Democrats
Power or American Safety

Posted by TOM BEVAN

March 21, 2008

Full article Tom Bevan Real Clear Politics

Excerpts:

Reader Mark L. sends through an email that is spot on in pointing out something most people seem to be missing: the crucial importance of North Carolina in determining the outcome of the Democratic primary. He writes:

I think many commentators are missing the significance of the this contest - and its potential to determine the outcome of the Democratic race.

Hillary Clinton can only win the nomination by a fundamental re-thinking of the race that allows super-delegates to move her direction despite the popular appeal of Obama and the political peril of denying the first black candidate for President the nomination.

Club For Growth

Spitzer's Supply-Side Successor

Andrew Roth

Well, I wouldn't call him a supply-sider yet, but I like what he's saying. From the New York Post:

Raising taxes isn't the way to go right now, Gov. [David] Paterson said yesterday, joining Mayor Bloomberg in opposing a plan by Democrats in the Assembly to boost taxes on the rich.

"I think that the foremost area that we want to address is to tighten our belts, not to drive up taxes for a constituency that has been - I would say - battered over the past number of years," Paterson said during a City Hall press conference with Bloomberg.

POLITICO

Ben Smith

Do-over is dead'

The headline from MIRS, Michigan's Hotline:

Ding-Dong, Do-Over Primary Is Dead

Excerpts: "Time of death for the do-over Michigan primary? Call it at about 11 a.m. today."

A Lansing insider IMs to explain the latest development:

The Senate Dems just had a long caucus meeting following their long phone call with the Gang of Four [as Carl Levin and others pushing a re-vote are called], and the result is that no one moved. Votes aren't there. Thus, it will not go to a vote in the Senate. And barring some other last minute miracle that doesn't involve those four, the governor and Hillary traveling to Michigan, it is dead as a doornail.

UPDATE: State Sen. Tupac Hunter, an Obama supporter, confirms the outcome of today's meeting.

"The caucus has expressed again today that there is concern about the proposal and a great deal of unreadiness," he said, saying that sentiment is still "overwhelming."

Full article Ben Smith Politico

TIME/CNN

Clinton's Hopes for Florida Fade

By Mark Halperin

Full article Mark Halperin TIME/CNN

Excerpts:

Monday's decision by Florida Democrats to abandon their efforts to hold a new primary, in order to get their delegation seated at the national party's August convention, is another blow to Hillary Clinton's attempt to close the small but near-impregnable delegate gap on her rival, Barack Obama. And she's having little more luck in Michigan.

Clinton won January primaries in both states. But since both were held in violation of national party rules, the state parties were told their delegates would not be seated and the races were not officially contested. (Obama even pulled his name off the Michigan ballot.) Now, however, Clinton sees the two states as key to her flickering hopes of catching Obama. The Illinois Senator, unsurprisingly, has opposed any revote or reconsideration of the January results in either state, though his campaign is open to a neutral solution that would give each candidate half of the states' delegates — a solution that would effectively have no impact on the outcome.

With just a handful of contests left on the nominating calendar, Clinton needs all the opportunities she can get to pick up delegates, and thus she has supported either counting the initial results or, alternatively, holding new votes. She is also hoping that her clean wins in the two important states would buttress her argument that her victories over Obama in most of the nation's largest states suggests she would be a stronger opponent against the Republicans' presumed nominee, Arizona Senator John McCain.

POLITICO

Obama, Clinton Brace For Deadlock

By JONATHAN MARTIN & MIKE ALLEN

Full article JONATHAN MARTIN & MIKE ALLEN Politico

Excerpts:

The Democratic race has entered its World War I phase, a bloody fight between two adversaries making only the most incremental of gains. And there is no reason to think either side will emerge from the trenches anytime soon.

There are 10 scheduled contests left, but thanks to proportional allocation, not enough pledged delegates to be had for either Barack Obama or Hillary Rodham Clinton to clinch the nomination. And, because of increasingly firm demographic voting trends, it appears to be a foregone conclusion who will capture most of the remaining states.

So on June 3, when South Dakota and Montana end the current voting calendar, the contours of the race aren't likely to be much different from what they are today.

From: Townhall.Com

The Costs of Crime

By Thomas Sowell

Full article Thomas Sowell Townhall.com

Excerpts:

For more than two centuries, the political left has been preoccupied with the fate of criminals, often while ignoring or downplaying the fate of the victims of those criminals.

So it is hardly surprising that a recent New York Times editorial has returned to a familiar theme among those on the left, on both sides of the Atlantic, with its lament that "incarceration rates have continued to rise while crime rates have fallen."

Back in 1997, New York Times writer Fox Butterfield expressed the same lament under the headline, "Crime Keeps on Falling, But Prisons Keep on Filling." Then, as now, liberals seemed to find it puzzling that crime rates go down when more criminals are put behind bars.

Do Democrats get it when it comes to Hugo Chávez? As Chavez was rattling his war threats against Colombia, Congress was cooperating by possibly giving him a huge strategic victory by rejecting Colombia's free trade efforts with the U.S.

Democrats never seem to see anything wrong with Chávez's behavior. He is in the middle of the direction Latin America will take regarding politics and economics. He wants the region to go the same route as his country by taking greater state control of the economy, just as the Marxists Democrats have been doing here wherever and whenever they can for decades, while assisting U.S. enemies wherever he can. He's won over Bolivia and Ecuador.

Meanwhile, Colombian President Álvaro Uribe who has been a great friend of the U.S. and fully deserves our support and a free-trade agreement is teated almost with disdain by Democrats, who are totally owned by unions and hate the competiton and benefits that free trade and lower prices bring to American consumers.

Townhall.com

Liberty Versus Socialism

By Walter E. Williams

Wednesday, March 6, 2008

Full article Walter Williams Townhall.Com

Excerpts:

A fortnight ago, I wrote about Mississippi Legislature House Bill 282 that would have imposed fines or revoked licenses of food establishments that served obese people. Fortunately, the measure died in committee. State Rep. Ted Mayhall, one of the bill's sponsors, justified it by saying that he wanted to bring attention to the fact that "Obesity makes people more susceptible to diabetes, which puts a further strain on the state's financially-challenged Medicaid program."

His sentiments were expressed by quite a few readers who didn't necessarily support such a measure but opined that if a particular behavior or lifestyle imposed costs on others through tax-supported health care, the government had a right to intercede.

Similar justification was used for laws requiring helmets for motorcyclists and bicyclists. After all, if one exercises his liberty to ride without a helmet, and has an accident and becomes a vegetable, society has to bear the expense of taking care of him. The fact that an obese person becomes ill, or a cyclist has an accident, and becomes a burden on taxpayers who must bear the expense of taking care of him, is not a problem of liberty. It's a problem of socialism where one person is forced to take care of another. There is no moral argument that justifies using the coercive powers of government to force one person to bear the expense of taking care of another. If that person is too resolute in his refusal to do so, what is the case for imposing fines, imprisonment or death?

From: The Office of the United States Trade Representative

To USTR

NAFTA demonstrates the benefits trade can bring to all countries. When NAFTA was implemented 10 years ago, it created the world’s largest free trade area, which now links 426 million people in an area which produces more than $12 trillion worth of goods and services.

During the past decade, NAFTA partners have been conducting business within a framework that is extremely open, governed by clear rules and accessible enforcement mechanisms, with the goal of greater economic integration and cooperation. Some examples of NAFTA’s success:

INCREASED EXPORTS AND INVESTMENT FLOWS

● All member economies have grown significantly from 1993-2003:

· United States: 38% economic growth

· Canada: 30.9% growth

· Mexico: 30% growth

● U.S. exports to Canada and Mexico grew from US$134.3 billion (US$46.5 billion to Mexico and US$87.8 billion to Canada) to US$250.6 billion (US$105.4 and US$145.3 billion respectively).

● Mexican exports to the United States reached over US$138 billion, while Mexican exports to Canada grew from US$2.7 billion to US$8.7 billion, an increase of almost 227%.

● Canada’s exports to its NAFTA partners increased by 104% in value.

INCREASED TOTAL TRADE AND BROADER ECONOMIC TRENDS

Representing a free trade area with about one-third of the world’s total GDP, the NAFTA economies are significantly larger than that of the European Union. Even with the addition of ten new members, the EU’s GDP will still be well behind that of the NAFTA region.

● The dismantling of trade barriers and opening of markets have led to economic growth and rising prosperity in the United States, Mexico and Canada.

● The total volume of trade among the three NAFTA partners expanded from $289.3 billion in 1993 to $623.1 billion in 2003.

● Each day NAFTA countries conduct nearly $1.7 billion in trilateral trade.

● In the ten years since NAFTA, productivity rose 28% in the United States from 1993 to 2003, in Mexico up 55% and in Canada up 23%.

Democrats

BENEFITS FOR ALL NAFTA PARTNERS

UNITED STATES

● In the first decade of NAFTA, U.S. manufacturing output soared, U.S. employment grew, and U.S. manufacturing wages increased dramatically.

● Income gains and tax cuts from NAFTA were worth up to $930 each year for the average US household of four.

MEXICO

● Wages in export-related industries are 37% higher than the rest of its economy. Mexican wages and employment tend to be higher in states with higher foreign investment and trade, and migration from those states is lower. Wages are also higher in sectors with more exposure to imports or exports.

● Two-way agricultural trade between the United States and Mexico increased more than 125% since NAFTA went into effect, reaching $14.2 billion in 2003 compared to $6.2 billion in 1993.

CANADA

● Merchandise exports to the United States expanded by 250% since 1989 and account for 87.2% of Canada’s total merchandise exports.

● Foreign Direct Investment in the finance and insurance industry accounted for 36% of Canadian FDI in Mexico in 2001, while not even registering in 1989.

Democrats

PROGRESS FOR ENVIRONMENT AND LABOR

Through the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation, NAFTA partners promote enforcement of environmental laws.

● Through the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), which was created from the NAFTA, all three countries have benefited from coordination which is increasing the effectiveness of North American conservation efforts by:

- Developing common priorities for the protection of certain species

- Developing North American Conservation Action Plans for three shared marine species

- Providing tools such as a map of terrestrial ecoregions which management agencies are using in their programs

- Setting out common mechanisms for planning and monitoring bird conservation programs

● The NAFTA also establishes institutions and creates a formal process through which the public may raise concerns about labor law enforcement directly with governments. NAFTA partners have undertaken a wide-range of cooperative programs and technical exchanges on industrial relations, occupational safety and health, child labor, gender equality, and protection of migrant workers.

Statistics based on import data from partner countries. For more information, please visit our websites:

United States: http://www.ustr.gov Mexico: http://www.economia.gob.mxCanada: http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca

By Ken Dilanian, USA TODAY

Full article To Ken Dilanian USA Today

Excerpts:

WASHINGTON — Both Democratic presidential candidates, who promise to curb the influence of corporate lobbyists in Washington, helped enact narrowly tailored tax breaks sought by major campaign contributors.

Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign has accepted $54,350 from members of a law firm that in 2006 lobbied him to introduce a tax provision for a Japanese drug company with operations in Illinois, according to public records and interviews. The government estimates the provision, which became law in December 2006, will cost the treasury $800,000.

In 2002, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton introduced legislation at the request of Rienzi & Sons, a Queens, N.Y., food importer, according to company president Michael Rienzi. The provision, which became law in December 2004, required the government to refund tens of thousands of dollars in duty charged on imported tomato products, Rienzi told USA TODAY.

A satellite met a fiery end late Wednesday night -- destroyed by a U.S. missile-defense interceptor.

This was a big step forward concerning missile defense. Democrats have argued for years that missile defense couldn't be done.

Now they are doing their usual spin of turning good news into bad news especially when it come to keeping America strong.

Democrats don't like that because they look for every bit of negative news they can find in every area they can find.

Democrats always want to expand government and make as many people as possible, dependent on government.

We shot down the satellite because it had a full, 1,000-pound tank of toxic rocket fuel that there was some slim chance could fall on a populated area when it re-entered the atmosphere in a few weeks. Now, the hydrazine fuel appears to have burned up in an explosion in space, and small pieces of the 5,000-pound satellite -- about the size of a school bus -- will fall harmlessly to Earth. Their was only about a 30 second window for the timing. The speeds involved were astounding.

The Chinese lashed out angrily. Some countries do similar things, but when others have successes like this, they are quick to condemn it.

###

CNN Correspondent Asks 'Where We Are in This Recession'

From: Business & Media Institute

By Jeff Poor

2/14/2008 11:58:23 AM

Full article To Jeff Poor-Business & Media Institute

Excerpts:

Recession hasn’t been officially determined, but that didn’t matter to CNN’s Senior Business correspondent on "American Morning."

Velshi offered viewers a preview of an appearance by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke before the Senate Banking Committee on February 14.

“[T]here are going to be a lot of questions they’re going to get from senators,” Velshi said. “They’re going to be asked obviously about where we are in this recession, what can be done about it.”

However, the U.S. economy has yet to meet the official technical definition of a recession – defined as two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth, an important distinction the media often ignore or dismiss.

Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., was the most liberal senator in 2007, according to National Journal's 27th annual vote ratings. The presidential candidate was further to the left last year than in the previous year. In the prior year he was the 16th- and 10th-most-liberal during his first two years in the Senate.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., the only remaining candidate in the Democratic presidential race, also shifted to the left last year.

She was the 16th-most-liberal senator in the 2007 ratings, based on 99 key Senate votes, selected by NJ reporters and editors, to place every senator on a liberal-to-conservative scale in each of three issue categories. In 2006, Clinton was the 32nd-most-liberal senator.

The following excerpts are from The American Civil Rights Union.

To visit that site and read the complete article see the link below.

The facts for this comment, but not the legal conclusions, come from an article published in the Minnesota Monitor on 25 September.

The Minnesota prosecutors have filed their response to the plea by Senator Larry Craig's attorneys filed in an effort to have his entered and accepted guilty plea withdrawn in the airport sex investigation arrest.

Contrary to the Senator's allegation that he was "rushed" or "pressured" to plead guilty, the reply notes that he pleaded guilty by mail. This allowed maximum time and opportunity for the Senator to consider whether to plead guilty to the lesser charge.

Also, the prosecutor who handled the case notes that he talked directly to the Senator several times at the Senator's request.

At no time, claims the prosecutor, did the Senator express any upset or concern about his guilty plea until after it had been accepted, put in place, but then was discovered by the national press.

Larry Craig's effort to have his guilt struck from the record may fail on the record, and never get to a hearing.

But, if there is a hearing, the Senator must be a witness to testify about his "misunderstanding," or "pressure," in making his plea. Among the questions this writer thinks the judge should act in such a hearing, are these:

How long have you been a Member of the House, and then a Senator? While you were a Member of Congress, did you not participate actively and regularly in writing federal laws?

Did you understand the laws you were writing over those decades? Did you experience times of pressure and urgency in that process?

American Civil Rights Union

From Newsmax.com

Pelosi's Hypocrisy Exposed

Dick Morris and Eileen McGann Monday, June 11, 2007

The son of former House Speaker Dennis Hastert moved to Washington when his father became speaker and landed a lush lobbying contract for Google.

When Nancy Pelosi was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives, she promised to change things -- to enact serious, and long overdue, ethical reforms -- to stop the growing trend of legislators and their families accepting gifts, trips, and jobs from lobbyists and corporations.

Well, some things never change.

Democrats latest

Several days ago, NewsMax.com disclosed that in February, shortly after his mother became the first woman speaker, Paul Pelosi Jr., was hired by InfoUSA for $180,000 a year as its vice president for Strategic Planning. Pelosi also kept his other full-time day job as a mortgage loan officer for Countrywide Loans in California. And, unlike all of the other InfoUSA employees, he did not report to work at the company's headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska.

InfoUSA is the same company that has been cited by the New York Times for creating marketing lists that were used by con artists to fleece vulnerable elderly people. The lists had provocative names and offered the names of elderly people with cancer, elderly people with Alzheimer's and gamblers over 55 years of age who think their luck will change. After purchasing the lists, the con artists would call and convince the elderly person that they had actually ordered an expensive item. Once they received the victim's financial information, they often emptied their bank accounts, leaving many people penniless. Some of InfoUSA's internal e-mails suggest that company employees were aware that several of the companies they sold the lists to were under investigation.

And InfoUSA is also the same company that Bill Clinton works for as a consultant, and for which the former president was paid $3.3 million over the past five years. In addition, the Clintons got $900,000 worth of free travel.

Pelosi insisted that the unusual job opportunity had nothing to do with his relationship with his famous and influential mother. He just sent in an application for a job and they hired him.

Of course.

History seems to be repeating itself here. For the past several years, Josh Hastert, the son of former Republican Speaker Dennis Hastert, was a registered lobbyist for Google. What were his qualifications for lobbying for such a huge and influential company? Well, to put it bluntly, he had good connections.

Before entering the world of corporate lobbying, Josh ran a music store in northern Illinois. But he decided that he could make more money and work less in Washington. And apparently, he was right.

Although Pelosi's son is not lobbying Congress, the unorthodox payment of such a large fee for a second job to someone with no experience at all in the basic business of InfoUSA -- managing data and creating marketing lists -- should certainly raise eyebrows. (Also note, that this job offer came immediately after his mother became speaker.)

And, furthermore, it is likely that Congress will eventually address privacy issues involved with the selling of data that InfoUSA sells. Pelosi would be directly involved in that legislation, and her son should not be involved with the company in any way. In addition, the company apparently sells voter lists that could be extremely valuable to the Democratic Party and could mean lucrative contracts for Infousa.

And then, there's the issue of what InfoUSA does and how its president operates.

Several members of Congress have asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Infousa and its clients.

The chairman of InfoUSA, Vin Gupta, is a large donor to Democratic candidates. Minority shareholders have questioned his payments to Bill Clinton and his gifts of free travel to Hillary. The shareholders claim that Gupta has been improperly using corporate resources to further his own political goals. Gupta gave over $1 million to the Clinton Library and $2 million towards Hillary Clinton's $16 million millennium New Year's Eve Party.

Democrats and the Lincoln bedroom

So, there's no question that Gupta likes to be close to the powerful. He's stayed in the Lincoln bedroom and hosted the Clintons on a $146,000 vacation trip to Acapulco on his corporate jet. Lately, Pelosi's son has been accompanying Gupta on his jet. He claims that it's been strictly business and is nothing like the Clinton situation.

His payment to Pelosi's son can only be viewed as an investment and should be stopped.

Nancy Pelosi should put on her "mother of five" voice that she brags about and tell her son to go back to his day job.

Labor Day marks the kickoff for the electoral season. Republicans and Democrats will really square off.

Republicans will continue to give a high priority to politics for politics sake, every bit as much as Democrats.

There is however, a vital difference in which party’s actions will give a priority to the safety of Americans and the American way of life.

___________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

Democrats

The whole Republican platform toward the war on terror has favored a get tough and stay tough policy, with as much safety for Americans and the least consideration for the terrorists, as the law allows.

In the area of individual rights, citizens of the United Kingdom do not have as much protection as Americans do, yet its citizens are solidly behind the government to do its job effectively, still trusting the democratic ideals that exist there just as they do in America. We’ve seen the results. The job gets done, citizens still maintain solid rights.

The American electorate knows that hatred for George Bush has driven Democrats to put politics far above safety, up to this point.

Now today we hear a report that “A stick of dynamite was found in a college student's checked luggage on a Continental Airlines flight from Argentina to Houston.

In other recent incidents:

-An American Airlines flight from England to Chicago was forced to land in Bangor, Maine, after federal officials "learned of a reported threat," FBI spokeswoman Gail Marcinkiewicz said. Some people on board said a fellow passenger was handcuffed and placed in a police car as they were leaving the jetliner.

Marcinkiewicz said no one was arrested but declined to say if anyone from the flight out of Manchester was in custody.

-A US Airways jet was diverted to Oklahoma City's Will Rogers World Airport after a federal air marshal subdued a disruptive passenger who had pushed a flight attendant, the FBI said.

The passenger was undergoing a mental evaluation, and authorities had yet to determine what criminal charges he might face. The twin-engine jet returned to flight three hours later on its trip from Phoenix to Charlotte, N.C.

-A Continental Airlines flight from Corpus Christi, Texas, to Bakersfield, Calif., was held in El Paso, one of its scheduled stops, after the crew discovered a missing panel in the lavatory, authorities said. Passengers were being screened and interviewed, Amy von Walter of the Transportation Security Administration said

-A utility knife was found on a vacant passenger seat of a US Airways flight that had traveled from Philadelphia to Bradley International Airport in Connecticut, state police said.

No arrests were made and there were no threats involved, said Master Sgt. J. Paul Vance, state police spokesman. He said it was unknown Friday whether a worker inadvertently left the knife on the plane or a passenger brought it on.

-An Aer Lingus flight from New York to Dublin was evacuated Friday morning during a scheduled stopover in western Ireland following a bomb threat that turned out to be unfounded, officials said.

-A United Airlines flight out of Chicago's O'Hare International Airport was delayed because a small boy said something inappropriate, according to a government official speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information. "He didn't want to fly," the official said."

Since incidents like these are coming with more and more frequency, safety measures must move to the top of every congressman’s list, even in the period leading up to the elections.

We can all appreciate the importance of reelection to each congressmen-of either party and we recognize the effort it requires and deserves.

But it cannot replace everything else.

So criticize the handling of Iraq and the war on terror and other mistakes of the incumbent party, but let us hear some serious talk, from Democrats, about congressional action to improve security, thus, the safety of Americans.

Democrats To Editorials