Savage Republican

There is a lot of international pressure for the US to close our detention centers in Afghanistan and Cuba. Now comes this out of the Globe and Mail.

“Canada to hand over suspects to Kabul
Move could make troops complicit in future torture, legal experts fear”

OK – so we are not supposed to hold the al Quade fighters that we capture and we’re not supposed to turn them over to their host country because the host country could torture them. Then just what are we supposed to do with them???? Ship them back to our country and give them welfare?

This should cement to you that we are in a no win situation (when it comes to the critics of the war). Given that we are in a no win situation with these war critics, the President needs to just do what he needs to do and quit trying to win the critics over to the cause. Just do your job Mr. President and ignore the critics!

The Democrats in DC have been long talking loud and long about Republican corruption (Tom DeLay’s non-existent ties to Jack Abramoff), while totally ignoring their own (Harry Reid’s very real ties to Jack Abramoff). Many in Democratic circles are talking impeachment (if they can get control of the House and Senate). Which is why I found this editorial in the NY Time curious at first. The headline seems to sound as if it is calling for restraint in the censure/impeachment process

“Be sure before you Censure”

The editorial then goes into the history of the last successful censure motion:

“While many have compared the censure proposal to the impeachment of President Bill Clinton, there is a more relevant precedent: In 1834, America’s most famous political orator, Henry Clay of Kentucky, arranged the Senate’s only successful censure of a president, Andrew Jackson — and he never stopped paying for his accomplishment.” (emphasis mine)

It then details the bad blood between Clay and Jackson which started in 1824. It talks about how the animosity came to a head in time for the 1834 midterm elections:

“Clay thought he had won a great triumph. But the 1834 midterm elections returned control of the Senate to the Democrats, as the Jacksonians were called by then. And the Democrats refused to let the censure issue rest…The Democrats celebrated Van Buren’s victory by voting to expunge the censure resolution from the records of the Senate.” (emphasis again mine)

but the closing paragraph makes clear the Times intentions:

“Russ Feingold is no Henry Clay, at least not yet. And if he hopes to discredit Mr. Bush, as he doubtless does, I’d suggest he find means other than censure. The last thing today’s Democrats want to do is to make George W. Bush look like Old Hickory.”

There you have it….go slow on censure…you don’t want to make President Bush look good now do you? You don’t want to loose the mid-terms do you? There you have it…the Times is giving tactical advise to the Democrats on the campaign.

Larry Sabato’s “Crystal Ball” newsletter states that the Republicans will continue to hold the House after the November elections. His take on the Senate appears to be the same – the Republicans will hold thanks to a pick up of Minnesota and possibly Maryland and holding Tennessee – 3 of the 4 open seats.

Holding the House and Senate is critical for the Administration. There are still judicial nominees being held hostage by the Senate and now there is a push to hold the nomination of the new FDA Commissioner until the FDA rules on RU486.

In what surely qualifies as the “Lie of the week” (sorry Laura I had to borrow this), the NY Times states:

“We don’t generally approve of holding nominations hostage to other political objectives. “

and then it goes into all the reason why they are advising that the nominee BE held up on political objectives!

It is obvious that the Left and their willing accomplaces in the mainstream media are going to do everything that they can to ram their agenda down our throats even though time after time they are defeated at the ballot box. All we can do is to keep the pressure on our elected officials to keep doing the people’s business and quit playing “gotcha” politics.

Demetee over at KAR points out the on-going hypocracy at the Trib.

On March 22, 2006 they opined that the electoral system was not broken and that we should not try to fix something that was not broken by requiring voters to show photo ID.

On March 26, 2006 they opined that the electoral system was badly broken and we needed to fix it be dropping the Electoral College!

I tell you…a person could get whiplash trying to follow the “logic” of the Star Tribune’s editorial board!

There is a move afoot in certain Democratic circles to get rid of the Electoral College. This sentiment is not limited to certain radical lefty blogs. The NY Times (purchase required) calls the Electoral College “an anti-democratic relic”. However, the Times forgets that the US is not a true democracy….it is a representative republic! A quick review of American history (courtesy of the FEC website) reminds of of the thinking of the Founding Fathers when they drew up the Constitution and the Electoral College. One item of note from the FEC website is this:

“A third idea was to have the president elected by a direct popular vote.
Direct election was rejected not because the Framers of the Constitution
doubted public intelligence but rather because they feared that without
sufficient information about candidates from outside their State, people
would naturally vote for a “favorite son” from their own State or region. At
worst, no president would emerge with a popular majority sufficient to
govern the whole country. At best, the choice of president would always be
decided by the largest, most populous States with little regard for the
smaller ones.” (emphasis added)

That is a very real concern. It is no secret that what is important to states like California is not as important to states like Minnesota and what is important to Texas is certainly not important to New York! A candidate that is attractive to New Yorkers may not be attractive to Floridians. It’s really that simple.

If you really are interested in a well thought out, well researched take on the pros and cons of the Electoral College, you want to read this article in the Washington Times. The author reminds us of why the Electoral College works and why direct election of Presidents don’t. It is a thoroughly enlightening read.

UPDATE AND BUMP: It appears that the Star Tribune is following the Times lead. This graced todays Opinion Pages. Captain Ed and Mitch did extremely thorough jobs handling the Trib and their take on the issue. They are both must reads!

In a roll call vote on March 16, 53 US Senators (including Senators Feingold, Dayton and Clinton) voted to continue to raid the Social Security surplus. This is stunning considering that the Social Security system is heading rapidly toward bankruptcy (well the speed depends on who you talk to on which side of the aisle).

The amendments co-sponsor, Senator Jim DeMint said it best:

““Sadly, fifty-three senators turned their backs on America’s seniors,” Senator DeMint said. “There is simply no way to save Social Security if we don’t have the courage stop using the surplus as a secret slush fund. I’m thankful there were forty-six senators who stood with America’s seniors to end the raid. We will not be deterred by cynics who offer no solutions.”

The bad thing (for elected officials) is that their voting record is online for any and all to read. That is good news for us voters. We can look up these votes and then hold our elected officals accountable. The 53 Senators who voted to treat the Social Security fund as a “secret slush fund”, need to be held accountable for their votes and thankfully, we have the opportunity to do so this year!

Contrary to the opinions of Twin Cities residents that they are the center of the universe, Minnesota has a dynamic agricultural community. You don’t have to drive much more than 30 minutes in any direction out of downtown Minneapolis or downtown St Paul before you hit farmlands and farming communities. However, as the city spreads out into the country, family farms are coming under extreme pressure. Here are some numbers to ponder. Minnesota ranks:

1st in the nation in turkey production
3rd in the nation in pork production
5th in the nation in dairy production
11th in the nation in beef production
11th in the nation in chicken production

Family farms need to grow and thrive in order to feed our growing populations. However, as the city spreads out into the country, family farms are coming under extreme pressure. These pressures are being brought to bear by city folk who are moving out to the country (next to these family farms) and then complain about the farms attributes. Farmers need to grow in order to meet demand, but when they try to grow, they are met with the NIMBY’s who throw roadblocks in their paths.

The farmers have banded together to form Minnesota Farm and Food to tell their story. You don’t have to be a “farmer” to appreciate their plight. Remember, these family farms were here long before our sub-divisions were. We need to work it out so that both farmer and non-farmer can live together without stepping on each others toes.

That is what many Democratic politicians and activists called the federal government’s response to Hurrican Katrina and to the federal government’s conduct of the war. Yet these same politicians and activists want to turn our health care system over to the same inept government?

Remember Hillary Care? Senator Clinton is still trotting it out – and she has support among the Democrats that want to join her on Capitol Hill. Coleen Rowley supports universal health care. So does Ford Bell and Amy Klobuchar. They all say that they want to reduce drug costs to patients and that private-market competition (as proposed by President Bush and the Republicans) is not the answer.

Well, they were wrong in 1994 and they are wrong now. The NYTimes reports that competitive bidding is working for Medicare and the consumers that signed up for the new Medicare Drug Plan!

The market works, when the government stays out of it. We need to let the market work. Let’s make sure that Hillary Care stays a thing of the past.