dailybeacon

   You’ve just been appointed Secretary of State.  You’re going to interact with governments from around the world, representing the interests of the U. S. State Department.  Given the political climate in the world, it’s reasonable to assume that a good deal of your time might be spent dealing with the countries in the Middle East.  How much money would it take to lose some of your objectivity.  A million dollars?  Five Million?  Less/More?  According to the donor list for the William J. Clinton Foundation released at the end of last December, Hillary can have any one of those figures to choose from and more.  The governments of Qatar, Oman, Kuwait and Brunei have given somewhere between $1 million and $5 million each.  Saudi Arabia somewhere between $10 and $25 Million.  (Don’t you wish you could estimate your taxes with that wide a range?)  Hillary, are you sure you’re still unbiased if issues arise with any of these governments? 

   Agencies from the governments of Australia and the Dominican Republic contributed similar amounts to the Saudis.  The Dominican Republic?!?  One of the poorest nations in the world and they give ten or more million dollars to Bill Clinton’s foundation?  There are certainly other large contributors worth at least a raising our eyebrows about: a former Soviet republic president’s son-in-law who is a Ukrainian tycoon, or how about a close associate of a onetime military leader of Nigeria, or the Dutch national lottery ($5-$10 million). 

   As so many people have said so many times, follow the money and you will follow the vote.  Does this give you a queezy feeling in your stomach, like it does me?  I hope so.

King Rod Blagojevich’s political career is dead.  He left kicking and screaming that he had done nothing wrong, that this is a miscarriage of justice, that the will of the electorate was being ignored.  How can someone be so delusional and keep getting reelected?  Does he really think that if the election were held today, the will of the majority of his former constituents would reelect him?  The sad thing is that he seems to believe that they would.  It might work for Ted Kennedy, but not for Rod Blagojevich.  It truly has been a circus, another black eye on Illinois politics.  Republicans and Democrats alike have been imprisoned and now impeached for wrong doing.  This is the climate of Illinois politics.  If everyone is doing it, it makes it seem right to do.  A long time ago I read that we become the books we read and the people we associate with.  Hang with good people and it influences the way we think.  Hang with people that have challenged character and it makes it difficult to maintain good character.  Unfortunately, we all know where President Obama comes from, where he learned the ropes and from whom.  I sincerely hope that his judgement hasn’t been impaired.  The stimulus package is not a good first sign, nor are his executive orders issued when he hit the ground running in his first week.  Commit to watching him closely.  He has such potential, as a man.  May God grant him wisdom, grant us all wisdom. 

No Republican voted for the stimulus package and eleven Democrats didn’t either!  There is hope that we have some people with enough principle to say no in the face of the media blitz and the temptation of ungodly amounts of cash to buy votes on the home front.  There is hope.  Right must prevail.  It’s a start.

The pundits are speculating that the House had to vote for the package because they wouldn’t want the President to get a black eye on his first major agenda item.  And there is so much money to spread around the country, it must have caused some politicians to salivate at the prospects of bringing the pork bacon back to the home grounds  We’ve got to do something, right?  Herbert Hoover tried to do something by increasing expenditures by forty percent and at the end of his term unemployment was still at fourteen percent.  We CAN’T spend our way out of a recession EVER!!!  Where are the Republicans?  If you’re a traditionally Republican voter  represented by a Republican legislator who voted for this slush fund, find a new Republican to represent you in the next House election.  The one you have now is not a Republican.

   My great great grandchildren will still be covering the cost of the last two “stimulus” packages if we haven’t killed the golden goose that is the U.S. economy already.  We got sooo much bang out of the first one, didn’t we?  The treasury is going to have to double its printers to keep up with this administration and it’s only two weeks old.  Don’t miss the point, there are things in this bill that are worthy things that need to be addressed but not wrapped up into a bill that is framed as an economic stimulus package and not now if we are truly believing that we can stoke the economy into action.  However, without incentivising business and investment, our Congress is swinging at air.

   I have only heard of one elected executive with the guts to say no to Washington’s money, Scott Walker.  He’s the Milwaukee County Executive and he is getting crucified by the press, crucified.  He should be given a medal and be the first elected official in the public servant’s hall of fame, if there was one.  How can he turn down all the “free” money,they say?  How can the press, who is supposed to inform us be so uninformed?  Tax money is NEVER free!!  Taxpayers have to fork it over before it is available to the government. 

   Next the Democratic Congress will throw a million dollar “free” money celebration when it’s passed by the Democratically controlled Senate and they can pat themselves on the back for averting the crisis.  I just hope America is watching, listening, and caring about what is going on.  We will certainly care about the results, if it doesn’t help, and they ask for more “free” money.  It won’t, and they will!

   The greatest danger common to most public officials is the fact that they are dealing with other people’s money.  I am one, so I know.  Other people’s money is always easier to spend, always.  Even if President Obama and his team have the the best of intentions, waving $800 billion in front of politicians is like waving a red flag in front of a bull.  Historically, it been more dangerous in front of Democratic elected officials but lately, it’s been in front of members of both parties.  This situation does not bode well for those of us who are paying the bill.

   What good do we derive, in our current economic situation, from bridge building projects that will not even be started for two years?  The answer is none but I bet it will make good talking points for Democratic Congressmen in their home Districts right about the time the next House elections come up but its not going to help to kick-start the economy any time soon.  These projects are in the stimulus package.  How about a dog run in a park?  How about condoms?  They are both in there too along with billions of dollars of other spending that is unrelated to recovery but related to pork projects throughout the country, pet projects of the Democratic majority.  This is not the change that you promised President Obama, it is the way it has been for a long time.  Unless the American electorate says enough is enough, it is the way is going to continue to be.  The problem is the electorate needs to pay attention and very few do.  Don’t have the time.  Can’t trust anyone we elect anyway.  Whatever the excuse, it’s not a good enough one for this country to go further and further in debt for no good reason other than to pad individual districts with the money to keep someone in office. 

   The real problem is that companies/lobbyists don’t give money to politicians unless they are going to give something back.  That tends to motivate them to do something in return, either through a favorable vote or a favorable project.  I don’t know the solution but somehow we have to find one, or the system will never change and taxpayers will continue to pay for things we don’t need.

   In the short term, the stimulus package is definitely not the answer to the problem, definitely not the answer.  President Obama, you have a great opportunity to do something historic with your “historic” election.  Do you have what it takes?  A least one of us is really watching and really hoping that you do.  I pray many of us are watching and we hold everyone to account, if they don’t do the right thing.  I will never stop hoping and praying for that end.

   In a move that must be unprecedented, at least in my lifetime, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich went on the national stump to try to convince the “court of public opinion’ of his innocence.  The interesting thing is he was in New York on the first day of the State Senate hearings for his impeachment in Illinois.  One can never accuse the Governor of not having chops.  Of course, the fact that he does is probably why he’s in the fix that he is today.  He does have a certain air of arrogance, a how could you accuse ME of doing anything wrong, way of doing things.  Prior to the beginning of his fall from grace, the things that he had to overcome in order to get to where he is probably contributed to a sense of invincibility.  Maybe it drives him now to believe that he can beat the wrap.

   However, I saw his appearance on Good Morning America.  If he had been asked the same questions at the hearing that Diane Sawyer asked, the hearing would be done and he would be the former Governor of Illinois.  His answers were, frankly, pathetic.  She read transcript phone conversations from legal wiretaps and drilled him.  He responded weakly that each quote was taken out of context.  One is innocent until proven guilty but I think the Governor lives in an alternative universe where rulers are kings that can’t be questioned by peons or just can’t be accused of doing wrong, period.  Unfortunately Mr. Blagojevich, that place isn’t here and it would be a shock if your place is anywhere but out of the Governor’s mansion very soon.

   I must comment on the questioning.  It was hardball, which leads me to believe that the Democratic party must have given the word to the media to throw him under the bus to bring the blight he’s brought to the Party to an end as quickly as possible.  If anyone would have had the same approach, other than Bill O’Reilly, when our President was interviewed during the campaign, he would likely not be President.  Just anyone asking him about the lineup of Reverend Wright, Bill Ayers, Tony Rezko and now add Governor Blagojevich to the list of questionable associations in Obama’s past, then finish with his direct association as a past community organizer with Acorn; which now has some of its own illegalities.  What a lineup!  I just hope President Obama is over his poor judgement and that it was only poor judgement an nothing more, otherwise this isn’t the last scandal we’ll see involving a former Illinois politician.  We sure don’t need that at a time like this. 

In a move that clearly indicates he’s learned the ‘under the radar game’, President Obama reinstated federal funding for international groups that perform abortions or provide information concerning that choice.  Playing the experienced executive that he’s not, he made the move on Friday afternoon when there would be a minimum of fanfare.  Many Americans who support abortion “rights” have no idea that every day in our country more babies are killed than the total number of people who died in the 911 attacks, EVERY DAY!!  Every two days, more babies are killed than the total of all the soldiers that have been lost in the Iraq war and it’s been going on for nearly seven years.

   Hailed as a boon to women’s health, no mention is made of the health of the babies who die under the baseless claim that this will reduce unwanted pregnancies.   There has been no reduction of unwanted pregnancies, only full term pregnancies.   Pregnancies of the unwanted variety have continued to increase since Roe v Wade because unmarried sexual activity has increased, particularly among teens and even more so among black teens, sadly.

   It will reduce the number of women dying from high risk pregnancies.  Just once I would like to see the proponents of abortions join together with those who oppose abortions and do an accurate study, both groups so that the survey results would be mutually credible, to determine what is the actual number of women in high risk situations that have abortions to avert their condition is versus those that are just unwanted pregnancies.  I’m confident that the percentage would be minimal at best among the total number of pregnancies aborted.  What percentage is just because of a possible Downs baby?   The most joyous people on earth terminated because of appearances or inconvenience or social stigma.

  I find the President’s support of such options ironic, since his abortion could have been  considered by his Mom, particularly if she would have known what was going to happen with his father abandoning them a relatively short time after he was born.  Any of us could have been aborted.  All that separates us from that fate is our parents’ or moms’ choice.

   How many doctors, scientists, public servants, sports heroes, heroes period, teachers or caregivers do you suppose we’ve killed, causing all of their potential accomplishments to die with them?  Approaching fifty million kids now, thousands of achievers gone for convennience, or fear, or embarrassment, or money concerns or who knows what other influences created the choice to kill a voiceless child.  The world is turning further upside down.  It appears that President Obama is doing his best to speed it up.

Ali al-Shihri, a former prisoner at Guantanamo Bay prison, jailed on terrorism charges has resurfaced according to a publication posted on a militant leaning Web site.  He is being called a top deputy in “al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.”  The group is a Yemeni offshoot of Osama’s al Qaida and has been linked to several attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Yemen’s capital, which is Sana’a.  He’s quoted by the Associated Press as saying,”By Allah, imprisonment only increased our persistence in our principles for which we went out, did jihad for and were imprisoned for,” seen on video.  Boy, I didn’t see that coming but of course, I’m not as smart as the liberal elite who thinks these guys are being mistreated.  Ironic, or a very ominous warning of what lies ahead, that it would surface on the day that President Obama, by executive order, moved to close Guantanamo in a year.

   Ali al-Shihri apparently was released into Saudi custody for “rehabilitation” in 2007.  You have to be kidding!!  Rehab a drug user, sometimes, but a hate filled terrorist?  I have only a masters degree in counseling but it doesn’t take a degree to know that was a really bad idea.

  Close the prison so we can bring them all to the mainland where they can be rehabilitated and exposed to the very things that they hate us for but they’ll forget, right?  Giving the kind of rights that the left wants to give to terrorists makes a lot of sense.  Use our courts to set them free so that they can be free to kill more of us.  Life without parole, no exception.  Of course, if the conditions were reversed, our prisoners would be decapitated on video, which of course is not as bad a violation of prisoner rights as our vile use of water-boarding.  I’ve heard no such protests about video taped murder from the same folks who protest water-boarding.  There is something really wrong about that prospective, really wrong!!

   Again, according to the Associated Press this time reporting from the Pentagon’s comments, there are at least eighteen former Guantanamo detainees that have returned to the fight and another forty-three are suspected of resuming terrorist activities.  How did all these people get out?  As the saying goes, ‘we have no one to blame but ourselves’ the next time we are attacked and we will be attacked.  Thank you President Obama for a decision that will increase the odds by taking another disincentive away from our arsenal to fight terrorists.  The world has begun to turn upside down. 

Eighty-five percent, approximately, of all jobs created in our economy are created by businesses of one hundred or less employees.  This is a fact, not a partisen diatribe.  Small business is the engine that drives a successful capitalistic economy.  None of the money proposed in President Obama’s  bailout plan is going to these types of businesses, unless you count contractors who do government work, the bridges and roads referred to in his inaugural speech.  FDR would be proud.  Government jobs don’t last unless they become part of the bureaucracy and then they cost the taxpayer literally forever.  They don’t build the economy, they suck away from it because their salaries are paid by tax dollars.  None of them help the economy become robust again.  The bailout mentality isn’t surprising because a basic Democratic premise is government should solve all problems. 

   People who get something for nothing waste it   Ask most lottery winners.  People who earn it, treasure it because of the sweat equity invested.  This is basic human nature.  It has always been basic human nature.  Tax reductions and credits to small businesses are the only things that will activate the economy on real terms, cause people to risk investment dollars because of the incentive, generate sustainable jobs and put people back to work.  Job welfare will likely buy more votes for the Democrats but will not build our country’s economic strength.  Paraphrased, if a man is hungry and he is given a fish he’s not hungry for a meal but teach him to fish, require him to fish to survive and he will become self-sufficient and a contributor to society.  He will build his self-esteem because he earned it and not be spoiled by a handout, if he didn’t.  Our freedom to be in business can make more fisherman.  We need less and less  people just looking for a meal.  Bailouts give incentives for people to just look for a meal and worse, not be responsible with it when they get it because they didn’t have to earn it.

   One definition that Webster has for the word tyrant is ”one resembling an oppressive ruler in the harsh use of authority or power.”  That would be Saddam Hussein, not George W. Bush.  One has to look no further than his total assistance to the transition to power of President Obama to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Mr. Bush is no tyrant, not even on the radar screen of truth.  Tyrants never give up power willingly.  EVER.  Within the last week, even his policy concerning Guantanamo has now been affirmed as within reason and not illegal in thwarting terrorists by the international body that assesses such things.  Of course, that doesn’t make the front page of the newspapers across the country, as it should, because Bush hating is in vogue and apparently politically correct.

   A roadside bomb was found sometime after the overthrow of Saddam.  It was wired to a howitzer shell laced with poisonous gas.  Do people really believe that it was the only one made by Hussein?  Just one, right, and even if it were the last one made at the time, do you really believe that no more would have been made if he were still in power?  In late 2007, the last remnants of his nuclear weapons research facilities were dismantled, primitive as they may have been, can you really deny that with time and his money he would have had nuclear weapons?  Feel free to do so, however, if you do I have some swamp property I’d like to sell you at prime real estate prices.  

   We are free to believe whatever we want, as frustrating as that might be sometimes to the nonbelievers, but calling President Bush a tyrant doesn’t pass the litmus test of truth and never will.