Blogs For Victory

No doubt about it – from Post Politics:

In announcing his campaign for president in Iowa Monday, former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty placed a big bet on boldness.

He called for a phasing out — albeit gradual — of federal ethanol subsidies, a move long considered a political death wish in a state with such a large agricultural community.

But, Pawlenty didn’t stop there. In his speech he detailed how he will travel this week to Florida — one of the oldest (by age) states in the country — to call for fundamental reform of Medicare and Social Security, to Washington to take on alleged largess in the federal government and to New York to make clear the era of bailouts of the financial industry is over…

That does take a pair of big, brassy ones. Of course, this is what Pawlenty must do to emerge from the pack. He’s little known outside political-junkie circles and he’ll need a sudden upsurge of enthusiastic, TEA Party support to have a shot – and if being gutsy costs him early in Iowa, it may still do him well in New Hampshire and South Carolina. All in all, its a good move – and, also, the right thing to do.

Because we really do need a Presidential candidate who is pledged to take on the status quo – even those parts of its ostensibly allied with the GOP. Our nation faces a bleak, impoverished future unless we get a handle on all the wasteful government spending – especially and including such long-time sacred cows as farm subsidies and Medicare. We just can’t keep spending as we have – to put it bluntly, if we want to help farmers and elderly and sick people, then massive amounts of spending will have to stop so that we can not only balance the budget, but find the funds to provide the services people genuinely need (for instance, each person scamming Medicare for what amounts to a welfare check is preventing that much aid from going to someone who really needs it).

We’ll see how far Pawlenty goes – first in how firm he is in defending himself from the firestorm he’s probably raised, secondly in how well the GOP base responds to this bit of leadership.

From Zero Hedge:

Just because the US is having so much success convincing the world its debt is money good (but don’t anyone dare count the $6+ trillion in GSE debt to the total US debt), the good old US of A has now decided to backstop the debt of… Egypt. Bloomberg reports: “Egypt plans to raise $1 billion by selling Eurobonds this year to diversify borrowing and finance a widening budget deficit after its economy was rocked by the worst political crisis in 30 years. The five-year bonds will be backed by a U.S. “sovereign guarantee,” Finance Minister Samir Radwan said by telephone from Cairo today…President Barack Obama promised last week $2 billion in loan guarantees and debt forgiveness.” …

So, if Egypt defaults on this new debt – either via economic collapse or just the Moslem Brotherhood going “screw the infidels” – guess who picks up the tab? Yes, that’s right – you and me, dear Americans. Who in heck figured this one out? Where in the Obama Administration is the person who said, “sure, we’re teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, but it is vital for American policy that the increasingly Islamist government of Egypt get free money from us”? I’d really like this person found – so we can tar and feather him and run him out of town on a rail.

For crying out loud, its like our government is living in an alternate reality. Which, I guess, they are – it is the liberal view of the world, writ large. Doesn’t matter what is happening, someone got the idea that since Egypt is increasingly buddying up to Iran and the terrorists, it is time for Uncle Sucker to shell out some more money.

Makes me weep for our nation – and, my goodness, 2012 just can’t get here fast enough…

From a Washington Post article reviewing the various GOP candidates – a quote from the Democrats:

…Said one adviser to the Obama reelection campaign, who spoke on the condition of anonymity: “Through the process of winning that nomination, they will achieve stature, and by the reality of having won that nomination, they will be competitive with the president at fundraising.”

Added another: “Unless it’s Palin or Gingrich, we expect a very close race no matter who emerges.”

Carter’s people were certain that unless the GOP went and did something silly like nominating Reagan, it would be a close race. Given this, it is time we all reviewed Palin and Gingrich with a fresh eye…

Here we go, again – from the AP:

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that California must drastically reduce its prison population to relieve severe overcrowding that has exposed inmates to increased violence, disease and death.

The decision, however, doesn’t mean the prison gates will swing open in an uncontrolled release.

The high court’s decision calls on the state to cut the population to no more than 110,000 inmates, meaning California will have to shed some 33,000 inmates to comply over the next two years. State officials can accomplish that by transferring inmates to local jails or releasing them…

I hate to break it to the Supreme Court, but prison is supposed to be an exceptionally unpleasant experience. It is supposed to be crowded and uncomfortable and rather risky to your health. It is supposed to be something you never want to have happen to you. To say that it is wrong that prisoners are suffering is to say that it is wrong to punish anyone, at all. Needlessly cruel suffering is something, of course, which cannot be allowed…but as long as something isn’t falling in to sadism, its just part of the price a person has to pay for breaking the law.

In addition to the idiocy of saying that prisoners must not suffer there is the sheer stupidity of ordering their release because they don’t live in some pie-in-the-sky ideal conditions. If the conditions are really so bad that they have become inhuman, then releasing the prisoners does nothing to the people who created the inhuman conditions. All such releases accomplish is the punishment of innocent non-criminals, as well as punishing the criminals, themselves…the innocent victims we immediately see: the released offenders are very likely to offend, again. People will be robbed, raped and murdered by these people (yes, even by “non-violent offenders”…some of whom are quite violent but simply weren’t convicted for such acts). Less easy to see – but just as real – is the punishment being inflicted upon the released prisoners…by putting them back in to society, we are putting them at risk of not only of dying in the acts of crime, but of so badly ruining themselves by a criminal life as to be nearly beyond redemption (redemption is always possible…but the further one walks down the road of sin the less likely one is to turn aside from it).

Things like this are the actions of people who will never suffer the least inconvenience for their actions. The Justices who have so ruled will live out the rest of their lives in carefully guarded communities, never to meet the people the ordered released, nor their victims. It is the kind of action you can take only when you are so removed from the reality of life that the affairs of men and women have become remote and academic.

The corrective, on the other hand, is in in the legislative power. Built in to the Constitution – as a check and curb upon judicial tyranny – is the power of Congress, working with the President, to ensure that judges don’t get above themselves. Laws can be passed which ensure against something inane as releasing a criminal to “punish” an incompetent prison administrator. The trouble is that all our Constitutional powers have been atrophied – in this area by the eager desire of Congress and Executive to have un-elected judges make the rules…much easier to let judges solve the thorny issues as that means no vote is on record at election time.

But we must correct this – we must reduce the judiciary to its proper, Constitutional function. It is not there to make everyone dance to a judge’s tune, but just to ensure that the laws are carried out faithfully and in accordance with the Constitution – and I find no warrant in the Constitution for the release of prisoners because they are crowded in cells, nor receiving what some judge thinks is proper health care. The judges have for too long held themselves to be superiors to all of us – holders of knowledge we cannot obtain and issuers of rulings we are not to question. Time to let them know who really runs the United States of America.

The pro-life position continues to advance – from CNS:

Sixty-one percent of American adults—including some who describe themselves as “pro-choice”—told Gallup in a survey conducted May 5-8 that abortion should be illegal in all or most circumstances…

…Only 27 percent in this year’s survey told Gallup they thought abortion should be legal under any circumstances whatsoever.

About 71 percent said they thought abortion should be illegal in at least some cases. This included 22 percent who said it should be illegal in “all circumstances,” 39 percent who said it should be legal in “only a few circumstances,” and 10 percent who said it should be legal in “most” circumstances…

As the liberal position is essentially federally-funded abortion on demand, we can see what a small minority is in favor of such a view. The basic conservative position – that abortion should be at the least heavily restricted – clearly commands a broad majority. This is the result of decades of relentless education and political action – and what is most pleasing is that younger Americans tend to be more pro-life than older (perhaps this is the realization among younger Americans that any one of them could have been aborted on the merest whim?). This battle for life is being won – but we daren’t let up for even a minute. The Culture of Death is well-funded and relentless…as soon as we turn out backs, they’ll be out there trying to undo the pro-life position.

I think it is time to turn our attention to an outright ban on third trimester abortions. It would be the fight of a decade, but it would start the ball rolling towards a constitutional ban on abortion.

Proof that GOPers – when they’ve caught the RINO bug – can be just as lousy as Democrats.

Three neglected lessons of American economic history.

Virginia Health Department decides not to allow for more killing at Planned Parenthood Abortuaries. Things are swinging our way – perhaps, one day, you can be safe in the womb…

Have we mentioned lately that Chomsky is a fool?

No easy way out on the economy.

Yet more short sighted greed on the part of socialists and public sector unions.

How Kahn the Ruling Class be so nauseating?

A Thick Book to Smack Terrorists in the Face with Between Waterboarding Sessions

From Reuters:

President Barack Obama on Sunday sought to soothe Israeli fury over his new Middle East peace proposals by making clear that the Jewish state would likely be able to keep some settlements in any final deal with the Palestinians…

Always better, Mr. President, to think before you speak…

Everyone knows that the middle east is a minefield and anything to do with Israel and Palestine doubly so. This means if you wish to make a policy statement on the subject, you’d better think carefully about what you want to do and how you want to say it. Calling for a return of the 1967 borders was never going to work…Israel would never agree to commit national suicide like that. But Obama went right ahead and did it – and I can’t imagine that no one saw the speech before it was delivered. This means that input was given by State and Defense…and unless Obama has firmly implanted drooling idiocy in to both those departments, someone issued an objection to the call for 1967 borders…and it was ignored.

Is this just part of Obama’s self image as some sort of chosen person? That if he said it, it would be ok because he is Barack Obama, The One? Or are their puppet-masters who, for whatever bizarre reasons, decided that this needed to be said, objections from wiser heads be darned? No matter how you slice it, things look pretty bad – either our President, completely ignorant of foreign and military affairs, is winging it on his own or some anti-Israel ideologues have gained his ear and aren’t allowing other views to be presented.

2012 just can’t come fast enough…

Some questions are being asked – over at Beldar Blog there is a great series of entries on the defense Obama is mounting over his non-compliance with the War Powers Act. Beldar seems to hold that while the Act is unconstitutional, Obama is going about in a perfectly idiotic manner. I agree on the idiocy bit, don’t agree on the unconstitutionality. Of all the acts done by liberals, this is one that I agree with. Of course, I doubt that when liberals enacted it they really understood what they were doing – they were trying to ensure that Nixon couldn’t come to the aid of South Vietnam when the North attacked. But regardless of why it was done, it was properly done – and, indeed, should be expanded and clarified in greater detail. For too long the President has had too much ability to usher us in to war without a preliminary debate and Declaration. Time to correct this.

I would, for instance, forbid the deployment of US ground forces outside the territory of the United States except during a declared state of war. I would require a declaration of war for any military action which extends beyond three days…once that fourth day is reached, the President better have a declaration of war or have the troops out of there. I would insist that all alliances we engage in require all contracting parties to expend at least as great a percentage of GDP on defense as we do (no more free rides). The bottom line is that I want us to avoid an armed conflict, but if we go in to it, I want the whole power of the United States directed against the offending power.

What is very interesting about this, however, is the silence on the left. Imagine if President Bush had done this! There would be 100,000 pinkos on the streets shouting their “hey, hey; ho, ho” nonsense for all its worth. There would be calls for impeachment. There would be demands for Congressional hearings. The MSM would be breathlessly reporting about a looming, constitutional crisis. But, Obama is President – he’s got a “D” after his name, so all is quiet on the lefty front.

Which proves, once and for all, that they are nothing more than corrupt, political hacks. In this, at least, Obama has done us a good service…and only a fool will ever in the future pay attention to liberal rantings about war.

From Pajamas Media:

The numbers are in, and the news is bad: our public benefits system has gone to rack and ruin. From Social Security to food programs and other pillars of the welfare state, waste, fraud, and abuse is rampant.

Take disability payments. According to an Inspector General’s report obtained by Pajamas Media, the Old-Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance program (OASDI) has provided significant benefits to people who should not have them — including the dead. A newly commissioned audit reveals that more than 2,900 dead people may have received more than $23 million in Social Security disability insurance payments…

Is anyone surprised? Of course not. Now, why do this happen? Because when you pass out free cash, it won’t just be honest people applying for it – and, in fact, it is highly likely that the pool of free cash will bring con artists crawling out of the wood work looking for a piece of the pie. You know this – come on, don’t be shy: you know darned well from your own life experiences that there plenty of people drawing a government check for no good reason.

What is disability supposed to be for? Well, for a person who is rendered temporarily or permanently incapable of working. I’ll bet that not even 10% of those on disability really merit it. The recent story of a man pretending he has to be treated like a baby is just one of the more egregious examples of the disability scam – but most don’t even go to that length. Find a friendly doctor, make up a physical or psychological ailment and eventually the government will disgorge…because the bureaucrats shelling out the money have a vested interest in an ever-increasing number of dependents. To them, it is job security. As long as you are willing to lie, you’ll eventually be on your duff, living off the taxpayer’s dime.

And before any reader who is on disability gets all upset with me – for years I worked with a lady now, sadly, deceased. She was born with a genetic malady which made her incapable of walking (or, indeed, of even sitting in a wheel chair without a seat belt), while her arms and hands were barely functional. She held down a 40 hour a week job until just a few months before her death, and only went on disability when she really could not take the physical strain of going to work. If you don’t have at least my late friend’s level of illness, then you should not be on disability. Period. End of story. Get off your butt and get a job. Stop sucking the life blood out of everyone else. If you need help, you should get it – if you can’t work, you shouldn’t have to…but it isn’t right for people to be getting a free ride.

And until we start acting like adults here – which includes demanding that everyone who can work pull their own weight – this will just go on. Sure, they audited and caught these people but vast shoals of leeches have already made it through the net, costing our nation not just billions in tax dollars, but many more billions in lost productivity. We are allowing the lazy and shiftless to take advantage of a generous society, and it is time we called a halt.

I like that – we are to be the Defending Fathers; preserving what the Founding Fathers gave to us. Excellent way to state it, good way to pull TEA Party support. Cain is doing this exactly right – though it very much remains to be seen if he’ll catch fire in the primaries.