The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

I’m In Favor Of A Constitutional Convention, In A Few Years

Posted on | April 8, 2011 | 5 Comments

by Smitty (via Insty)

The talk of a Convention is tempting. We had 126 years prior to Woodrow Wilson, who set us on course to become the Progressive State of America in 1913. Completely unfair to credit him with so many of the misdeeds, foreign and domestic, that occurred in the last century, and culminated in the current crisis administration, but there it is.
Where we’re at is that power is over-centralized. Local and state governments have been failing upward for decades. And, if Wisconsin teaches us anything, it is the the Iron Law is real, and the protectors of the Iron Law prefer it above life itself. The Irony Corollary.
What isn’t clear is that the American People have made it past the primal scream stage, and are serious about improvement. As a military member, I adhere to the Code of Conduct, which is intended to offer guidance in the event of enemy capture. Note Article I:

I am an American fighting in the forces which guard my country and our way of life. I am prepared to give my life in their defense. 

Now, it’s interesting, as you read the various Medal of Honor write-ups, the general lack of time available to decide to do the honorable thing under fire.

  1. Deadly situation.
  2. Do I have almost 0 time to think about it?
  3. Do something immortal.

The bulk of the people involved are self-effacing, and claim they didn’t do anything more that the obvious. Those that survive, that is. I will now do something unfair and map the concept of the Code of Conduct to non-military members of society. Now, let there be an entitlement involved. “I am prepared to give my life in their defense” becomes untenable. Again, Wisconsin.
I submit that there really isn’t a need to talk about a Constitutional Convention until we’re all ready to take a major haircut. It won’t be the last, permanent haircut of the Code of Conduct variety, but We, as The People, need to bring that level of seriousness to the discussion, or it will just be “relief in the round”. If anything is off the table, then everything is off the table.
The bulk of what needs to occur, really, is reducing the federal scope to the enumerated powers of the Constitution, de-centralizing the federal government, and re-invigorating the states. We do not require the kind of centralization currently seen in an Information Age.
Not everyone is likely to agree with me here, but that Information Age flattens the hierarchy and renders moot the economies of scale which used to make failing upward attractive. The vast hordes of Iron Law bureaucrats dragging their knuckles from meeting to meeting in a PowerPoint stupor Are Not Helping You.
As a blogger, my mission is to repeat this theme with enough variations to keep it interesting until the political will to Fix This Noise has been attained. Then we can have a Constitutional Convention with some likelihood of success.

Category: Uncategorized

I Dig Getting Paid, But Which Is Cheaper: Five Months Pay Lost, Or ObamaCare?

Posted on | April 8, 2011 | 7 Comments

by Smitty

Again cribbing the Mighty Instapundit, “I’ll believe it’s a crisis when the people telling me it’s a crisis start acting like it’s a crisis.” Up to the plate steps Michele Bachmann, and the baseball (not to mention the foppish excuse for a pitcher cluttering the mound) weeps in fear:

shes_packing_a_sizeable_pair“Because of this discrepancy between the pay of our troops and Members of Congress, I will personally be donating my pay to a non-profit organization serving our military families.”

Ms. Bachmann said that after

vot[ing] against the Continuing Resolution because, she said she made the promise that she’ll not vote for a CR that does not include defunding Obamacare.

Now, es liegt mir fern to speak for the wallet of anyone else, but I’m willing to bet that eating the five months of pay until the end of the fiscal year would be the cheaper route over dealing with ObamaCare. Truly, I’d work free for the rest of the year to be emancipated from these bogus entitlement programs that I do not want, cannot afford, and with which I’d rather not afflict my offspring.

Ms. Bachmann, you rock!

At the ignoble end of the spectrum, Bluegrass Pundit has Sir Jesse of Jackwagon waxing incoherent:

“[T]his really is a Civil War fight,” Jackson said. “This is making the federal government dysfunctional on the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. These guys will support three wars. They’ll support tax dodgers. They’ll support the wealthiest Americans getting tax breaks. They want to cut into education and health care. This is an ideological battle.


No, Jesse, this is not a Civil War fight. Retire, wouldya? Oh, and take Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton with you, please:

“We are absolutely outraged. This is the functional equivalent of bombing innocent civilians.”

No, ma’am, it is not.
Bonus Bachmann at Gateway Pundit.

Category: Blogging, Gateway Pundit, Michele Bachmann

GOP Hopefuls Will Halt No Whine Before Its Time

Posted on | April 8, 2011 | 3 Comments

by Smitty

Alternate title: “GOP Hopefuls Note Budget Gallipoli, Neglect To Engage”. Via Protein Wisdom, we have Charles Gasparino in the New York Post:

Sure, the candidates offered vague praise for Ryan after the plan’s release on Tuesday.

Mitt Romney said Ryan is “setting the right tone for finally getting spending and entitlements under control.” Tim Pawlenty cheered Ryan for “offering real leadership.”

In other words, nobody was willing to embrace the details. The closest was probable noncandidate Sarah Palin, who tweeted that it’s a “serious & necessary reform proposal.”

What makes this really disappointing is that I’ve been trying to get the GOP candidates to give their own views on how to grow the economy and tackle spending.

The Left will continue to tempt GOP candidates into self-immolation on the budget, whining and nattering to draw attention away from the Pennsylvania Avenue Leadership Vacuum. That’s who they are, that’s what they do. Unlike an election, which has a definite start time and is over relatively soon and with few surprises, unless your name is Kloppenberg, the budget and the larger entitlement/debt crisis is not going to be solved quickly and painlessly.
Golberg concludes, in response to Gasparino:

Sticking a wet finger into the political wind isn’t a leadership strategy, folks. It’s an election strategy — and it’s one that hasn’t proven too effective for conservatives, who seem to do best when they advocate principle rather than compromise, when they evince fidelity to ideology rather than a transparent feint to populism. And that’s what they need to do here, because Obama is too much an ideologue — and far too ego-driven — to tack to the center, as Laffer suggests. 

– He said, stinkbombing illogically and radically.

I say ‘Meh’. At CPAC10, I asked Rep. Mike Pence about Paul Ryan’s Roadmap, which was less-discussed then, back when Pence was a potential GOP presidential entry:
He did admit to knowing Ryan, but really got no firmer than that.
And why blame any general for balking at an unplanned engagement? Making a not-unreasonable assumption brings instant accusations from the usual suspects.
Furthermore, I’m not confident that “Obama is too much an ideologue — and far too ego-driven — to tack to the center”. I take the man at whatever face value he is offering at the moment. I wouldn’t accuse him of believing in anything (again, I accept his protestations of Christianity for what they are) except winning elections. If the calculus led him to the understanding that going so far left as to come full circle in a dramatic “libertarian breakthrough”, and that was his only perceived chance, do you think he’d balk like a GOP hopefuls on budget cuts? I don’t. Is that leadership? Only if you conflate backed-into-corner-desperation with leadership.

Category: Protein Wisdom

Kaine Down By 13 To Allen. It Is Time.
Cry ‘Havoc!’ And Let Slip Jim Moran.

Posted on | April 8, 2011 | 1 Comment

by Smitty

Roanoke College delivers some unhelpful news for Kaine. swacgirl notes:

Kaine did Virginians no favor as governor, and he has been closely associated with Democratic President Barack Obama’s liberal overreaching government policies including ObamaCare, something he claims to be proud of. In Virginia?

What to do? For the Democrats, there is only one Virginia politician to whom they can turn: ‘Gentleman’ Jim Moran.
No one *heh* else can *snort* turn this *cough* tide for the Dems! Run, Moran, run! Because your tender loving care of your constituents truly merits a statewide audience. How I wish I could have been there!

Category: Jim Moran, Virginia

Inventory The Pitchforks And Torches, And Stand By, Patriots

Posted on | April 8, 2011 | 2 Comments

by Smitty

The Blaze quotes Andy Stern as saying, in the context of the Constitutional layers of power, where authority is delegated to the federal government:

Now, however, in the midst of the transformative change of globalization and this third economic revolution, those layers have become an impediment to making the changes necessary to keep America competitive in the world economy. Today, America crawls along at a snail’s pace.

I got several thousand people scattered around the world who’ve sworn to support and defend those very ideas you besmirch, Mr. Stern. Your complaints are best phrased as a Constitutional Amendment. While not likely, it’s possible you’ve got a rounder wheel in mind. Step up to the plate and let your ideas be in PLAIN VIEW OF YOUR EQUALS, or you’re likely to encounter some tough sledding, sir.
A suspicious man might think you and cronies are planning some stealth overthrow of that Constitution, through, say, economic means. It behooves you to quell those suspicions stat, Mr. Stern.

Category: Uncategorized

Democrats Draw the Line, Will Shut Down Government Over Planned Parenthood

Posted on | April 8, 2011 | 8 Comments

In her 2006 book, Godless, Ann Coulter called abortion “the holiest sacrament” in the religion of liberalism. Democrats would rather shut down the federal government than de-fund Planned Parenthood:

Congressional budget negotiations broke up before dawn on Friday without an agreement, putting the government on a path to a shutdown when financing for federal agencies runs out at midnight. . . .
Democratic officials familiar with the negotiations said that proposed restrictions on money for Planned Parenthood remained the chief sticking point, and that attempts to resolve the disagreement through alternatives like allowing a separate floor vote on the issue had not been successful. . . .
Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, told reporters in an exchange broadcast on CNN Friday morning that “this all deals with women’s health” and that other issues had been resolved. . . .

Why is Harry so fanatically committed to baby-killing?

UPDATE: “Priorities: Obama’s commitment to funding abortion more important than paying military at war.”

Linked by Da Tech Guy — thanks!

UPDATE II: The following video was approved by the Democrat/MSM Talking-Point Coordination Committee:

Via Doug Ross who has a great “Shutdown Friday” roundup at Michelle Malkin’s site.

UPDATE III: This morning there was a brief flurry of “we have a deal” rumors, before it became clear that Democrats are insisting on a shutdown — so they can blame it on Republicans. Here is video of House Speaker John Boehner’s brief press statement today:

Via Ed Morrissey at Hot Air, who points out:

Here’s an idea: The Senate can pass a bill funding Planned Parenthood separately, so that federal subsidies for abortion mills don’t create a government shutdown, and let the House debate it straight up. Reid won’t do that because PP funding is not popular and such a rider might not even pass in the Senate.

Frankly, Harry Reid looks desperate. His strategy –making the shutdown about “women’s health” — is very transparently a strategy, based on Democratic Party electoral interests.

Category: Abortion, Budget, Harry Reid, Planned Parenthood

Libya: ‘Obama’s Worst Failure to Date’

Posted on | April 8, 2011 | 6 Comments

That’s the subject of my latest American Spectator column:

Scarcely three weeks after the U.S. military launched Operation Odyssey Dawn, the war in Libya is beginning to look like President Obama’s worst failure to date. While official Washington and the political press have been focused on budget negotiations and the prospect of a federal government shutdown, a foreign-policy disaster has been slowly unfolding in the deserts of the North African nation that Col. Moammar Gaddafi has ruled for more than four decades.
It was more than a month ago, during a March 3 press conference, that Obama declared his intent to “send a clear message: the violence must stop; Muammar Gaddafi has lost the legitimacy to lead and he must leave.” Gaddafi hasn’t left yet, nor has the 68-year-old dictator indicated any intention of leaving any time soon, and the military actions of the United States and our allies do not seem calculated to force Gaddafi from power.
Least of all does Gaddafi’s continued rule seem jeopardized by the poorly armed and ill-organized Libyan rebels. . . .

Please read the whole thing.

Category: Barack Obama, Libya

Climate Change Consenseless Goes Down In The House

Posted on | April 8, 2011 | 1 Comment

by Smitty (h/t Pirate’s Cove)

Lawmakers voted 184-240 against Rep. Henry Waxman’s (D-Calif.) amendment to a GOP-led bill that would strip the Environmental Protection Agency’s power to regulate greenhouse gases.

The amendment from Waxman — the top Democrat on the Energy and Commerce Committee — reflects Democratic efforts to cast the bill as an outrageous trampling of scientific consensus.

No sympathy for Waxman here. The only outrageous trampling going on here is the public trust. One wishes one could trust the government by default, but these ‘pariah dogs and wandering madmen‘ have completely exhausted their credibility.
Note to the Left: you’re going to have to focus on rebuilding that credibility first, or face increasing ridicule.

An exit question. Who is silliest, then: Waxman, Capps, or the state of California for afflicting us with them?

Category: Blogging, Ed Driscoll
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