Lobbyists

Walter Williams continues to be one of my very favorite writers. I hadn't thought of this aspect of why money works in Washington. The solution is now obvious to even me.

Sam's Club

Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficial … the greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding. – Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis, 1928

Ted Kennedy's questions at the Alito hearing were revealing at the least. "Are you going to back the little guy?" he asked. Like John Roberts, Alito did not see a difference between the little guy or the big guy. We are all equal under the law. The law does not require that we be equal in economics, status, education, or anything else. The government does not exist as an engine for social tinkering. It's only job is to provide for the common defense, and in its most limited sense promote common good.

I don't know Sam Alito, but his rulings and his press indicate a passing deference to the constitution which is all any of us can ask. So, how can 8 committee members, and presumably 45 Democrats vote against him? The reason must be that the Constitution and the rule of law means little to these people.

Brandeis gives the benefit of the doubt to those who would encroach our rights. I no longer hold that illusion for Kennedy and his cronies who are arguably men of zeal, but not necessarily well meaning.

As for Sam, count me as a member of his club (for now).

Wizer One-Liner #7

In order for us to believe that Bush misled us, as so many of our congressman want, we would also have to believe that they themselves are a bunch of uninvolved simpletons, seriously derelict in their own duty; and they should therefore be removed from office.

"Leadership?"

"Here we are, I'm out at my third Pro Bowl, I'm about to go in and throw a touchdown to Jerry Rice, we're honoring the Hall of Fame, and we're talking about our idiot kicker who got liquored up and ran his mouth off." - Peyton Manning

News Item: WASHINGTON -
President Bush embraced Sen. John McCain 's proposal to ban cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of terrorism suspects on Thursday, reversing months of opposition that included White House veto threats. --AP

Which one (Manning or Bush) is a more effective leader? On a day when the Iraqi transformation was ratified by 68% of the electorate, and that his vision of Iraq's independence is now careening toward certainty, the "architect" of the war in Iraq is spouting off like an idiot. In recent days he's given the impression that the military intelligence leading into the war was "faulty", and now he wants to handcuff the intelligence function even more with this brain-dead scheme. Now, no matter what the terrorists do, they know they will get the country club treatment in Gitmo for all their troubles.

When McCain came up with this, George should have just said, "On a day when Iraqi independence is assured, and we are honoring the people who fought for their independence, we're talking about our idiot senators who get get liquored up and run their mouths off".

Peyton is 13-0 this season. GWB will miss the playoffs. Who's the better leader?

Wizer One-Liner #6

What's going on with the Republicans may not be that funny, but It's hard to beat the Dems for pure entertainment value.

The survey says....

The most basic question is not what is best, but who shall decide what is best. – Thomas Sowell

In almost all matters, the real question should be: why are we letting government handle this? – Harry Browne

I normally don't do surveys. My thinking is if the person writing the survey is smart enough to write a meaningful survey, he already knows the answers. Today, I get in the mail, a solicitation masquerading as a survey. It was from The National Republican Senatorial Committee, and it was called the Senate Majority Leader's Survey.

Don't ask me how I got on their mailing list. I have never been a member of their party, or even much of a sympathizer. But I did fill out this survey.

Here's an example question: "Should the United States increase spending to protect its borders and coastlines?" There was no checkbox for the real answer, which is "The United States gets enough money to protect our borders. It is the only constitutional duty the federal government is responsible for, and there ought to already be enough money in the budget to manage this one thing." Hard to cover that in a yes or no scenario. Put me down as undecided.

Here's another: "Should the United States accelerate the training of Iraqi security forces no matter what the cost? No matter what the cost? I wonder what kind of answer they were going for there. Surely a "No" answer tells them very little. The whole reason for the "survey", of course is in the last section, the one where you get to fill out your Visa, MasterCard, ar AmEx number.

Gonna send it in, anyway (no postage necessary, and no contribution made). They've got my response. I doubt they'll care about the answers. They did not even get the questions right.

Small mindedness

"Intelligent people talk about ideas, average minded people talk about events, small minded people talk about people." - eleanor roosevelt

Jonah Goldberg, as usual, pretty much nails it in this article. Intelligent people talk about Freedom. Average people talk about The War. Small minded people talk about how "evil" George W. Bush is. Lets have our debates over ideas.

Meanwhile, back at home....

The Government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other. – Ronald Reagan

Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program. – Milton Friedman

While our "leaders" debate the equivalent of pulling all police officers out of the South Central neighborhood of LA, or Eight Mile Road in Detroit, (we're making more enemies every day in Michigan) the bigger issue continues to fester. We are growing the government at an unprecedented and truly alarming rate.

The president points to the growing economy, as if your finding a job were a good excuse to run your credit cards over the top. You could easily just follow the money here, and see the problem, but I worry more about the size of the resulting government. Fiscal responsibility gets only lip service from this administration. GWB has never met a spending bill he didn't like. Tom DeLay couldn't find any fat in the budget either. Well, Tom, the rest of us see fat when we see it.

George's tax cuts have been on the right side of the Laffer curve, but that will change, one way or another.

Could it be that Mike Pence is the unwavering voice of fiscal reason? The real Republican Revolution has perhaps not yet begun?

All I know is we have more government than we want today, and much less than we paid for.

High Treason on the National Stage.

Article 3, Section 3: Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.

The Congress shall have power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted. -- U.S. Constitution

Giving Aid and Comfort to the Enemy is apparently protected under the first amendment rights to free speech, because much speechmaking these days is truly treasonous. To say to the world that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction is not only false, it's recklessly false.

Are we all naive enough to believe that they never existed? There are those who say that Bush made statements about WMD that were intentionally false, yet these facts turned out to be inarguably true. This is more than simple misunderstanding. It is disinformation; a tactic often used in wartime to mislead an opponent to help reach a military objective. In short, those who say these things are working against the effectiveness of our soldiers, and our government. They are traitors.

Then Murtha, Pelosi, and the whole gang of useful idiots is doing nothing but providing hope and encouragement to our enemies. And they call it patriotism, and somehow Kennedy and Kerry and McCain salute it.

It's disheartening to see the purveyors of this crap spout off on our national stage. The terrorists are hoping and believing that maybe we'll knock our own buildings down for them. If this isn't aid and comfort, what more can we give them?

Bottom line is we are at war, and we had better start acting like it. It seems sometimes that the only one who knows this is "W", and it's pathetic that he has to stop and explain it to all those who are "stuck on stupid". Move on, people. There's no "there" there.

You don't have to like the fact that we are forced to confront our godless enemies in a foreign land, but you do have to recognize that it's where we are today. Our so called "leaders" should refrain from the overt treason that disingenuous partisan politics represents.

What would Jesus Drive?

Environmentalism, in short, is the last refuge of socialism. - Philip Brennan

What would Jesus Drive?, Why, a big SUV, so he can carry more apostles with him. -- Rush Limbaugh

In a 2003 speech by author Michael Crichton, among other places, he raised the spectre of environmentalism as the next big religion.

With so many past failures, you might think that environmental predictions would become more cautious. But not if it's a religion. Remember, the nut on the sidewalk carrying the placard that predicts the end of the world doesn't quit when the world doesn't end on the day he expects. He just changes his placard, sets a new doomsday date, and goes back to walking the streets. One of the defining features of religion is that your beliefs are not troubled by facts, because they have nothing to do with facts.

And so it is with environmentalism.

This speech, and the landmark Philip Brennan article paint a pretty strong picture on why you should simply ignore all calls for dealing with global warming. In fact, if I were you, I'd think a bit about prepping for the next ice age.

In the meantime, there will be more hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, and forest fires. It's gonna happen. And the simple truth is that anybody who wants you to park your SUV in order to save the planet is trying to convert you into his environmentalist religion. Think of him as more of a Jehovah's Witness. Tell him no thanks.