the Democrat demagoguery. When Governor Sanford was missing, the esteemed Senator John Kerry said “Too bad if a governor had to go missing it couldn’t have been the governor of Alaska. You know, Sarah Palin.” New Hampshire Democrat State Rep. Timothy Horrigan said “Well a dead Palin would be even more dangerous than a live one….” Thankfully he resigned after demonstrating his terminal stupidity. Keith Halloran , a Democrat candidate named for the same House, commented on a thread regarding the plane crash that killed Alaska Senator Ted Stevens “Just wish Sarah and Levy(sic) were on board.”

Where do they get the idea that this sort of invective is permissible? Maybe it’s from a President who says that “if they bring a knife, we’ll bring a gun” and encourages his followers to “get in the faces” of the Tea Party and town hall protesters. Maybe it’s when the President says there’s going to be “hand to hand combat.” Maybe it’s when the Vice-President says he’ll “strangle” the next Republican who talks about balancing the federal budget. Maybe it’s when Oliver Stone makes a movie about assassinating a living president. Maybe it’s when main stream media continue to repeat lies from left wing blogs with no semblance of objectivity. Maybe it’s when Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals calls for “picking a target, freezing it, personalizing it, and polarizing it.” For community organizers following these principles, facts are irrelevant and truth is the first casualty.

Of course you can say that these are just isolated examples and are not representative of Democrats as a whole. Nonetheless, if you want more “civil discourse,” you should repudiate this type of extreme rhetorical violence within your own ranks. It’s not working and the Tea Party movement is not intimidated.

Problems in the Political Asylum

By William L. Garvin

Another week gone by and we have yet another litany of reasons to prove the inmates are still in charge of the political asylum. First of all, we have our economist extraordinaire Speaker Nancy Pelosi saying that the best way to “stimulate the economy” and get the “most bang for our buck” is Food Stamps! By this ridiculous hypothesis, if we give EVERYONE food stamps, the American economic engine would roar back to life.

Of course the Administration’s present disastrous economic policies are moving us rapidly in that direction anyway. On January, 2007, when Democrats took control of the House and the Senate, unemployment was at 4.6% and there were 26.5 million people on food stamps. Now, according to Gallup, unemployment is at 10.1% and there are 40 million people receiving food stamps, more than at any time in our nation’s history.

Along these same lines, cruise ships don’t accept food stamps but they certainly accept California’s welfare aid debit cards. More than $69 million has been spent out of the Golden (Welfare) State in places like Hawaii, Las Vegas, Miami, Disney World, cruise ships and various resort destinations from funds designed to help the needy pay the rent and clothe their children. A state audit shows that none of California’s 58 counties adequately follows up on information that would indicate fraud.

At least those people appear to be alive. In another glaring example of bureaucratic inefficiency, the Obama Administration mailed $18 million in stimulus checks to dead people! No, they weren’t all in Cook County, the President’s Chicago home, although they are probably still voting there. To compound their ineptitude, they also sent another $4 million to prison inmates who were similarly ineligible. Your tax dollars at work!

Then there’s the recent Field Poll that showed nearly 7 in 10 Californians are dissatisfied with Congress’ overall job performance. In a deliberate suspension of critical thinking, these same voters seem intent on returning Senator Barbara Boxer to office. Even the ultra-liberal San Francisco Chronicle refused to endorse her noting her 18-year tenure in the Senate was totally unremarkable. “There is no reason to believe that another six-year term would bring anything but more of the same uninspired representation” said the Chron.

Her previous 10-year stint in the House was also similarly unremarkable except for her personal financial incompetence that earned her the sobriquet of “Barbara Bouncer”. Boxer was involved in the House banking scandal in which a number of Representatives bounced checks written on their accounts in the House Bank. Boxer wrote 143 overdraft checks over a period of three years that totaled $41,417. When you have no concerns about your own deficit spending, why should you be concerned about the Nation’s deficit spending? She’s never met a spending bill she didn’t like…unless it’s a military appropriation, funding a border fence, or sending additional troops to secure the border.

Next, we have Senator John Kerry saying voters are “uninformed on the issues” aka “stupid”; the President saying they should “buck up” and “don’t make me look bad”; and the Vice-President saying they should “stop whining.” Are they speaking to the Loyal Opposition? No, they were talking to their own Democrat base. Obviously the Administration has run out of targets to demonize and now must turn on their own. VP Biden went even further saying “You’re the dullest audience I’ve ever spoken to.” Way to inspire the troops, Joe!

Also we’ve got David “Blame Bush” Axelrod contending the Chamber of Commerce is a front for foreign corporations with absolutely no proof. He should have been laughed out of the room. The National Organization of Women ignores the continual slurs and vilification of successful conservative women but has no problem endorsing Jerry Brown the day after one of his close advisors (wife?) calls Meg Whitman a whore. The perpetually self aggrandizing Gloria Allred thinks this egregious affront calls for an “apology” all the while attempting to politically execute the aforementioned Ms. Whitman for firing an illegal alien. Allred’s “client” broke the law to get into this country, lied to get a social security card, lied to get a driver’s license, lied on her employment application, lied to Ms. Whitman but now is telling the truth? No doubt about it, the inmates are still in charge of the asylum.

Death and Taxes; Clowns and Cowards

By William L. Garvin
“The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.” Thomas Jefferson

The next time you see a recreational vehicle rolling down the highway with the bumper sticker saying “Spending my kid’s inheritance”, take it as a sign of sound financial planning. The other option is to hurry up and die this year before the Bush tax cuts expire and the Death Tax returns!

The current Democrat Congress talks out of both sides of its collective mouth on this issue. The Democrat leadership, including the President, continues to berate Republicans for holding tax cuts “hostage.” First, the Democrats hold an overwhelming majority in both houses. Second, despite this majority, they have not yet introduced a bill to extend the tax cuts. It is hard to fathom how a bill can be stonewalled when it has not even been introduced! Shame on this Democrat duplicity.

Maybe it was the shortage of time. Let’s see, wasn’t the House and the Senate on recess from August 9 through September 12? Maybe it was the arduous nature of governing for a whole three weeks that caused the current cessation of business in the House. Madame Speaker Pelosi was the one who cast the deciding vote to abandon ship and run for the hills. She could just as easily have decided to stay and work for the American people but she chose not to. How can she now blame the Republicans and the nearly forty Democrats who voted to stay in session? Rest assured she’ll find a way.

Maybe the House was so exhausted by rushing to complete the Federal budget before October 1st (the beginning of the federal fiscal year) that they didn’t have time to address the tax issue. But wait…they still have not produced a budget. Either they don’t want the public to know just how bad their economic planning is or they have adopted the incompetent California legislature as their model. In either event, the American people deserve better from their representatives.

They did however have time to bring on the clowns, in this case, Stephen Colbert. Madame Speaker heartily endorsed this lapse in decorum. (That was predictable since she has yet to schedule the hearings for the ethically challenged Maxine Waters and Charlie Rangel.) Now Mr. Colbert could have tried to testify as an informed citizen on the plight of the migrant worker. Instead, he chose to remain “in character” and provided nothing of substance to the proceedings or the consideration of the immigration issue. Naturally, His Smirkiness had nothing at all to say about the crime and cost of illegal aliens.

What of course they did have time to do is set the stage for the lame duck Congress with twenty bills that will spend another $400 billion dollars. By every estimate, there are going to be a considerable number of fiscal conservatives elected to the next Congress. Rather than heeding the will of the American people, the current fiscally irresponsible, tax and spend coalition will do whatever they can to cram more of their redistributive agenda down the taxpayer gullet.

This was made perfectly clear in the Senate. Senator Jim DeMint proposed an amendment to extend the spending resolution from December 3 until February 4, 2011. This would in effect provide the continued funding for all governmental operations in the absence of a budget and resultant allocations. The amendment was voted down 60-39, essentially along party lines. The net result will be a lame duck Congress, many of whom will have no further accountability to the people since they have been voted out, will try to pass an omnibus spending bill. You can count on it being filled with pork, earmarks, and deficit spending.

We have clearly seen with Democrat control of the Presidency, the House, and the Senate that they have an insatiable thirst for spending that can only be quenched by increasing the taxation and confiscation of private wealth. As one political science professor noted: “Republicans play to win; Democrats play dirty to win.” This Administration has proven that maxim!

RINOs—An Endangered Species

By William L. Garvin

How can you tell a politician is lying? Answer: their lips are moving! It may be an old joke but it is still the status quo in Washington, D.C., Sacramento and Bell, California and who knows where else. We have a President who has mocked those who are “bitterly clinging to their guns and religions” and then conspicuously and finally gets around to attending church. We have “Republicans In Name Only” (RINOs) who talk a good conservative game at home and then go to their respective capitols and vote Democrat-Lite. Enough is enough. America deserves a real choice between Conservative and Liberal agendas, not a choice between Progressive-Liberal and Moderate-Liberal agendas and candidates.

Constitutional Conservatives, as exemplified by the Tea Party Movement, are actively seeking to oust those who would transform and “change” our country into some derivative of a European Socialist model. They are also enthusiastically opposing those who foolishly think you can “spend your way into prosperity.” Along the way, they have also targeted RINOs who have lost their way, forgotten their campaign promises, and defrauded their constituents.

Political pundits, both large and small, after years of attempting to marginalize the true extent of citizen outrage, now trumpet and impugn this “purification” of the Republican Party. Certainly the oblique Nazi reference is purely coincidental. In any event, they continue to miss the point. The movement is much more than Republican versus Democrat or Conservative versus Liberal. It is now an eclectic, multi-party Country Class uprising against the Ruling Class. It is open revolt against those who have forsaken their Constitutional vows and political principles to further their own personal gain via power and enrichment.

Senator Arlen Specter was the epitome of the “go along to get along” RINO that Democrats loved conditionally and situationally. When his constituents tired of his Democrat-Lite voting record, he immediately switched parties and took his Republican campaign funds over to his Democrat seat! He had no problem forsaking his principles and his electorate in order to continue his membership in the elite Ruling Class. Charlie Crist, he of the perpetual tan in Florida, after losing the Republican primary also bolted from his principles and party, ignored the will of the voters, and launched his campaign as an Independent. Sorry, Charlie, but your membership in the Ruling Class is about to be canceled.

At the polar end of the entitlement scale, Lisa Murkowski in Alaska was deeded her membership in the Ruling Class by her father, Governor Frank Murkowski. Her reign was cut short by Tea Party upstart Joe Miller. After foolishly and futilely prolonging the vote count, did she support her party and the will of the voters? As foreshadowed by her betrayal of conservative principles in her voting record, she has now launched a write-in campaign that is doomed to failure. Her vindictive strategy is nothing more than a desperate attempt to grasp the last fleeting hope of remaining at the table with the Ruling Class. Despite the pitiful nature of these spectacles, losing incumbent Mike Castle in Delaware is being encouraged by the Democrat propaganda machine, aka the mainstream media, to pursue a similar course.

When it comes to seizing and maintaining power, there is no sense of fair play by the elite Ruling Class. There is no respect for the will of the people. There is no respect for the conservative principles of the Republican Party. There is certainly no respect for their campaign promises. Once they are anointed as a member of the elite Ruling Class, they become the epitome of the Gordon Gecko catchphrase: “Greed is good.” That’s precisely why the Country Class is targeting tax and spend liberals who are bankrupting this nation and institutionalizing generational theft. That is why the RINO’s who are aiding and abetting this constitutional crime are also being targeted. The greed for power by the Ruling Class is insatiable and it will have to be pried from their cold, clenched, avaricious, grasping claws. That’s what November 2 is all about.

Send Out the Clowns

By William L. Garvin

The “progressive” Democrat party and its sycophantic media minion has become much like the circus clown with the phony painted smiling face on the outside who is crying on the inside. With each passing day and every telling election, their efforts to deny the will of the American electorate and the strength of the Tea Party movement prove to be not only futile but comical.

Every time they attempt to marginalize “We the People” with their concerted media propaganda machine, they seem to trip over their big floppy clown feet and fall flat on their phony painted clown face. First it was the “Nazi” analogy…didn’t work. Then it was the “corporate shill” ploy…didn’t work. Don’t forget the “violent, angry mob” motif combined with “astroturfers”…didn’t work. Panic sets in and it’s time to nuke Tea Party momentum with the “race card”…didn’t work. Ironically, the NAACP, who refuses to accept the repeated racist actions of the New Black Panther Party as representative of their membership, sets up a website to find (or plant) racist signs within the Tea Party gatherings which they purport is representative of their membership…won’t work.

The next tactic to emerge from their tiny, little clown Smart Car was the Tea Party (and the people it represented i.e., constitutional conservatives of every political stripe) was lacking in enthusiasm and staying power. Only the most diehard of leftists would deny the huge “enthusiasm gap” that currently exists. The leaders of the Democrats (Obama, Reid, Pelosi) are useful for fundraising but serve no other substantive function on the campaign trail. In fact, the Dem candidates are running away from any association with the leadership or their legislative records. The only mention of Obamacare in their campaign ads seems to be when they point out that they voted against it!

Of course, the tried and true “politics of personal destruction” tactic is always available but more and more, this resembles the cigar that blows up in the clown’s face. Then again, since they can’t really run on their abysmal records, clowns resort to character assassination. As previously noted, this clown tactic is now starting to backfire. Despite the unparalleled savagery and misogyny directed toward Sarah Palin, she’s still standing, she’s still smiling, and in the words of many pundits, become a “kingmaker.” Her track record in picking and endorsing candidates, helping them raise money, and generating unparalleled enthusiasm is the envy of any national politico. Given her remarkable success, maybe they should rescind the employment of this reprehensible tactic against Christine O’Donnell.

They would be well to note that her “personal baggage” is nowhere near the level of that of Charlie Rangel. In fact, it’s nowhere near the level of that demonstrated by Joe Biden, a previous holder of that particular Senate seat. His documented, inaccurate utterances fall somewhere between acute amnesia on the one hand and compulsive lying on the other. At best, he seems to only have an itinerant relationship with the truth. Then again, we can’t expect the media to point this out because of the obvious double standard they employ in reviewing political parties and candidates.

So, faced with another stumbling, pratfall clown tactic, it’s now time to employ the tactic of framing the issue with false definitions. Tea Party favorites are “extremists” and they are “purging” the Republican party of “moderates.” The clown definition of moderate is a Republican who votes with the Democrats. Anything else is “extreme.” In actuality, it is the radical agenda that this Administration has forced down the throats of the people, against their oft stated will, that is extreme and has kindled the fires of this populist uprising.


The leftist clowns would have you believe that balancing the budget is extreme. Reducing the deficit is extreme. Stopping the continuing out of control spending is extreme. Advocating for a smaller government is extreme. Securing the borders is extreme. Stopping illegal immigration is extreme. Reading bills before voting on them is extreme. Following the Constitution is extreme. Don’t be surprised when extreme candidates who espouse these extreme principles do extremely well in the general election just as they have done in the primaries. In the meantime, while the clowns are in charge, don’t be surprised at the political circus.

Remembering September 11, 2001

By William L. Garvin

On September 5, 2001, my daughter gave birth to my first grandchild. There had been some concerns about his health during my daughter’s pregnancy so we were all greatly relieved to find those fears were unfounded. Jarod is now a healthy, active young boy who just turned nine years old.

That was one of the happiest days of my life. It’s hard to imagine that in less than a week, I would be at the other end of the emotional spectrum. I think it’s important to remember that in spite of repeated attacks against Americans, on September 10th, 2001, there was no obscure preacher threatening to burn the Koran. There was no protest against Islam or the building of a mosque anywhere in America. However, the United States of America did exist and that was provocation enough for radical Muslim terrorists to hijack four American airplanes and use them to murder thousands of our innocent citizens.

Nine years later, some of the situations and the facts have changed, but the threats of violence remain the same. Today we are even told that if we don’t build, the Ground Zero Mosque, the Arab world will explode in anger. Others profess that it will be the ultimate recruitment tool for Al Qaeda. A radical jihadist website promised to kill ten Americans for every letter in the Koran that is burned. Somewhere there is a tremendous market for anger management classes.

It appears as if there are certain elements of the international society, our global world, that are looking for an opportunity to be offended. There are certain other elements that don’t even need a reason, they just want to destroy. Then there are those who are so afraid of offending someone that they will tolerate most anything. “If you don’t stand for something, then you will probably stand for anything.” In a contemporary world, apparently the only thing that will not be tolerated is intolerance…sort of.

It was also somewhat difficult to discern what the presidential standard is for deciding to comment on wisdom when it comes to complex issues. In the Ground Zero Mosque controversy, President Obama was quick to state the obvious, that the Imam and his property developers had a constitutional right to build the mosque. However, he said he would not comment on the wisdom of building it. When he came to the preacher’s actions, he did not comment on the constitutional right to burn the Koran but instead chose to comment on the wisdom of doing so.

Make no mistake about it, burning the Koran is a stupid thing for any American to do. Burning the American flag is also a stupid thing to do. Nonetheless, the courts have declared the latter to be within the purview of freedom of speech and would undoubtedly declare the former to be the same. The proposed burning of the Koran was appropriately and nearly universally condemned by all religious and political leaders. Was that enough to appease the enemies of the “Great Satin”? Of course not. They have a political need to focus on a single individual and trumpet the conviction of the masses for “Islamaphobia.” It boggles my mind to see how an unknown individual can instantaneously gain presidential commentary, Secretary of Defense phone calls, incessant television coverage and front page news. I’m not exactly sure why he made national and international news. I guess that’s what happens when Lindsey Lohan actually manages to keep a low profile for a week.

In some ways, things have gotten much worse since 9/11/2001. Back then, for a brief period of time, leaders of America forgot their political parties. Everyone joined hands on the Capitol steps to pray and sing “God Bless America.” For a brief period of time, America was united. Everyone knew that this exceptional country would rise above the smoke, death, and disaster. For a moment, we looked for and saw the good in one another. Now we don’t. Worse yet, many don’t even remember when America stood tall, proud, and defiant in the face of tragedy. Worse yet, some seem to like it that way.

A Constitution of Convenience

By William L. Garvin

There is a curious awakening among the radical left in this country. After years of assaulting the U.S. Constitution as an outdated and outmoded document, after years of impugning the character and wisdom of the Founding Fathers, they are now expressing a newly discovered appreciation for constitutional content. Do not be fooled; their socialist goals remain unchanged. In true Alinsky Rules for Radicals tradition, they are merely abandoning personal principle for a short term political gain.

There are two obvious and transparent examples of their hypocrisy. First is their newly found appreciation of our Founding Fathers wisdom in creating freedom of religion. For years, leftist forces have done their best to eradicate formalized religion and ban any religious reference from public life. The ACLU and their complicit minions have attempted to expand “freedom of religion” to “freedom from religion” which, for all intents and purposes, promotes atheism. They continually file costly and time consuming lawsuits to ban prayer in school, ban the Pledge of Allegiance, ban the words “In God We Trust” from our currency, ban the Ten Commandments from our courthouses, nativity scenes and even the word “Christmas”!

Now they are zealously trumpeting freedom of religion in regard to the Ground Zero Mosque controversy. The GZM has never been a question of a right under the Constitution; it has always been a question of propriety. Leftist thinkers in the media aid in this distortion by highlighting anti-Muslim activity but ignore the fact that there is much greater anti-Semitic hate crime. Several years back, they were highlighting the burning of black churches all the while ignoring the burning of white churches. This is not accidental.

They deliberately try to build a moral equivalency between disparate events. For instance, they like to build a false premise that Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, was a “Christian terrorist.” Actually, he was a self professed agnostic and said “Science is my religion.” Other than taking last rites prior to execution, a cynical attempt to hedge his bets, he had no substantive connection to Christianity. Furthermore, there is no Biblical justification for his actions. In short, it is another leftist canard used as a basis to 1) slander Christianity, and 2) build a false moral equivalency, to wit: they didn’t ban Christian churches from Oklahoma City so they shouldn’t ban Muslim mosques from New York City. This is pure intellectual dishonesty based on outright lies and results in extremely shoddy propaganda. It’s rubbish.

The second area of blatant hypocrisy is the left’s new adoration of the 14th Amendment in relation to both gay marriage and birthright citizenship. Radicals have for years fostered a concept favored by leftist judges of a “living Constitution” that should be modernized along the lines of “international law” and “contemporary morals and mores.” Again, this is a pattern of assault against the Judeo-Christian values and the influence they had on the framers of our Constitution.

Leftist thinking now seems to exalt the brilliance of the writers of the Constitution in demanding equal treatment for all in the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness. This of course means that the traditional definition of marriage should be expanded to include same sex couples (and such other combinations as a permissive and “non-judgmental” society will likely condone down the road). The mantra is everyone should be treated the same. However, they have no problem confiscating increasingly larger amounts of private property via a graduated income tax. They have no problem advocating “tax cuts” to those who paid no taxes in the first place. These rebates are nothing more than shameless bribes but such is the modus operandi of this particular Congress. In their radical lunacy, they have no problem with inconsistently advocating for keeping the Bush tax cuts for the middle class but allowing them to expire for those who make more than $250,000 per year.

Leftists also conveniently drop the international law comparison when it comes to birthright citizenship since no European country has such a practice. The only thing that is consistent with leftists is their situational inconsistency. Their “born again” reverence for the Constitution is one of convenience not of principle. Expect them to continue their assault on Judeo-Christian values and the family unit in their pursuit of a socialist utopia. It’s the “passive revolution” that Gramsci Marxists and Alinsky acolytes are weaving. They are persistent, opportunistic and they believe their end justifies their means. Be vigilant.

The Revenge of the Losers

By William L. Garvin

"We the people" tell the government what to do, it doesn't tell us. "We the people" are the driver, the government is the car. And we decide where it should go, and by what route, and how fast. Almost all the world's constitutions are documents in which governments tell the people what their privileges are. Our Constitution is a document in which "We the people" tell the government what it is allowed to do. "We the people” are free. Ronald Reagan


At this stage of the end game, it doesn’t matter where President Obama was born. It doesn’t matter whether he is a Muslim or a Christian. It doesn’t matter whether or not the Ground Zero Mosque is built. It doesn’t matter whether or not Maxine Waters and Charlie Rangel are convicted on their ethics charges. What does matter is how much more damage the Obama-Reid-Pelosi machine can do to our country before they are voted out of power.

Bill Clinton danced into presidential power to the tune of a one note samba “it’s the economy, stupid!” Our current gaffe a minute Vice President said this Administration would “focus like a laser” on that “three letter word…jobs!” Despite his blinding grasp of the obvious (and obvious gift for malapropisms), our current economy is in a shambles under the inflexible rule of this Administration. What started out as a regressive approach to our free market economy quickly became punitive and has now become destructive.

Housing sales just dove off the cliff with a 27% drop which is the worst on record. New home sales are also among the worst. True to form, the Administration saw it as “unexpected.” They never seem to see bad news coming but what would you expect once the government handouts ended? The same thing happened to new car sales once the “cash for clunkers” fiasco ended. The same thing will happen to the states once the $26 billion bribe for teacher votes ends next year.

They either never saw or didn’t care about the thousands of unemployed oil workers in the Gulf when they imposed the sweeping and arbitrary drilling moratorium. One would deem it prudent for the workers’ sake to implement an immediate emergency inspection program so those rigs that are worthy could resume production. It hasn’t happened. Due to their inordinate bureaucratic delays, two of the deep water rigs have packed up and sailed off to foreign shores. Don’t expect them to come back any time soon but do expect other rigs to follow their lead.

VP Biden is off on his flop of a “Summer of Recovery” tour touting the millions of jobs “created or saved” and now “lives touched” because of the Stimulus Bill. Those are newly invented yardsticks designed to deceive and judging by the President’s poll numbers, “we the people” aren’t buying it. Of course he can’t explain how he is going to insure 20 million new people at no additional cost. Of course he can’t explain why 48 of 50 states have LOST jobs since the bill was passed if their policies are working the way it was intended. Of course, he can’t explain why we can’t get below 9.5% unemployment. Of course, he can’t explain why their economic policies resulted in initial jobless claims rising to 500,000 just last week. Of course, he can’t explain why there are 4.75 million workers receiving Emergency Unemployment Compensation because their benefits have expired. Of course, he can’t even explain to his own Democrat Senator Michael Bennett who pointed out “We have acquired $13 trillion dollars of debt” and ”in my view we have nothing to show for it.”

Will this spending insanity ever end? Not if the President can help it. Representative Tom Price introduced a resolution to prevent further destruction to our economy and our American way of life in Congress’s “lame duck session.” It was defeated by Democrats 236-163 along party lines. In other words, our current representatives in Washington, aka the “Ruling Class”, intend to ignore the will of the people in November and cram even more destructive and unpopular policies down the throat of “We the People”! We should be very afraid of the “Revenge of the Losers”!

Sense and Sensitivity

By William L. Garvin

“The judiciary of the United States is the subtle corps of sappers and miners constantly working underground to undermine our Constitution from a coordinate of a general and special government to a general supreme one alone. This will lay all things at their feet. … I will say, that ‘against this every man should raise his voice,” and, more, should uplift his arm …’”: Thomas Jefferson

Mayor Bloomberg says it’s “un-American” to question the funding and financing for the Ground Zero Mosque even though Hamas and Iran would both like to contribute. Meanwhile, Speaker Nancy Pelosi is demanding an investigation into the funding of those who are opposing the building of a mosque so close to the impact site of 9/11.!

Now she could have been concerned about Russia providing the nuclear fuel rods to help Iran bring its first nuclear power plant online. She could have been concerned that military strategists now opine that it is tactically impossible to bomb the plant since it is now activated for fear of contaminating all the open water in the area. Or she could have expressed concern that the very next day, Iran announced its newest unmanned bomber called the “Ambassador of Death.” But no, not our Nancy. Instead, in an unabashed attempt to quell free speech by concerned citizens, she demands an investigation into the financing of those who are “ginning up the controversy.” Let’s hope she starts with Senators Harry Reid and Charles Schumer, who are finally on record as opposing the mosque at its present location.

Our President then weighed in on Muslims in general, having the right to practice their religion and the Imam Rauf in specific, having the right to build a mosque in Lower Manhattan. Now it is questionable as to which informed Americans didn’t know this was a constitutional right but his Ramadan dinner speech was also broadcast to the Arab countries. The next day when he was questioned about the wisdom of building the mosque, he said he would not comment. So, when the going got tough, the President…went on vacation, his sixth of the year.

Many legitimate questions about this mosque remain unanswered not the least of which is how will this particular project bring about “healing”? It is obvious from the controversy that many of the friends and families of the 3,000 victims still bear raw emotional scars. How will this imposing structure bind up and heal those wounds? Will the call to prayer ricocheting off the buildings in the area five times a day and echoing over Ground Zero bring about understanding? Will non-Muslims be allowed to enter the mosque and pray in an ecumenical outreach? The history of the religion says no.

Speaking of history, why was the project originally named the “Cordoba House”, then renamed the “Cordoba Initiative” and now the “Park 51 Project”? Any casual student of history knows that the Cordoba Mosque in Spain was built on the site of a Christian cathedral. It came about after the Muslim armies decimated the countryside and the surviving population fled to the hills. If “Cordoba” does not suggest conquest, it certainly accompanied it.

What are the Imam’s responsibilities to be sensitive to the seventy percent of New Yorkers and the sixty plus percent of Americans who ask that he not build the mosque on that site? You may have also noted the increasing number of union workers who are adamantly opposed to and will refuse to construct this building. In an economy where unemployment continues to run rampant, this is no insignificant statement.

In contemporary and analogous news, the court has ruled that it is permissible for the Westboro Baptist Church (sic) to continue to disrupt private military funerals with their reprehensible hate speech. Apparently, the non-specified but judicially acclaimed “right to privacy” does not extend to the families of our military personnel to bury their loved ones, who have made the ultimate sacrifice, in a dignified and reverential manner. The court has also ruled that the Stolen Valor Act is unconstitutional. According to the Ninth Circuit, it is legally permissible to lie about having been awarded military medals and citations, including the Medal of Honor. Even though you have the right to do it, it will never be the sensible or sensitive thing to do!
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Here Comes the Judge!

By William L. Garvin

“Oh what tangled webs we weave when first we practice to deceive.” Shakespeare

The radical left in this country have little respect for the Constitution or the wisdom of the founding fathers. They love to find and exalt any ruling by an activist judge that will lead to the destruction of traditional definitions of marriage and simultaneously continue their assault on religion. In their atheistic world view, the Constitution should not read “freedom of religion” but “freedom from religion.” Some would even outlaw the Bible as “hate speech” and jail pastors and preachers for quoting it from the pulpit! One should also keep in mind that judges are nothing more than lawyers in robes.

Thomas Jefferson warned of the inherent danger of an unaccountable judiciary in 1823: "At the establishment of our Constitutions, the judiciary bodies were supposed to be the most helpless and harmless members of the government. Experience, however, soon showed in what way they were to become the most dangerous; that the insufficiency of the means provided for their removal gave them a freehold and irresponsibility in office; that their decisions, seeming to concern individual suitors only, pass silent and unheeded by the public at large; that these decisions nevertheless become law by precedent, sapping by little and little the foundations of the Constitution and working its change by construction before any one has perceived that that invisible and helpless worm has been busily employed in consuming its substance. In truth, man is not made to be trusted for life if secured against all liability to account."

Now we see that the court has again declared itself superior to the will of and unaccountable to the people. Simultaneously, in another exercise of raw judicial power, the court has accepted the moral hazard of redefining marriage. It will be interesting to see where this carousel stops. If the “equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment is crystal clear about discrimination,” and the voters’ will is irrelevant, why should marriage now be restricted to only one man and one woman, or two women, or two men? What about the woman who wants to have one husband for each day of the week or the man who wants to have one wife for each month of the year? Isn’t the number “two” rather arbitrary? After all, those who prefer a polygamous lifestyle certainly deserve equal protection and no discrimination.

How now do we tell a brother he can’t marry his sister or a father his daughter or a mother her son plus all the new same sex possibilities? And let’s not forget the North American Man Boy Love Association and all the “discrimination” they have had to endure all these years. There is probably no interpretation so bizarre or practice so perverse that some pointy-headed progressive somewhere would not condone and rationalize it!
It will also be interesting to see not only where the societal line is drawn but also whether or not the appeal actually addresses the legal arguments of the Prop 8 supporters rather than expressing a single judge’s personal preferences. Proponents reject the application of the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses on three primary grounds:
• While marital status confers numerous benefits and privileges, there are no actual "protections" inherent and exclusive to marital status, nor are there any penalties solely based on marital status.
• The Fourteenth Amendment does not demand equal treatment under the law in instances where there is no threat to the life, liberty, and/or property of the citizens.
• Constitutional protections pertain to individuals, not couples, since there are no parameters for what constitutes a "couple" in matters of constitutional law.
It was also recently reported that the 14th Amendment “…clearly assigns U.S. border security and immigration control to the Federal government.” Neither border security nor immigration control is found therein. Nor does it clearly grant birthright citizenship to children of illegal aliens because they are not “…subject to the jurisdiction thereof” i.e., the United States. How that changed is yet another example of raw judicial power.
It will also be interesting to learn exactly what the “new” immigration policy is that the Arizona law supposedly created that the judge found so intolerable. Leftists love open borders and raw judicial power…when it goes their way. By the way, Arizona is still waiting for the meager reinforcements that the President promised. Pay close attention to what he does, not what he says.

Smoke and Mirrors

By William L. Garvin

Unemployment continues to hover just below 10% with no indication that the Stimulus Bill has even a remote chance of working. Another 131,000 jobs were lost last month (revisions will soon show it was more) and private sector employers aren’t going to hire with tax hikes coming their way in January. Who knows what turmoil will be coming from the financial reform regulations that have yet to be written and which Congress can’t explain. Don’t forget all the rules and regulations to be promulgated by the 183 boards and commissions established by health care “reform.”

Speaking of health care, the voters in Missouri turned out in enormous numbers (for a midterm election) and an overwhelming 71% said they do not want ObamaCare! Many did not even vote in their Congressional primaries; they just wanted to reject the President’s “signature” achievement. “Show Me” definitely showed “The One”! Making matters worse, a district judge in Virginia noted the unprecedented expansion of the welfare clause and gave the Commonwealth the go ahead in their lawsuit against the Administration and rejected all four of the Administration’s claims. It looks like another thirty states are likely to also sue the Administration.

In addition, the economic “Summer of Recovery” tour has failed. Facts are such stubborn things. In January 2007, when Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid took control of Congress, the unemployment rate was 4.6% and the national debt was $8.6 trillion. Today, unemployment is 9.5% and the national debt is $13 trillion. Given this record of failure, the Administration needs “smoke and mirrors” in the worst possible way. That’s exactly what they are getting with the ethics charges against Democrat House members Charlie Rangel and Maxine Waters. Speaker Pelosi has yet to live up to her lofty proclamations…the swamp is not drained and the culture of corruption is now headed by a braying, hypocritical donkey. What’s that about glass houses and throwing stones?

Regular as clockwork, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are back for yet more bailouts. Isn’t it interesting that Barney Frank and Chris Dodd failed to address their inadequacies in the Financial Reform Bill? Only a cynic would say it was because they had oversight of those institutions and any meaningful investigation would expose their dereliction of duty and significant contributions to the financial fiasco by creating a huge amount of “toxic assets.”

Since those aren’t working, let’s try more “smoke and mirrors” by castigating interest in immigration reform and the inappropriately named “anchor babies.” Reexamining birthright citizenship for illegal aliens isn’t exactly repealing the 14th Amendment but accuracy has never been the hallmark of the Democrat propaganda machine.

For perspective, only 33 of 196 nations have a national policy of birthright citizenship. The majority of those who do are Caribbean and Latin American countries with populations of less than fifty million. The United States is the only nation of more than 200 million that currently employs the concept. No European nation has birthright citizenship for illegal immigrants.

The United States government currently recognizes any person born on American soil as a "natural born" citizen and ignores the Constitutional requirement that one must also be "subject to the jurisdiction" of the United States in order to automatically gain citizenship. The U.S. Supreme Court has never ruled on whether or not children born to illegal alien parents, or to parents visiting the United States with temporary visas, are entitled to birthright citizenship.

As a result, the scope of our problem is staggering. In 2003, 70 percent of the 2,300 babies born in San Joaquin General Hospital in Stockton were children of illegal immigrants. In 2008, an article cited Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas as the “second busiest maternity ward in the United States.” Again, 70 percent of the women giving birth were illegal aliens. Los Angeles County Supervisor Michal Antonovich received much criticism just for releasing the numbers for June, 2009. According to Department of Social Services, LA County spent $26 million in food stamps and $22 million in welfare in that single month just for children of illegal aliens. That amounts to nearly $600 million each year in one county in California. It is not sustainable.

Any immigration reform should closely examine birthright citizenship and its impact on our country without the usual demagoguery. But first things first…President Obama should stop blowing smoke. Let private sector employers fix the economy and he should secure the border.

Scared Straight…By The Ruling Class!

By William L. Garvin

So let me get this straight…Congress has a miserable 11% approval rating but votes itself a pay raise. Social security recipients who worked and paid taxes all their lives don’t even get a cost of living increase this year or next year but their Medicare costs are going up!

So let me get this straight…Democrats have been in charge of Congress since January, 2007. Since then: the American public opposed the TARP Bailout but Congress enacted it anyway; the American public opposed the Stimulus Bill but Congress enacted it anyway; the American public opposed Obamacare but Congress enacted it anyway; the American public opposed the Financial Reform Bill but Congress enacted it anyway; the American public opposes the expiration of the Bush tax cuts but Congress….

Furthermore, the Department of Justice decides to sue the State of Arizona for enacting a statute supported by 70% of Arizonans that helps enforce federal immigration laws. The DOJ says it needs “consistency.” However, the DOJ ignores all the “sanctuary cities” throughout the country, with all their inconsistencies, that not only violate federal law but interfere with the enforcement of federal law.

In addition, Congress ignores Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac which were the primary catalysts for the housing bubble and the housing bust which precipitated the need for TARP. In another of their two thousand plus page bills (which nobody has read), Congress somehow missed dealing with the cause of our country’s economic malaise and keeps taxpayers on the hook for their continuing bailout.

How did our government “of the people, by the people, for the people” become such a non-representative entity? How did they become so out of touch with our history and what has made “American exceptionalism” a magnet of hope and opportunity throughout the world? Why do they feel entitled to force feed us what we do not want? Who died and made them Omnipotent?

A clue is found in the brilliant piece America’s Ruling Class—And the Perils of Revolution written by Angelo M. Codevilla, Professor Emeritus at Boston University. He argues that the differences between the Bushes, Clintons, and Obamas are a matter of degree not kind and they are all part of a “ruling class.” There is very little diversity in the “upper crust” that speaks the same “in” language, goes to the “right” schools, and has “the tastes, habits, and tools of bureaucrats.” They understand the mechanics of an expanding government and their careers and fortunes are dependent upon it.

The attitude of this bipartisan Ruling Class is that they are in essence, born to rule, because they are the best and brightest “while the rest of Americans are retrograde, racist, and dysfunctional unless properly constrained.” Hence, we have Franklin D. Roosevelt and his “brain trust” creating the New Deal “independent” agencies that have controlled more and more of America. Progressives morphed into powerful bureaucrats. They grasp the truths that common, inferior Americans, who cling bitterly to their guns and religions, cannot. Maybe that’s why Congress exempted themselves from the health care mandates they imposed upon everyone else.

Codevilla argues that while the Ruling Class agenda is stated in “intellectual-moral pretense”, the true goal is power and money for themselves. The bills are two and three thousand pages long so they can tilt the playing field towards those they favor and disadvantaging those they do not. Bear Stearns wins; Lehman Brothers loses. Alternative energy wins; fossils fuels lose. AMA wins; doctors lose. Unions win; small businesses lose. Government now picks the winners and losers in more and more sectors of our society. Ruling Class wins; Country Class loses.

There’s one huge problem for the Ruling Class: central planning has never worked! Despite numerous attempts throughout the world, social engineering, social justice or the redistribution of wealth, top down wealth creation doesn’t work. The Ruling Class thinks it’s only because the “wrong” people were doing the planning. They ignore the fact that America spread more wealth across greater strata of its citizenry than any economic system anywhere. Despite the fact that most of them have never even run a small business or had to make payroll, they still think they know better. Unfortunately, they will never learn that the practical, successful experience of countless millions in the Country Class will trump the untested, theoretical brilliance of the Ruling Class. It will be a difficult and revolutionary struggle to dismantle the oligarchy given the trend of the last one hundred years.

Leftist Pretzel Logic

By William L. Garvin

A good friend of mine is a Formula One racing fanatic. He laughingly characterizes NASCAR as nothing more than "left turn, left turn, left turn…." My stock car friends don't appreciate this evaluation but it certainly does describe what passes as progressive thought in this country. The round and round, over and under, in and out pretzel logic of leftist thought has produced a Gordian knot of gigantic and unintelligible proportions. This is mainly due to the lack of consistency in any of their positions or viewpoints.

A month ago, a local contributor charged me with being an anarchist; last week, an anonymous writer charged me with "advocating the wholesale destruction of civil liberties of American citizens…." I'd like to be accommodating but come on people! No one is flexible enough to manage both ends of that 180 degree left turn. Please make up your collective minds. (Yes, I chose "collective" for a purpose.)

Any careful reader of my commentaries would know that I am a Constitutional Conservative and abhor the destruction of civil liberties. Our Federal government is growing at a cancerous rate and is threatening civil liberty on an unprecedented scale. The feds have no right to decide that Lehman Brothers dies and Goldman Sachs lives. The feds have no right to take over automobile manufacturers and give unions precedence over secured bond holders. The feds have no right to nationalize my health records and give access to countless new bureaucratic entities. The feds have no right to access my bank records and seize those assets if I have not purchased their mandated health insurance…which they have no constitutional right to require in the first place. The feds have no right to unilaterally decide that a company is too big to fail, seize their operations, and sell off their components with no right to appeal. However, TARP, Stimulus, Obamacare, and Financial Reform do exactly that.

My unknown critic goes on to proclaim "American citizens should never have to repeatedly prove that they are citizens and have their everyday lives interrupted." Here's where pretzel logic begins. You are arguing against a position I do not hold. It's a straw man argument lacking in context or content. The Arizona law, as do all state laws, requires that someone detained for a violation of the law provide identification. If they can't provide ID and the officer has reasonable suspicion that they are here illegally, he/she can ask for proof of legal admission which federal law requires that they carry. I'm sorry if this inconveniences lawbreakers but…too bad.

The next straw man in pretzel logic: "They should also be able to ride BART and not be shot at." Well of course they should. However, I had nothing to say about Oscar Grant until now. For the record, Oscar Grant was not peacefully riding BART when the incident occurred. Nonetheless, it is tragic that he lost his life. Officer Mehserle was charged, tried, and convicted of involuntary manslaughter by a jury of his peers who heard all the evidence. Apparently, that's not enough for some people. There are those who prefer vigilante justice and there are others who would string him up from the nearest tree. These could be the same folks who carry around the "Free Mumia" signs and would grant immediate clemency for a convicted cop killer. For others, it was just an opportunity to get the latest cool Nike kicks.

As for "I think guys like him get all their news from FOX news and Rush Limbaugh…," you are obviously not a careful reader of my commentaries. If you were, you would know that I am a pretty good researcher and develop my material from a wide variety of sources. It's been said that "you are entitled to your own opinion but you are not entitled to your own facts." Go ahead and offer your opinion but don't put words in my mouth. I think I'm capable of speaking for myself. It's just more pretzel logic.

If you are really concerned about the "destruction of personal liberty," why don't you research this New York Times article: "The Obama administration has taken the extraordinary step of authorizing the targeted killing of an American citizen, the radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki…'It is extremely rare, if not unprecedented, for an American to be approved for targeted killing,' officials said." No arrest, no Miranda, no defense, no trial, just summary execution. No worries about civil liberties there, eh mate?

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