A Tale Of Two Scoundrels

We have come to accept such low standards in our politicians that recent disclosures have made hardly a ripple in the news. Republican Senator John Ensign, Nevada, admitted to an affair with a married staffer, yet there is no talk of him stepping down. I know what he admitted to is not illegal, but it is highly offensive given his positions regarding marriage and faith. Democrat Senator Dick Durbin, Illinois, sold $100,000 worth of stock one day after a closed door meeting with Federal Reserve and Treasury officials. Martha Stewart can tell you that is insider trading and lands you in jail. Durbin doesn't see anything wrong with his actions.... is anybody home at the SEC? Every two years, We the People get to fire all the bums in the House, and fire one third of the bums in the Senate, yet voter turnout on our most important day of responsibility to the Republic averages 37%! That means that 63% of eligible voters are so happy with the status quo that they can't be bothered to spend a few minutes helping reform our government. We only have ourselves to blame.

GM+Government=Fascism

We have plunged into the abyss of a new Dark Age to paraphrase Winston Churchill. By seizing control of GM, and coercing other major corporations to follow the "green economy" model for the future, the government has created the conditions for a new fascism replacing a relatively free market economy. As the CEO of GE recently said in a letter to shareholders: "in the future the government will be promoter, partner, and financier for the private sector." If past performance is a predictor of future results, we can hope to be at least as successful using this model as many western European countries have been in the last 50 years. If shared misery, stagnant growth, and rationed healthcare are our Nation's goals, we are well on our way.

Pondering Pandering

As the GOP wanders the wilderness searching for it's identity, the temptation is great to sink into demographics politics and special interest pandering for votes. This would clearly spell disaster for the party. Only by showing reverence for the Constitution and Declaration of Independence can the GOP return to the powerful message of Reagan, the last conservative President. As many have pointed out, Republicans don't need to move left, they only need to draw the center towards them. By espousing the ideals of limited government, personal responsibility, and individual liberty as spelled out by our Founding Fathers, this goal can quickly be attained.

Closing Gitmo? Don't Hold Your Breath!

The President is digging in on his decision to close Gitmo within a year. Instead of persuading Americans that he has a superior solution that will keep us safer, Mr. Obama falls back on nebulous arguments that somehow detaining terrorists in Cuba creates more recruits than detaining them somewhere else, or that friendly countries will be less willing to share intelligence with us because 240 killers are being held without the full rights of a U.S. citizen. Give me a break. The President further insinuates that Gitmo is some "bad experiment" cooked up by the Bush Administration to punish the terrorists, when Donald Rumsfeld bluntly described it as our "least worst option" to prevent admitted and proud murderers from re-entering the battlefield. How about if the politicians just shut up on the issue until they truly come up with a better solution that doesn't involve sending these elite soldiers of radical Islam to U.S. prisons, where they would find fertile recruiting ground among disaffected American criminals.

Let This Be A Warning!

Two seemingly unrelated events show a symmetry in squishing dissent. In Iran, an Iranian-American journalist was convicted of espionage after originally being arrested for buying a bottle of wine. After receiving an 8 year sentence, she has since had it reduced to 2 years suspended, and, hopefully, allowed to return to the U.S. The other event was the vitriolic "humor" during the White House Press Corps dinner Saturday night where Rush Limbaugh and Former V.P. Dick Cheney were savaged by the President and tv actress Wanda Sykes. Both incidents send the same message: be nice to us or else.... My conviction is that Americans will see through this mobster scare tactic from both regimes and support Freedom of the Press and Freedom of Speech in both Iran and the U.S.A.

Hubris Takes Flight

If a pilot of a 2 seater airplane strays into the "no fly zone" surrounding the White House and Capital, he is escorted to the ground by fighter jets, detained, and cited. When Air Force One, escorted by 2 F16s buzzes Lower Manhattan, causing widespread panic, the White House initially said they "took the proper steps to notify state and local authorities." This notification included directing them not to notify residents of the planned fly by. Perhaps, besides reminding us about 9/11, which many in government are trying to make us forget, this incident points out the arrogance that pervades Washington, which Mayor Bloomberg said "in the end, can do what it wishes."

Tortured Logic

While it is open to debate whether "enhanced interrogation" is torture, the intel gained has clearly saved American lives. By excluding these techniques being used by U.S. personnel, we return to the days of rendering high value detainees to countries like Turkey or Egypt where real torture is legal, and observing while the detainees are questioned by brutal inquisitors. This results in actual torture, as opposed to psychological trauma, and wastes precious time when innocent lives are in grave danger. Shockingly, the Administration uses hyperbole in condemning these "enhanced interrogation" techniques on two or three subjects, while ignoring the very real, and unhuman torture that is inflicted on the elderly in U.S. nursing homes every day. Just one month before the 9/11 attacks, CBS news reported that over 9,000 instances of abuse had been reported from 1999 to 2001 in nursing homes. These included beating, kicking, withholding water, and numerous other crimes that would violate the conscience of even the most hardened interrogator. For my money, I hope that when my comes to go to a home, I hope to be treated with the same care and respect that our detainees recieve at the Guantanamo Bay facility, rather than the way some 1600 of our nursing homes care for the elderly.