Blogs For Victory

Shiela Dixon, DEMOCRAT mayor of Baltimore has been indicted on 12 counts of felony theft, perjury, fraud and misconduct in office. This is rather run of the mill stuff for big city, Democrat mayors – but our concern is just how long her endorsement of Barack Obama will remain on The One’s website?

This is time and date stamped as all our entries are, so click the link from time to time to see if there’s any changes. Meanwhile, I wonder if Obama still considers her a “trailblazer”, as he stated when thanking her for the endorsement?

Or knock me over with one.

Not that this is any big surprise, or anything, but lo and behold, as The Right Perspective reports, Obama’s choice for energy czar just happens to be a card-carrying socialist.

Oh… not just any socialist, mind you, but Carol M. Browner is a member of the “Commission for a Sustainable World Society,” an offshoot of the organization “Socialist International.”

I’ve often observed that far from being a group of well-meaning tree-huggers, the radical environmentalists see environmental issues as one of the primary vehicles from which they can slam more and more of their radical political agenda down our throats; which more than explains why they cling to their environmental dogma a hell of a lot more than conservatives cling to “guns and religion.” This despite mountains of evidence to the contrary.

So is it really any surprise that Barack Hussein Obama, who cut his teeth under the tutelage of such leftist luminaries as Bill Ayers and Saul Alinsky, would actually appoint socialists to help run his administration?

Ya get who you vote for.

From NRO’s The Corner:

Planned Parenthood is cutting 20 percent of its staff due to the Madoff-involved fall of the Picower Foundation, as Crain’s Business reports, “The $1 billion foundation was one of the few major funders of reproductive rights issues.”

Couldn’t happen to nicer people: This is what they really need, some down time. And now that they’ll have some time to think about things, lets hope they take some time to think the abortion issue all the way through…

In November 2006, the national unemployment rate was 4.4%. Republicans controlled Congress and the White House.

In December 2008, the national unemployment rate was 7.2%. Democrats had been in control of Congress for nearly two years.

Looking ahead the next two years, with Democrats controlling Congress and the White House, how wuch worse is it going to get and how long will it take for the voters to realize they made a mistake is November 2006 and November 2008?

Obama pledged to be President of all Americans and earn all of our support – so, this augurs ill:

New Gallup polling shows that 53% of Americans favor and 36% oppose Congress’ passing a new $775 billion stimulus package of the type President-elect Barack Obama described in his Thursday speech on the economy. There is even higher support for specific elements it could include, such as major new government spending for infrastructure, income tax cuts, and tax incentives for businesses.

Obama won 53% of the vote, 53% back his plan. Amazing. I was figuring this to start out with 60-65% support…this stimulus is going to be a hard sell, and if it doesn’t start producing good effects quickly, support for it will crater.

You can go to the Obama clock…its rather depressing, right now, but it gets better every second.

On the other hand, there is a Judge who will rule correctly:

A New Year’s Day CIA strike in northern Pakistan killed two top al-Qaeda members long sought by the United States, including the man believed to be behind September’s deadly suicide bombing at a Marriott hotel in the Pakistani capital, U.S. counterterrorism officials confirmed yesterday.

Agency officials ascertained this week that Usama al-Kini, a Kenyan national who was described as al-Qaeda’s chief of operations in Pakistan, was killed in the Jan. 1 missile strike, along with his lieutenant, identified as Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan, the sources said. Both men were associated with a string of suicide attacks in Pakistan in recent months and also allegedly helped plan the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa.

One hopes that Obama, in office, will realize the great strides made under President Bush in intelligence gathering and the ability to project American power swiftly and with precision around the world. We do have enemies who hate us, and its not like Obama has to make pro-Bush statements: he just has to maintain what we’re already doing.

A wise question, indeed, and one we really must ask ourselves as we set about trying to help our nation recover from the current economic downturn. Yes, I choose those words on purpose – “economic downturn”. One of the first things we can do to build a better country for our children is to knock it off with the overheated rhetoric and scare tactics designed to secure partisan advantage. This is not the worst crisis our nation has ever faced – in fact, if you take the Revolutionary War, Civil War, World War One, Great Depression, World War Two, Cold War and Vietnam you’ll swiftly realize that this isn’t even in the top five. And, also, right now the economy isn’t nearly as bad as it was under Carter. So, take a breath and stop listening to those who are implying that unless we do something right now, we’re all going to be miserable.

Things, though, need to be done – but not just any, old things. We need to carefully review where we are and where we wish to be in a year, two years, five years, ten years. As President-elect Obama will have a large role in what will happen, we can do no better, for the moment, than review his plan. So:

Now, the very fact that this crisis is largely of our own making means that it is not beyond our ability to solve. Our problems are rooted in past mistakes, not our capacity for future greatness. It will take time, perhaps many years, but we can rebuild that lost trust and confidence. We can restore opportunity and prosperity. We should never forget that our workers are still more productive than any on Earth. Our universities are still the envy of the world. We are still home to the most brilliant minds, the most creative entrepreneurs, and the most advanced technology and innovation that history has ever known. And we are still the nation that has overcome great fears and improbable odds. If we act with the urgency and seriousness that this moment requires, I know that we can do it again.

Excellent, Mr. Obama – I wouldn’t add or subtract a word from that. I am in 100% agreement. Next:

It is true that we cannot depend on government alone to create jobs or long-term growth, but at this particular moment, only government can provide the short-term boost necessary to lift us from a recession this deep and severe. Only government can break the vicious cycles that are crippling our economy – where a lack of spending leads to lost jobs which leads to even less spending; where an inability to lend and borrow stops growth and leads to even less credit.

Actually, we can’t rely on government at all – government doesn’t create jobs. It can put people to work on the public dime, but that dime is taken from the public which then doesn’t have that dime to spend. The net effect is zero. Every dollar spent by government is a dollar which cannot be spent by workers, investors and small business owners. Only those who are juiced-in to government contracts will benefit…those who lack a political patron or who simply don’t want to get involved in the nauseating game of kickbacks and backscratching will be on the outside looking in. Onward:

That’s why we’ll invest in priorities like energy and education; health care and a new infrastructure that are necessary to keep us strong and competitive in the 21st century. That’s why the overwhelming majority of the jobs created will be in the private sector, while our plan will save the public sector jobs of teachers, cops, firefighters and others who provide vital services.

All well and good, but none of it provides the immediate boost you say (and I agree) we need right now in order to jump start the economy. It seems to me that we need to keep people working who have jobs and re-hire people who have recently lost their jobs. Training for the jobs of the future is wonderful. Building a better education system is dandy. Reforming our health care system is stupendous. But none of these things helps us today, on January 9th, 2009, when we need it. They might start helping in 2010 or 2011, but we might have 12% unemployment by then, and our problem will thus be more difficult. We press on:

Finally, this recovery and reinvestment plan will provide immediate relief to states, workers, and families who are bearing the brunt of this recession. To get people spending again, 95% of working families will receive a $1,000 tax cut – the first stage of a middle-class tax cut that I promised during the campaign and will include in our next budget. To help Americans who have lost their jobs and can’t find new ones, we’ll continue the bipartisan extensions of unemployment insurance and health care coverage to help them through this crisis. Government at every level will have to tighten its belt, but we’ll help struggling states avoid harmful budget cuts, as long as they take responsibility and use the money to maintain essential services like police, fire, education, and health care.

If I am to ask what is best for my children (full disclosure: step children, but no matter), then the last thing I need is a $1,000.00 check from Uncle Sam. I’ll be ill serving my fellow Americans – better for us to cut the business tax and capital gains tax and provide strong tax and regulatory incentives for business start ups and expansions. These things will go to “the rich” as our liberals say, but if we are really going to set aside our differences and work from a “what is best for America” paradigm, then another thing we have to do is cease this battle against our own. Rich Americans (as defined by liberals, who never seem to include Ted Kennedy) are Americans, too – let commit to no longer demonizing our fellow Americans but, instead, call upon them to act in the best interests of the nation and trust that God and their consciences will lead them to the correct decisions. Meanwhile, lightening the tax burden will get new investments rolling and thus jump start the economy. One more into the breech:

No longer can we allow Wall Street wrongdoers to slip through regulatory cracks. No longer can we allow special interests to put their thumbs on the economic scales. No longer can we allow the unscrupulous lending and borrowing that leads only to destructive cycles of bubble and bust.

Which is all excellent, but only tackles half the problem. When government strictly regulates an industry – as you wish to do even more so, now – that industry gains a vested interest in keeping Congress happy. This means that bags of regulated industry money will flow to Congressmen who can make or break a business – such as those loans set up for House and Senate members who were allegedly overseeing the financial industry which managed to meltdown in spite of all the oversight. If we are to get into further regulation, then we have to get the politics out of it. We have to ensure that regulations are written and enforced in the interests of the people, not for the benefit of the well-connected few. How to do this is a thorny issue, but the fact that Mr. Obama fails to mention it raises very large questions about how informed he is of the true state of affairs. And now lets take it on home:

It is time to set a new course for this economy, and that change must begin now. We should have an open and honest discussion about this recovery plan in the days ahead, but I urge Congress to move as quickly as possible on behalf of the American people.

This is a stark contradiction – we can’t have an open and honest discussion and speed. We have to carefully weigh each proposal and determine how it effects the whole. This is a process of months, not days or weeks. If we go rushing in then we will be fools – if we don’t know precisely what we’re doing with a trillion or more dollars, then it will wind up a trillion dollars wasted. It is correct to state that things will likely get worse before they get better – but they won’t get better at all if we don’t have a care about what we’re doing.

Point blank, Obama’s plan is highly questionable and very short on the details necessary to render a judgment. Lacking such details, we can only go with what we know, and that is that when government spends a lot of money, we never get what we paid for. In summation, to support the Obama plan right now is to go with the triumph of hope over experience – I realize that Mr. Obama ran on a platform of hope, but I’m not going to sign on to hope for hope’s sake, certainly not hope in what people do, given what we know about people.

A sad day for America and Christianity, a day of glory for Fr. Neuhaus:

Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, the famous convert to Catholicism and editor of the journal First Things passed away this morning in New York at 9:30 a.m. EST.

CNA was informed of Fr. Neuhaus’ death through an announcement from George Weigel who stated, “Father Richard John Neuhaus was called home to the house of the Father at about 09:30 EST today. May God grant him the reward of his labors, and give consolation and peace to those who loved him and who will carry on his work.”

It has long been known that PA-12 Democrat Congressman Jack Murtha has been living high off the hog with regard to earmarks that have been given to his military contracting buddies. As a matter of fact, he’s making such good money from his beneficiaries that he wants to streamline the earmark process: He plans to bypass advice by members of the military altogether:

The House’s top defense appropriator has pledged to help strengthen the role of the Pentagon’s comptroller in an effort to curb lobbying by the military services for their controversial programs.

Why should he listen to the military, as the military itself doesn’t provide Jack with campaign contributions.

As I’ve stated before, Jack Murtha does nothing without there being something in it for Jack Murtha. To Jack Murtha, the military is merely a tool he uses to keep his fat backside in power, or to advance his political career, a/la his slanderous declaration of guilt toward the Haditha Marines.

I don’t know; perhaps I’m a bit too cynical. I’m absolutely positive that there is no lobbying going on when Concurrent Technologies receives a taxpayer-funded porkbarrel contract to the tune of $200 million dollars… or is there?

Yet, the Murtha situation is very troubling when you look at CTC’s Form 990. With the exception of three individuals listed on the schedule of officers and directors, all have contributed to Murtha’s congressional campaigns since 2002.

[SNIP]

The Times also notes that CTC has paid somewhere around $500,000 to a lobbying firm. The lobbying firm’s executives and clients have contributed over $1.2 million to Murtha in campaign contributions (the Times refers to these as donations) since 1999, according to the Times.

So we have a congressman who was a driving force behind the creation of this tax-exempt entity. That same congressman is earmarking significant amounts of money to that organization. Those who are in control of the organization (several of whom receive significant salaries from CTC) contribute large amounts of money to the congressman’s campaign. We can only wonder how the entity distributes the federal grant money within the local community.

I mean, with sweetheart deals like that, why should Murtha even bother to take the time listen to those pesky military folks who actually know what they need?

I mean, there’s gold in them there earmarks, right, Jihad Jack?

(Cross-posted at Murtha Must Go!!)