Category: Politics

Reading Charles Hurt from the Washington Times this morning, I see Teddy Kennedy, one of the richest men in Congress*, is pissed about trading tax cuts for a minimum wage increase;

“How many more billions of dollars do we have to give you, Mr. Republican?” the Massachusetts Democrat shouted. “How many more dollars do we have to give you to get an increase in the minimum wage? It is shocking. It is disgraceful.” 

Who is “we”, Teddy? Is it coming out of your pocket? Small businesses will be hit hardest by a minimum wage increase (well, actually, new hires will be hit hardest because they won’t get hired if small businesses can’t afford to pay them), so how much sense does it make, since Congress is hell-bent on imposing this unfunded mandate on employers, that Congress give those employers who will still hire new workers despite the hike a break?

“Senator Kennedy complains about $8.3 billion in tax relief out of one side of his mouth, while asking for $8.5 billion in pork-barrel spending out of the other,” said Wesley Denton, spokesman for Sen. Jim DeMint, South Carolina Republican.
    “He wants to have it both ways, and that’s exactly what this debate has been about. He says he wants to help people get out of poverty, but then proposes a one-size-fits all federal mandate that actually prevents people from getting their first job,” Mr. Denton said. 

Where was Teddy Kennedy’s concern for the American worker when he voted for the 1993 tax hike that raised EVERYONE’S taxes – including retirees on Social Security? Where was Teddy Kennedy’s concern for the American worker when he voted against President Bush’s tax cut in 2001 when about half of low-income workers were either given a thirty-three percent tax cut or moved entirely off the tax rolls.

And, by the way, Fat Boy, where is all of this “bi-partisan cooperation” I’ve been hearing about? You complained for twelve years that Republicans weren’t compromising with you (despite the fact that President Bush asked you to help him write the “No Child Left Behind” bill) – what do you think compromise means, Mumbly Joe?

* According to the Wall Street Journal, Kennedy earned $161,000 in 2005.

Major assets: Five family trust funds, $6 million-$30 million; two blind trusts, $1 million-$5 million

Major sources of unearned income: Income from family and blind trusts $1.1-$6 million

The rally I should have attended yesterday, instead of spending an hour standing in the cold with witless “tens of thousands”, was at the Marriot. Jeb Bush (my wife’s new heart throb) spoke to fellow conservatives at National Review Institute’s conference and told them why I haven’t pryed my wallet open for them in two years;

“Don’t take offense personally if I get mad at Congress,” the Republican former Florida governor began. “It’s important for us to realize we lost, and there are significant reasons that happened, but it isn’t because conservatives were rejected. But it’s because we rejected the conservative philosophy in this country.”

He added, “If the promise of pork and more programs is the way Republicans think they’ll regain the majority, then they’ve got a problem.”

Bush’s speech prompted three standing ovations from the audience….

As well it should have. If Republicans want to remain the party of conservative thought, they need to turn loose of the same elitist, tax grabbing, wasteful government spending of the their Democrat forebearers. While the Democrats are focused on tearing apart our national defenses (the President with his veto has our backs on that issue), the Republicans should be formulating a policy of REAL fiscal restraint.

The first order of business should be dismantling the Congressional pension system. Not only would it discourage a class of professional lawmakers who’ve lost touch with the people they should be serving, it would save millions of dollars every year. It would result in Congress-critters who term limit themselves.

Their salaries and staffs should be cut in half to attract people who are only interested in serving their constitutents and not people who’re looking for an easy career of yapping incessently about nothing important and people who would do their own research rather than depending on a pack of undereducated suck-ups to think for them.

And they can get to work folding redundant government agencies into each other. Like the International Trade Administration and the International Trade Commission. They could fold the Education Department into another agency (it used to be part of Health and Human Services – then it was Health, Education and Welfare) since the only thing the Education Department does is hand out money to States. Maybe with the savings, States could raise their own taxes and stop depending on handouts from Uncle Sugar.

I’d like to see them rescind the XVIIth Amendment, too;

Amendment XVII

The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each state, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each state shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the state legislatures.

When vacancies happen in the representation of any state in the Senate, the executive authority of such state shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, that the legislature of any state may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct.

This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the election or term of any Senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the Constitution.

Originally, Senators were chosen by the State Legislatures to represent the interests of the several States, but since the XVIIth Amendment, Senators no more represent their States than I represent all portly middle-aged men. They’re just a smaller, more-windy version of the House. They represent themselves and their own selfish issues (I should post a picture of Teddy Kennedy and John Kerry here, but you get the idea). Perhaps if they were beholden to the State Legislatures, they’d take their jobs more seriously and the Federal government could remember that there’s a Xth Amendment, too.

Well, that’s my wishlist, anyway. If the Republicans want my money and support, they need to start thinkng of ways to make the government better instead of ways to be more like Democrats. As long as idiots and morons like Hagel and Brownback think that Republicans lost Congress because of the war, it’s pretty doubtful that Republicans will change their evil ways, though. That’s the problem with government, though. They listen to the Fourth Branch of Government – the main stream media – instead of the People.

Of course, it’s not as brave of them as some might think. Why would al Qaeda attempt to kill their greatest allies?

Steve Hirsch in the Washington Times tells us that a coalition of Republican and Democrat Congressmen are trying to reward Communists in Cuba;

Legislation to chip away at the Bush administration’s hard-line Cuba policy is in the works in the House, where Republicans and Democrats are planning a variety of measures aimed at easing the U.S. policy on Cuba.
    The first bill, which would lift the ban on Americans traveling to Cuba, was introduced yesterday by Rep. Jeff Flake, Arizona Republican.

And of course Charlie Rangle couldn’t help but take a potshot at the President on the war in Iraq;

 Mr. Rangel criticized Mr. Bush as being “locked into punishing Castro,” but suggested that Mr. Bush would not veto bills that have Republican support.
    “He’s in enough trouble for the war that the best he can look for is trying to be able to accomplish something among Republican members. He owes them big time,” Mr. Rangel said.

One-note Charlie.

And Charles Hurt reports from the Washington Times this morning that the Senate Democrats blocked an amendment to the minimum wage bill that would have imposed stiffer fines on employers who hire illegal workers;

Senate Democrats quashed a proposal yesterday that would have dramatically increased civil fines on employers who hire illegal aliens.
    Sen. Jeff Sessions, Alabama Republican, offered the amendment to the bill now being debated that would increase the federal minimum wage.
    Ridding the economy of illegal aliens, he argued, would do far more to help low-income wage earners than simply raising the minimum wage. Not only do aliens displace U.S. citizens in the work force, he said, they also artificially suppress wages.

And old fat-ass, drunken Teddy Kennedy chalks it up to Republicans not caring about American workers;

Republicans are “not for those millions of Americans who are heading home tonight, who’ve worked long and hard, facing their children hoping that at last … the United States isn’t going to fail us,” he said. “What do we tell them after five days?”

And then takes a shot at the President about the war in Iraq;

After accusing Republicans of stalling, Mr. Kennedy then proceeded to read aloud for five minutes a story in the New York Times about soldiers fighting in Iraq.

I’m beginning to see a pattern here. Is this the new Democrat strategy? Everything is related to the War Against Terror? Whether it is or not? They found an issue that pleases their base and attracts a few bleeding heart independents so they hang on to it like grim death.

Donald Lambro in the Washington Times blamed Kerry’s “botched joke” for Kerry’s decision not to run at the White House again in 2008.

Mr. Kerry had intended to make another try for the White House, but a remark he made in the fall while campaigning for Democrats suggesting that only poorly educated Americans ended up fighting in Iraq sparked an uproar of criticism, even from within his own party, that drove him from the campaign trail.
    Mr. Kerry said at the time that his comments were nothing more than “a botched joke.” But the angry public reaction to his remarks, especially from military voters and veterans, embarrassed his party and, some said, tarnished his image as a presidential prospect.
    “I have concluded that this is not the time for me to mount a presidential campaign,” Mr. Kerry said from the Senate floor…

Kerry’s decision was probably the most brilliant move he’s ever made in politics, perhaps in his entire life (aside from marrying two rich widows). He’s a loser, pure and simple. Apparently in Massachusetts doesn’t care who represents them in the Senate, which should be ample reason to vacate the 17th Amendment. He’s a sissified spoiled rich kid who should have learned that when he saw what an idiot the rest of the country thought of him. I’m sure he thinks that he was cheated and that he deserves to be President. Luckily 53% of Americans (the ones that work hard and raise their families) thought otherwise.

What’s really disgusting is the way other Democrats treat him like a fallen hero;

His decision won an emotional tribute from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who was on the Senate floor as Mr. Kerry finished his speech.
    “So I say to John Kerry: I love you, John Kerry. And I’m so sorry that things didn’t work out for our country. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that I will always care about you greatly and remember the times we’ve spent together,” the Nevada Democrat said.
    His 2004 running mate, former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, paid tribute to Mr. Kerry by saying the withdrawal decision must have been tough because “we know his first instinct is always to respond to any call to serve his country.”
    Sen. Barack Obama, Illinois Democrat, said that from Vietnam to the 2004 campaign, “John Kerry has fought for his country and his ideals and will continue to serve his country with honor and distinction in the years to come.”

But I guess to a crowd of cowards, Kerry does look like a patriot and hero. How’s that saying go? It’s easy to look like you fly like an eagle when you’re surrounded by turkeys.

As proof of my assertion that Kerry is “sissified”, I offer this report from Financial Times by way of MSNBC;

“We came close – certainly close enough to try again,” Mr Kerry told senators, at one point choking back tears.

Damned if we need a president who starts blubbering over his own shortcomings.

According to Jerry Seper at the Washington Times, eighteen republicans are trying to get Sandy Burglar to a polygraph machine;

…Reps. Duncan Hunter, Darrell Issa and Brian Bilbray of California, John L. Mica of Florida, F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. of Wisconsin, Dan Burton and Mark Souder of Indiana, Christopher Shays of Connecticut, John M. McHugh of New York, Chris Cannon of Utah, John J. “Jimmy” Duncan Jr. of Tennessee, Michael R. Turner of Ohio, Kenny Marchant of Texas, Lynn Westmoreland of Georgia, Patrick T. McHenry and Virginia Foxx of North Carolina and Bill Sali of Idaho.

According to Thomas Davis (R-VA), part of Berger’s deal was a polygraph test;

Mr. Davis said that during sentencing, Mr. Berger agreed to a polygraph examination as part of a plea deal, but Justice never administered the test, according to two Justice officials closely connected to the case — John Dion, chief of the counterespionage section, and Bruce Swartz, deputy assistant attorney general for the Criminal Division.

So let’s see it done.

Fined $50,000 and barred from access to classified material for three years, he faced a year in prison and a $100,000 fine, but his plea deal reduced the fine and kept him out of prison.

If he won’t take the polygraph, revoke that sweet deal he got and toss his wide, ample buttocks into a ten-by-ten for about twenty years.

For reasons similar to Michael Ledeen, I watched neither speech last night. I pretty much knew what each side would say. So since I missed the whole thing, I can’t comment on it much. But I can comment on what Washington Post’s Michael Shear said about Jim Webb’s rebuttal of the President’s State of the Union Address (full text without coddling commentary at the Washington Times).

According to Shear, Webb began by stating the obviously false;

Webb accused the president of taking the country into Iraq “recklessly” and forcing it to endure “a mismanaged war for nearly four years.”

“Many, including myself, warned even before the war began that it was unnecessary; that it would take our energy and attention away from the larger war against terrorism; and that invading and occupying Iraq would leave us strategically vulnerable,” Webb said.

What is larger than Iraq in the War Against Terror? Jihadists from around the world have been pouring into Iraq from Iran and Syria to sacrifice themselves in the name of Allah. I think that’s a good thing – at least they’re not pouring into Europe and the United States to sacrifice themselves. And contrary to what Webb said, that makes us strategically stronger since we’ve chosen the battlefield – like every victorious military leader in history.

Then Webb makes a completely intellectually dishonest statement;

We need a new direction,” said Webb, a decorated Marine veteran of the Vietnam War. “Not one step back from the war against international terrorism, not a precipitous withdrawal that ignores the possibility of further chaos, but an immediate shift toward strong, regionally based diplomacy.”

How do we step back from Iraq, like Webb demands, without that being a step-back from the War Against Terror? The Democrats are so steeped in their own propaganda and rhetoric that they’re beginning to believe it. Just like their “worst economy in 60 years” manure in 2004.

But then Shear goes on to lick Webb’s feet;

Democrats owe their newfound control of the Senate to Webb’s slim and improbable victory over former Virginia senator George Allen. Webb — who served as secretary of the Navy under Ronald Reagan — also embodies his party’s central message: a determination to oppose the Iraq war while supporting the troops who are there.

Webb has become a folk hero among liberals and Democratic bloggers for brusquely telling Bush at a White House event that questions from the president about Webb’s son are “between me and my boy.”

So after just three weeks as a U.S. senator, Webb became the choice of the Democratic leadership in the Senate and House of Representatives to carry their blunt warning about Bush’s new war strategy.

Mindless drivel spoken at the altar of lies. Now Webb is a folk-hero for being an impetuous child in the White House. The Kos Kids must have been peeing themselves with excitement last night. Webb is a vacant imbecile who changes parties when it’s politically expedient and he can fool voters ONE MORE TIME. With Dingy Harry Reid carrying his water;

“He represents to me what the new America is all about,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) as he faced about 40 reporters with Webb and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.). “Someone who understands what it means to go to war, what it means to have peace, what it means to work on a bipartisan basis. I think he’s the perfect person to answer the president.”

Yeah, they thought John Kerry was the perfect person to answer the President in 2004 – until a couple of thousand veterans showed up at the Capitol on a sunny September afternoon and declared “Kerry lied while good men died”.

Webb should have remembered where his “brothers” fall on this issue before he gets the same treatment.