RAG Perspective: An American Pro-Liberty Conservative: Miscellany: 4/18/10

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Miscellany: 4/18/10

Quote of the Day

One never notices what has been done;
one can only see what remains to be done.
Marie Curie

Obama Has His Foreign 'Apology for the US' Tours;
We Need a Domestic 'Thank You, Mr. President' Tour

Obama thinks that the Tea Party supporters should be thanking him: "I should just point out that one-third of the Recovery Act went to tax cuts, tax cuts that strengthened the cornerstone of the American dream." Let's first explain that there is a difference between a tax cut and a tax credit. The stimulus bill provides up to $400 for an individual worker or $800 for a working married couple, spread spread evenly via lower paycheck tax withholding over several months.

Let's consider how "effective" this tax "cut" stimulus has been, the level of confidence American companies and workers have had in Obamanomics. Remember this quote from the New York Times last June?

It appeared that many people were putting that [tax credit] money away instead of spending it. the saving rate climbed to its highest level [6.9 percent in May] in 15 years as consumers tried to build a buffer against the threat of job losses and more economic hardships.

Former Senator Obama, I knew President Kennedy. President Kennedy in 1962 said, "An economy hampered by restrictive tax rates will never produce enough revenue to balance the budget - just as it will never produce enough jobs or enough profits.In short,...tax rates are too high today and tax revenues are too low - and the soundest way to raise revenues in the long run is to cut rates now." Mr. President, you are not John Kennedy!

And you can't tell me "To the moon, Ronald!" because you cut that NASA project, and now American astronauts are going to have to hitch a ride with the Russians to outer space... President Kennedy must surely be thanking you for what's become of his signature legacy on your watch...

Yes, Mr. President, you will accept the gift of an anti-American screed in a photo op with Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, and you will work with multiple parties in dealing with North Korea and Iran, but you won't reach across the aisle on the budget, health care or financial reform.

And we thank you, Mr. President, for nearly tripling the American (and world) record for the federal deficit this past fiscal year (smashing the previous record, also set by a Democratic-controlled Congress) and on schedule to top it even more this fiscal year. And that's before your anti-growth income and investment tax rate and health care tax hikes slow down business and job growth and dampen federal revenues. We thank you for reminding us it was a Republican-controlled Congress that last balanced the budget (despite Bill Clinton's repeated attempts to overspend).

We thank you, Mr. President, for creating fear, uncertainty, and doubt among business leaders and investors, resulting in a lower tax base and analysis paralysis impeding a more robust economic recovery. We thank you for creating a new entitlement in the aftermath of a 40% drop in federal revenues before first resolving existing entitlement solvency issues (i.e., Medicare and social security), over $40T underfunded.

So, on behalf of American conservatives and the Tea Party movement, we intend to have a "thank you, Mr. President" tour all across the country leading up the the November election. Our lead-off speaker: Rush Limbaugh:

Mr. President, I want to thank you for seizing General Motors and Chrysler. I want to thank you for appointing a pervert as our safe schools czar. I would like to thank you, Mr. President, for the generational theft that you have committed with all of this borrowing and spending. You have spent the wealth of two to three, maybe four generations in the future, before they're even born. I want to thank you, Mr. President, for insulting and endangering Israel. I want to thank you, Mr. President, for driving up the unemployment rate to near double digits for years to come. I want to thank you, Mr. President, for telling everybody that it's going to be double digits as the new norm. I want to thank you, Mr. President, for exploding the annual deficit to the level where it can never be repaid.

I'd like to thank you, Mr. President, for targeting and destroying private health insurance companies. I want to thank you, Mr. President, for pushing for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to stand trial in New York City and receive full constitutional rights at a cost of $200 million per year. I want to thank you for that. I want to thank you for helping to destroy the housing market, Mr. President. And, Mr. President, I would love to thank you for your arrogance, because arrogance is part and parcel of an authoritarian leader of a regime. I would like to also thank you, Mr. President, for your divisiveness. I would like to thank you for ignoring the public union pension time bombs waiting to explode out there. I would like to thank you, Mr. President, for mocking and disrespecting the American people. And I'd like to thank you for your never-ending support of the New Black Panthers and for ACORN. I'd like to thank you, Mr. President, for embracing our enemies and snubbing our allies. But most of all, Mr. President, thank you for arousing the sleeping silent majority because we have been asleep too long. November is coming, Mr. President. That is when we will really thank you.

Sign the Revere America Petition
to Repeal and Replace ObamaCare

Former Governor George Pataki (R-NY) has taken on a leadership issue on repealing and replacing the corrupt Democratic Party Health Care Bill with a more fiscally responsible bill consistent with our tradition of state regulation and individual freedom in choosing health care providers and paying for services. I hope that the interested reader will join with me in signing this worthy petition.

Stem Cell Snake Oil Salesmen

There was an interesting 60 Minutes Scott Pelley segment tonight on a couple of alleged stem cell con men, Lawrence Stowe, a chemistry engineering PhD claiming another, suspect doctorate, and Frank Morales, claiming medical credentials from UTEP (which, I know as a former professor there, doesn't have a medical school). There are tragic stories of people with progressive, life-shortening diseases like ALS and MS putting up life savings, selling houses, etc. to pay for hyped miracle cures. All of this is morally reprehensible and criminal; I wasn't convinced that the FDA was aggressively pursuing these and other stem cell charlatans. These and related snake oil salesmen should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law and sued to make the victims whole from ill-gotten gains.

As a pro-life conservative, I am opposed to embryonic stem cell research To be honest, any enterprise which depends on inefficiency or redundancy in fertilization procedures and the spoilage and disposal of human embryos is ethically dubious; the idea of embryo farming for stem cells or replacement body parts is repulsive.

As a conservative who continued to support John McCain in 2007 when his front-runner status had plunged to single-digit support, I had to fend off venomous attacks on McCain based on his support of immigration reform, the Bush tax cuts, and campaign reform; it was very clear after the 2006 election that the Democrats were going to continue to run against Bush, and a successful GOP candidate would need to distance himself sufficiently from Bush and have enough support from independents and moderates. McCain was Bush's strongest rival in 2000 and cast enough votes to establish a certain degree of separation. One of those positions was a nuanced position on embryonic stem cell research.

I still recall the Kerry campaign in 2004 that heavily promoted high-profile celebrities like Michael J. Fox and Dana Reeve; the Democrats shamelessly exploited unrealistic expectations over short-term results of scalable taxpayer funding of embryonic stem cell research. (Private sector research was not banned; Bush tried to establish a middle way of federal funding behind existing stem cell lines, which many scientists felt were too restrictive.)

John McCain had modified his position on stem cell research in a moving tribute to his one-time bipartisan mentor and friend, liberal Democrat Congressman and early Carter Presidential rival Mo Udall. Udall resigned over progressive Parkinson's by the early 1990's. McCain has always had a sense of loyalty and honor, the same quality which would never allow him to agree to be released ahead of longer-serving POW's in a North Vietnamese prison. McCain would make a weekly visit to Mo Udall at the care facility when journalists weren't around and there were scant reminders of his political past. McCain continued his visits, reading aloud clippings of Arizona news items and the like, even when Udall didn't seem to recognize his presence. McCain changed his position after the Udall family appealed to him following Udall's death; he was open to broader funding than Bush's restrictions, although he continued to oppose embryo farming.

The Obama campaign had picked up where Kerry's campaign had left off in snake oil selling of short-term miracle results if only federal funding was scaled up. What astonished me was when I received an emailed rant from a college-age niece, an Obama supporter (I had not gotten an email in years from this niece, and we had never discussed politics.) She was attacking McCain's support of what she considered wasteful, futile stem cell research. I was stunned by the inconsistency of her underlying thesis, given the the fact that the Obama campaign was attempting to marginalize McCain's support for the research; McCain was not attempting to raise expectations of the short-term availability of therapies for ALS, paralyzed or other patients. In responding to my niece, I ignored her personal attack on McCain and lectured her on the distinction between scientific evidence and opinion, the need for more reliance on original sources and to be more open-minded regarding the possibilities in scientific advancement.

The Piling On of Governor Christ (R-FL)

We now see massive, counterproductive attacks by media conservative on pragmatic Republicans. Was there no lesson learned from Jim Jeffords' or Arlen Specter's defections, both of which adversely affected the GOP Senate position? Or what happened when Lamont edged out Lieberman for renomination as a Democrat in the 2006 Connecticut Senate race? What about the victories of Chris Christie in New Jersey and Scott Brown in Massachusetts?

There are some very dangerous things going on in the Arizona and Florida Senate races where media conservatives are attempting to oust 2008 Republican Presidential nominee John McCain and popular incumbent Republican Governor Charlie Crist respectively. The Republican leadership specifically requested Crist to run for the Senate instead of reelection, which would guarantee retention of then resigning GOP Senator Martinez' seat. I've seen polls showing Hayworth, a former Congressman and talk show host, closing to within 5 to 15 points of McCain.

The problem here is that the Republican primaries in both Arizona and Florida are closed. This is extraordinarily bad politics for a number of reasons: independent and moderate voters in these purplish states can make the difference in the GOP retaining the seat. Media conservatives fail to remember that the Obama campaign, which had an underfunded GOP ticket running itself ragged not only trying to campaign in swing states but red states as well (e.g., Indiana), bluffed putting more resources in Arizona, which could have resulted in a humiliating loss for McCain in his home state. Less than a year ago, Marco Rubio was badly trailing Crist by a 2-1 advantage. Crist, among other things, made an ill-advised endorsement of the stimulus bill; for whatever reason, within 6 months, Rubio caught up with Crist and has essentially reversed the Crist lead from a year ago. Crist made a belated response, questioning some transactions from Rubio's campaign funds. I saw one poll draw him within 11 points of Rubio, but the wind is at Rubio's back. Rubio is being heavily promoted on Fox News Channel; Rubio received Giuliani's endorsement last week, followed by Romney's endorsement this past weekend. Sarah Palin is signaling her eagerness to endorse Rubio. The party leadership has seemingly abandoned its initial support for Crist, implying if he does go rogue, as widely expected now, which he has to declare by a week from Friday, the party will defend its presumptive nominee, Rubio, and attack Crist.

I understand that Giuliani and Romney are clearly motivated by lingering bitterness over Crist's decision to endorse McCain in the 2008 primary which essentially cemented McCain as the front-runner for the nomination. The fact is that Giuliani and Romney are (or have been) both pragmatic Republicans and they endorsed Rubio only after he built up a huge, decisive lead over Crist.

I do not know what Michael Steele and the party leadership are thinking. Did they completely miss the lesson of how the Democrats recaptured the Congress in 2006 and opened up their lead in the 2008 elections? They did not do so by running ideological progressives as representatives or senators in red or purple states. Why would the GOP think a winning strategy for this fall is to run ideological conservatives in blue or purplish states? If McCain and/or Crist lose their primaries, then the ratings go from likely Republican to leaning Republican or even tossup.

It's very possible that Crist could become the Lieberman of the Republican Party; Lieberman has become much more assertive in expressing his contrarian views to the consternation of the progressive Democratic leadership.

Political Cartoon

Nate Beeler doesn't show the appetizer (the stimulus bill) and the order of cap and trade on the side. You have no choice, because Republican alternatives are off the menu. Speaker Pelosi tells you Democratic sausage is made from a secret party recipe, seasoned with dozens of exotic taxes, but you notice a nasty aftertaste of government pork. Your waiter suggests drinking the special Obama-blend Kool-Aid. Don't you fret about the bill--the Democrats have raised the federal debt limit, and you can charge it on your China "Red [Ink] Card", inherited by your children and grandchildren.