by Smitty
I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that Charles Krauthammer isn’t a huge Ray Stevens fan:
‘No Serious Leader Since Has Called For Its Repeal’
by Smitty
Charles Krauthammer offers a stream of wonderful insights. Hopefully, news of this post can reach up into his study and tease a bit of follow-up from him on a point in his recent Real Clear Politics piece:
The rotation of power is the finest political instrument ever invented for the consolidation of what were once radical and deeply divisive policies. The classic example is the New Deal. Republicans railed against it for 20 years. Then Dwight Eisenhower came to power, wisely left it intact, and no serious leader since has called for its repeal.
Sure, the New Deal has the weight of decades behind it. Also, an unsustainable funding profile. Furthermore, to throw out a counterfactual, I daresay that, had the Internet existed at the time, FDR would be having as much success passing the New Deal as BHO is with ObamaCare. Maybe FDR would have better success, as the abject foolishness of Federal entitlements took a parade of decades and buffoons to get rolling.
So, my questions for CK are:
- What, if any, meaning do you ascribe to the 10th Amendment?
- Why do you think allowing something to exist with such arguably deleterious effects is “wise”?
- Why do you think driving the American political dialogue back in the direction of the genius of Federalism is an “unserious” act?
- Do you think running chronic and worsening deficits, and unpayable national debt is ethical, moral and sustainable? How much wife beating is “enough”?
For the record, I submit that FDR’s free-basing of the Constitution in his 1944 SOU speech was monstrous. It was the political equivalent of the snake in the Garden saying “Hath God said . . . ?” Legislation like the Federal Reserve Act, the Nude Eel, the Great Society, etc. can always claim tactical victory.
Yet now, decades later, they seem a cure worse than the disease from a strategic vantage. They have altered the fabric of the country. They have arguably brought tactical improvement, but, strategically, seem icing on a turd, at least in retrospect.
So, apparently because of the weight of tradition, realistic of assessment of societal maturity, or the ridiculous political effort required to do anything besides play along, CK deems leaders who’d threaten the status quo “unserious”.
It remains to be seen if, like a junkie kicking the needle, America can muster the fortitude to alter course.
While I don’t think outright repeal seriously possible, I do think it reasonable to call the Progressive bluff, and poke them with the 1oth Amendment at every turn. Because Progressivism, like a mold, worked its way around the very protections meant to precludes its foolishness.
And serious leaders who can articulate a means to escape the pit of debt and entitlement bondage need to be identified and supported. CK reminds me of George Will. Possibly anything resembling vigor is simply too much to ask of the gentlemen.
Update: Mommy took umbrage at this post. I’ve gone back and bolded a point at the end, and want to re-iterate that TANSTAAFL, and that it will take something more than a serious leader, a full-on genius of a statesman (or -woman) to drain this Progressive swamp. The 10th Amendment was a front-end interlock meant to preclude things like the current Federal over-reach and debt. It is far too simple a statement to do more than inform reform.
Pelosi and Proctology
They do have something in common, as Jeff Goldstein observes:
Oh, there’s some ramming going on all right.
Bend over, America. And cough.
Trust us. It’s for your own good…
Any resemblance between your sphincter and Nancy Pelosi’s face is purely coincidental.
The N.Y.C. Taxi-Driver Jihad
If you can’t crash jetliners into their skyscrapers, at least scam the infidel dogs out of some extra cab fare:
About 3,000 New York City taxi drivers routinely overcharged riders over two years by surreptitiously fixing their meters to charge rates that would normally apply only to trips outside the five boroughs, according to the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission.
The drivers’ scheme, the commission said, involved 1.8 million rides and cost passengers an average of $4 to $5 extra per trip . . . costing New York City riders a total of $8.3 million. . . .
The commission said it began an inquiry after investigators, responding to a rider’s complaint, determined that a cab driver from Brooklyn, Wasim Khalid Cheema, had overcharged 574 passengers in just one month last year. Mr. Cheema’s license has been revoked. He could not be reached for comment. . . .
Probably because Wasim is now somewhere in a cave in Waziristan, teaching taxi-meter terrorism tactics to other al-Qaeda cabbies, who are no doubt dreaming of becoming Jamie Paulin-Ramirez’s next husband.
Flaming Massa Japes Redefine Absurdity
by Smitty
This week’s FMJRA salutes Rep. ‘Burnout Over Fade Away’ Massa, who went from obscurity to celebrity to ignobility with stunning brevity.
Continue reading Flaming Massa Japes Redefine Absurdity →
A Rhetorical Question, We Presume
“Isn’t It Time To Euthanize Reid’s Wife?”
Dan Riehl certainly knows how to provoke Alan Colmes to paroxysms of self-righteous indignation — a praiseworthy project in itself, quite apart from getting written up by the thought-police at Media Matters.
Speaking of euthanization, we earlier mentioned the March 16 Stop ObamaCare 2.0 event in D.C., which aims to put a merciful end to this legislative abomination. Michelle Malkin publishes a list of the key targets of the event.
UPDATE: “Dan’s a snarky bastard” — and I’m sure Tabitha Hale means that as a compliment. Just like Nancy Pelosi meant this as a compliment to unborn babies:
Well, the family planning services reduce cost. They reduce cost. The states are in terrible fiscal budget crises now and part of what we do for children’s health, education and some of those elements are to help the states meet their financial needs. One of those – one of the initiatives you mentioned, the contraception, will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government.
Tea Party Express III: Fear and Loathing — and Ann Coulter! — in Las Vegas
BUMPED & UPDATED! SUNDAY MARCH 28: We were linked by Her Blondeness yesterday. Unfortunately, security at the Vegas event was so tight that I didn’t get to say “Hello” to her, although I did get to wave at her personal bodyguard, Floyd — shortly before two Las Vegas police officers pulled me aside and frisked me for weapons.
To explain: There was a “no media” policy at the Vegas event — absolutely no reporters allowed inside, and no audio or video recording permitted. Event organizers had not been told to make an exception for Miss Coulter’s personal friends (I scored an e-mail interview with her last week), and so I was forced to resort to pure gonzo methods. Hiding my press credentials in my pocket and tucking my notebook under my arm inside my coat, I stood in line for general admission and prayed I didn’t get searched at the gate.
Alan Choate from the Las Vegas Review-Journal did the same thing, as did at least one other reporter for a major news organization whose identity I cannot reveal due to the admittedly bizarre ethical obligations of our mutual craft). However, I can reveal that I managed to get close to the stage before Ann’s speech, until one of the event volunteers told me I had to leave the “VIP” area. Drat.
When the speech started, I had my digital micro-recorder going (hidden in my hand, which I kept down by my right side) and moved as close to the stage as I could without infringing the “VIP” zone. Floyd the bodygard was at stage left with a wire in his ear, and I managed to catch his attention by waving. That was just about the time my posture and my erratic movements attracted the attention of two LVPD officers. From their vantage point, it looked from a certain angle as if I might have a gun, and I was escorted to the back of the amphitheater where I was beaten with nightsticks, pepper-sprayed and repeatedly tasered . . .
Just kidding. Although I was scared out of my wits, fearing that I would be ejected and my recorder confiscated, once I flashed my press credentials and the cops learned that the bulge in my coat wasn’t a 9mm in a shoulder holster — that I was merely a journalist, not a dangerously deranged psycho like Dylan Ratigan or Keith Olbermann — they lightened up considerably and apologized for the inconvenience.
As a matter of fact, the police never even saw the digital recorder, which I managed to hide in my pocket before they could frisk me, and the recorder was on throughtout my frightening ordeal, so that the entire incident is now preserved on digital audio. I haven’t uploaded or transcribed the audio yet, but when I do you’ll cleary hear one of the cops ask me, “Is that a digital recorder in your pocket . . . or are you just happy to see Ann Coulter?”
ORIGINAL POST, MARCH 13: Yes, you heard that right: Her Blondeness will be in the Las Vegas area March 27 at the Henderson Pavillion:
Grassroots Nevada is pleased to present Ann Coulter for our Saturday, March 27th event in Henderson / Las Vegas. . . .
Ms. Coulter will only be here in Henderson at the Grassroots Nevada event prior to the arrival of the Tea Party Express. The event for Las Vegas will be at the Henderson Pavilion; Gates open at 3:15 pm and show begins at 3:45 pm!
This event is part of the Tea Party Express III tour, which kicks off that morning in Harry Reid’s hometown of Searchlight, Nevada:
Join us for the biggest Tea Party Express national tour to date. Starting March 27, 2010 with a Mega Rally in Searchlight, NV (hometown to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid) we will take this message across the nation all the way to the White House in Washington, D.C. on April 15th:
“You, the politicians in Washington, have failed We The People with your bailouts, out-of-control deficit spending, government takeovers of sectors of the economy, Cap & Trade, government-run health care, and higher taxes! If you thought we were just going to quietly go away, or that this tea party movement would be just a passing fad, you were mistaken. We’re taking our country back!”
Here’s the video:
OK, people, here we go. I’ve been planning a trip out West to cover the Senate campaigns against Harry Reid and John McCain, and this chance is too perfect to miss.
After Vegas, the Tea Party Express goes to Phoenix, Arizona, which is home to our good friend, Barbara Espinosa of American Freedom blog. So I can party with our good friend Ann — who is not a stuck-up douchebag like Ross Douthat — and then go check out Barbara’s good friend, J.D. Hayworth.
This is the kind of journalistic expedition that the Shoe Leather Fund has made possible in the past. It’s 2,341 miles to Searchlight, Nev. — 38 hours if I were to drive it non-stop — but Smitty tells me that flights to Vegas are cheap, so maybe I’ll leave the 2004 KIA Optima at home for this trip. Driving or flying, either way it looks like an extraordinarily gonzo trip.
We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something like “I feel a bit lightheaded; maybe you should drive….” And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car, which was going about a hundred miles an hour with the top down to Las Vegas. . . .
— Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Now all we need is a red Chevy convertible.
Surprise! Sandinista Stooge Jim Wallis Endorses Socialist ObamaCare Bill
Being a student of Cold War history comes in handy when you see a misleading headline like this:
Pro-life group urges Congress
to pass Senate health care bill
“Pro-life group,” my butt. Go down the list of names on that petition, do a little research and you discover that these are all advocates of “social justice,” including notorious anti-American “liberation theology” types like Jim Wallis of Sojourners:
Writing in the November 1983 issue of Sojourners, ministry leaders Jim Wallis and Jim Rice drafted what would become the charter of leftist activists committed to the proliferation of Communist revolutions in Central America. Titled “Promise of Resistance,” this document called on activists to carry out various acts of civil disobedience in order to obstruct any attempt by the United States to invade Nicaragua. CISPES, the propaganda arm of El Salvador’s Marxist guerrilla movement, was invited by Sojourners to participate in acts of resistance in the event of American military intervention. Nearly 70,000 activists signed the document, which was sent to Congress, President Reagan, the Defense Department, and the CIA.
Steadfast advocates of the nuclear freeze movement, Sojourners members maintained that a U.S. nuclear buildup was “an intolerable evil” irreconcilably at odds with Christian teaching, and that “[t]he Reagan Administration remains the chief obstacle to the first step in stopping the arms race.” While assailing the Reagan administration’s defense buildup, Sojourners activists downplayed the threat posed by the Soviet Union, chastising U.S. policy-makers for their tendency “to assume the very worst about their Soviet counterparts.”
If you don’t know that the “nuclear freeze” movement in the West was an anti-American propaganda campaign actively supported by the Soviets — see this 2001 Accuracy in Media report for background — you may not understand the profound significance of that single data point. But you can still probably understand the significance of this:
Sojourners is a member organization of the Win Without War and United for Peace and Justice anti-war coalitions. It condemns the Guantanamo Bay detention center, where several hundred terrorist suspects are being held by the U.S. government. Said the Sojourners website on June 10, 2005:
“Guantanamo Bay has become not only a symbol of the U.S. government’s hypocrisy and dishonesty — or ‘disassembling,’ as President Bush might put it — around the war on terror. The prison camp has become one of the more egregious examples of the cost of unaccountable power. Human rights groups have long documented the abuse of prisoners at Guantanamo, including desecration of the Quran. … The 540 prisoners at the facility have been held incommunicado, denied access to legal counsel, and, in fact, denied the most basic aspects of legal process. … Guantanamo should be closed. But simply closing the facility — and either moving the detainees to another location or returning them to their country of origin — is not enough. If the United States is to regain any credibility as an advocate of human rights around the world, it must begin to practice what it preaches in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Guantanamo, and everywhere else. The erosion of respect for human rights by U.S. personnel didn’t begin at Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo Bay, and the responsibility for it goes all the way to the top.”
Sojourners also gets funding from George Soros’ “Open Society” foundation. Sojourners and Wallis were pro-Soviet during the Cold War. They are pro-Obama now.
Their anti-American, anti-capitalist agenda remains the same.
UPDATE: Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit has more background on the signatories.
UPDATE II: Left Coast Rebel links with more.
UPDATE III: Dad29 points to the heterodox tendencies of another signatory, Marquette University professor Bryan Massingale.
Exit question: What’s up with the editors of the National Catholic Reporter publishing propaganda for these clowns? I’m not Catholic, so I don’t particularly care what the answer is, but it seems like a question worth asking.