Savage Republican

Business as usual, that is what is expected once “lobbying reform” is done in Washington DC. Oh sure, they may do away with some of the more visible “perks of power” – the trips, the dinners, the ballgames, the gifts – but the lobbyists will still have ways to “buy” influence by giving donations to a Senator’s PAC or a Representative’s favorite charity, or by sponsoring industry specific seminars.

“If meals are heavily restricted, we’re likely to see executives from the home office picking up checks because they’re not lobbyists,” added J. Steven Hart of Williams & Jensen, a major lobbying firm. “And there are lots of other ways we can still get our cases before members of Congress.” (emphasis mine)

Couple that with the fact that the House and the Senate have vastly different ideas as to what lobbying reform should look like. The bill currently working it’s way through the House proposes putting spending limits on the 527’s where the Senate bill does not.

Even the NY Times realizes that this is nothing more than smoke and mirrors, however they turn that realization into an attack on one of the most vulnerable Republican Senators, rather than tackling their own who are just as guilty of abusing the system as anyone else.

The nice thing is that this reform can’t stop us – the grass roots activists. We can and should be contacting our representatives in DC and make sure that they listen to “We the people” and not the lobying community.

I’m going to try to get caught up on a few things today – starting with this.

I work in an industry that is regulated by the Public Utilities Commission. I am well aware of the regulatory burden that is put on utilities by the State of Minnesota. Apparently Mike Hatch (current Attorney General and DFL candidate for governor) now wants add another layer to that burden…approval by the Attorney General’s office.

There were a couple of lines though, that should raise lots of red flags among the electorate.

“First, the PUC must set rates that encourage conservation.”

I have to respectfully disagree with the esteemed Attorney General. The PUC’s job is to set rates that are fair for ALL users! Here in Minnesota, gas for heat is a necessity! There is no way that someone can do without heat in Minnesota in January. People should not have to choose between food and heat. It is the PUC’s job to balance the needs of the consumer with the needs of the company!

“Interestingly, while Xcel wants to collect more money from ratepayers, it plans to return more money to its shareholders.”

Well no kidding! It’s called showing a fiduciary responsibility to the shareholders! It is what a publicly traded company is expected to do…MAKE A PROFIT!!!! If they are not making a profit, then the company is taken to court by said shareholders, because if they are not making money, then the company is either being grossly mismanaged or management is stealing from the company…and who would prosecute the case if it is theft? It couldn’t be the Attorney General’s office now, could it?

Now there is one thing that AG Hatch makes a good point on.

“CenterPoint also wants to charge ratepayers for the replacement of defective gas line couplings that caused two recent explosions. These couplings must be replaced. The issue is whether ratepayers should have to pay for CenterPoint’s failure to investigate the natural gas line system before purchasing it. As troubling, CenterPoint hasn’t calculated the exact costs of the project. CenterPoint acknowledges that some of the costs may be covered by insurance or recovered through litigation. These issues must be resolved before CenterPoint asks to pass these costs onto consumers. “

The AG is correct – CenterPoint needs to determine what costs (if any) are recoverable before they determine how much they need to pass on to the consumer. When CenterPoint Energy purchased Northern States Power approximately 3 years ago, neither company had a clue that there were problems with these couplings, or if NSP was aware of this pending problem, they should have disclosed it to CenterPoint during their purchase negotiations. If CenterPoint can prove malfeasance from the former NSP officers, then they may have a legal case and should be able to recover some of the costs of replacing those couplings.

The thing that bothers me the most about this is that the AG is using his office to campaign for Governor and the Star Tribune seems to not mind giving him this kind of unpaid advertising. The DFL has contended that Governor Pawlenty needs to give up his radio program on WCCO as it provides him with a campaign advantage. If (following the DFL’s “logic”) WCCO should be forced to cancel the program or provide equal time to the Governor’s challengers, then shouldn’t the Star Tribune be forced to offer AG Hatch’s opponents equal time?

and get Hillary Clinton as his running mate in 2008???

Senator McCain has done what no one other person could have ever done…he united the forces behind the Daily Kos and Red State blogs. What has the esteemed Senator done that is responsible for this? He is proposing that the federal government regulate political blogs (such as this one) under the guise lobbying reform. The FEC has been ordered (by the courts) to regulate “electronic electioneering” on political blogs such as Kennedy v Machine. If the FEC steps in to regulate the blogs, then a dollar value would be assigned to each post and once you exceed that magical contribution limit, you are no longer allowed to post – you blog is (in essence) shut down! And regardless of how many posts/contributions, 30 days before the election you are shut down! Meanwhile, 527’s like MoveOn are allowed to advertise freely until election day.

Enter our hero’s (?) Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) and Representative Jeb Hensarling (R-TX). Together these men (and 13 co-sponsors including Minnesotas own Mark Dayton and Mark Kennedy) brought us the Online Freedom of Speech Act (HR 1606 and S 678). These bills would exclude communications over the Internet from the defination of public communications. Some of the bills opponents claim that the bill is unnecessary since the FEC has been tasked with making this ruling. Others say that this leaves the door open for candidates to “co-ordinate with corporations and unions to spend unlimited soft money on the purchase of internet banner and video ads” on behalf of candidates. According to this post at Red State (written by Michael Toner the vice chair of the FEC) “this charge has no legal foundation”. File the whole thing under the heading “politics does indeed make strange bedfellows”.

HR 1606 is scheduled to be voted on by the House sometime next week (the FEC ruling that was due March 16 has been moved out to March 30). Please call your Representatives and Senators and ask them to support free speech on the Internet.

UPDATE: Late Friday night, the FEC released their proposed new rules. According to the report the proposed rules would exempt blogs and individual web users from regulation, but blog/web advertising would fall subject to McCain/Feingold regulations. While not perfect, this is a start. However, these are proposed rules…they are not set yet. Vigilance will still be needed to make sure that speech on the internet is not regulated by some government bureaucracy.

The press has a laser focus on the “high cost of the war” in the form of the body count. Every night you are regaled with the latest American casualty count. Well here is a comparison to consider. In 3 years of war in Iraq 2300+ American soldiers died bringing freedom to Iraq. That equates to approximately 768 deaths per year. Compare that to the annual death rate:

– In automobile accidents 37,469
– pedestrians crossing the street 5,127
– bicycle accidents 744

More people die falling down stairs than are killed in Iraq!

Now I am in no way equating these situations. A war zone is by far more dangerous than driving down Hennepin Avenue on a Friday night (Rambix may argue that point but…) however, there is a larger point here. That point is this…yes war is messy and dangerous, but the fact that 2300+ soldiers were killed over a 3 year period (versus 11,000 on D-Day alone) shows that we have gotten better at protecting our soldiers in a wartime situation. War is a dangerous, bloody thing. Protecting those who go to war is key.

Well the document dump began over a week ago and since it began, more and more is coming out about pre-war Iraq and it all seems to be justifying the President’s reasons for going into Iraq. Give credit where credit is due, ABC News has been doing a fairly decent job of translating and reporting on the document dump.

Except for this…in reporting on a document that states plainly that OBL did indeed meet with officials of the Iraqi government it opines:

“(Editor’s Note: The controversial claim that Osama bin Laden was cooperating with Saddam Hussein is an ongoing matter of intense debate. While the assertions contained in this document clearly support the claim, the sourcing is questionable — i.e., an unnamed Afghan “informant” reporting on a conversation with another Afghan “consul.” The date of the document — four days after 9/11 — is worth noting but without further corroboration, this document is of limited evidentiary value.) “

Powerline posts this from a reader who studied some of the documents along with the 9/11 Commission report:

“The reason this is interesting is because the Iraq document translated by ABC states that “bin Laden had to leave Sudan in July 1996 after it was accused of harboring terrorists.” So, does this report confirm that it is possible that Bin Ladin was indeed in the Sudan in July 1996, making it possible for the meeting with Iraq to have taken place? It doesn’t confirm it, of course, but the 9/11 Report’s primary objection to the intelligence of the July 1996 meeting was that it did not fit its own timeline. At the very least, this document calls into question the accuracy of the 9/11 Report’s timeline and, at best, adds more corroboration to the intelligence of the July 1996 meeting.”

A translation of a taped conversation that Saddam had with his advisors had this little gem in it.

“True Sir, but the information that came to the Special Committee didn’t all come at the same time. They get some information, then a little more, and so on and so forth. So it looks like they got the information in the fall of last year. … Right now Sir, this is a meeting of the highest leadership in our country, we did actually produce biological weapons. It’s not a lie to say that we worked in this field. And the materials that came here came for this purpose, not for the medical use like we told the Special Committee. So when there’s proof, you are a man of law, when there’s a case in a court, and there’s proof, it leads to the conclusion. So the conclusion that the Special Committee came to is correct, it’s not a lie. The conclusion said that you imported a large quantity of materials that are used for medical purposes, and at the same time they are raw materials to produce biological weapons. You said it’s for medical purposes, using it for medical purposes only requires kilograms not tons. Meaning that the Ministry of Health can use 200 kilograms the entire year for examinations, but it doesn’t use 37 tons. “

Here is one of Saddam’s own admitting (to Saddam) that yeah we lied to the UN and that they should have realized that we were lying because medical usage of these biologicals only requires kilograms and not the massive tonnage that they had….

Maybe the dumb cowboy from Texas was right all along…maybe Saddam was in league with al Qaeda and maybe he did have WMD’s, and maybe just maybe the President had access to intelligence that the rest of the country (especially the MSM who couldn’t keep a secret if their lives depended on it) didn’t have. Do you suppose?

Stephen Hayes of the Weekly Standard deserves all the credit for these documents coming to the forefront. He worked long and hard to get the administration to release these documents. The Weekly Standard is posting information on the translations so you should go there frequently to get the latest on this unfolding story.

UPDATE: I posted this before I got to this in my online edition of the New York Sun. A telling quote was this one from former Senator and 9/11 Commission member Bob Kerrey of Nebraska:

“Mr. Kerrey said he believed America’s understanding of the deposed tyrant’s relationship with Al Qaeda would become much deeper as more captured Iraqi documents and audiotapes are disclosed.”

I also found this Mona Charon article this morning after writing this post. She sheds some worthwhile insight into the “bad faith” that was shown by the President’s critics and how it is being spotlighted now that the Saddam documents have come out. Ms. Charon certainly puts what I wanted to say here in much better form than I did. The meme of “Bush lied” is put to rest with the release of these captured documents. All I can say is it’s about time.

On Christmas Eve, I wrote about the Teacher who Stole Christmas. If you recall, a substitute teacher decided it was her place to tell her class of first graders that Santa did not exist. Well the holiday Grinch has struck again, and this one is much closer to home!

“A cloth bunny and pastel-colored eggs with the words “Happy Easter” were taken down from the lobby of the St. Paul City Council offices Wednesday after someone questioned whether it was appropriate to note the Christian holiday.”

WHAT THE HECK????? A cloth bunny and pastel colored eggs note a “Christian” holiday? What rock did this person crawl out from under. Is he/she unaware that those are pagan fertility symbols?

“It’s not about being politically correct or anything else. Someone complained, everyone stopped and said, ‘We ought not to do this,’ ” said Council President Kathy Lantry. “

Excuse me, Ms Lantry it is EXACTLY about being “politically correct”. The person who complained was caught up in a state of constant umbrage – just looking for something to complain about! Remember – this is the city that, in 2001, decided that the color red was a symbol of Christmas and therefore, red pointsettias should not be allowed in City Hall.

The sad thing is that the man who is personally responsible for the degradation of personal responsibility and personal rights, the author of St Paul’s smoking ban, Dave Thune was the only one to come to the defense of the poor secretary whose display caused such a furor.

“This has just gone too far,” he said. “We can’t celebrate spring with bunnies and fake grass?”

This is what the nanny state gets you folks – a secretary can not even have an Easter Bunny on her desk without running afoul of the perpetually offended. What a sad state we are in…

I do hope that the St. Paul City Council is happy. The have again made national news and again for all the wrong reasons.

The Democratic Party appears to be in free fall. All they apparently know is their hatred of President Bush.

“The proposal this week by Senator Russell D. Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin, to censure Mr. Bush over his domestic eavesdropping program cheered the left.”

The Dems base is energized. Take a look at the Daily Kos. They are absolutely salivating over the prospect of a Presidential censure at the least, impeachment at the most.

“”Impeachment, coming your way if there are changes in who controls the House eight months from now,” Paul Weyrich, a veteran conservative organizer, declared last month in an e-mail newsletter.”

Democratic leadership continues to misread the public. Remember the “culture of corruption” charges that they rallied around. That didn’t work when word got out that Senator Harry Reid (D-NV and Senate minority leader) was one of the biggest recepients of Jack Abramoff’s largess.

Then there was the NSA “spying”…the basis for the censure resolution. Democratic leadership is screaming about the “violations” of civil rights. Well not only has the voting public has not responded favorably to those charges, they have actually come out supporting the President’s actions.

As the article here states, the stakes are high this November. Are we going to elect responsible adults or are we going to elect the “culture of narcissism” as the article calls it….those that are only in it for their own personal gratification and aggrandizment? Only time (and the November elections) will tell.

Alain’s Newsletter is a Christian based political website. The authors are all conservatives and they base their political beliefs on their Christian faith. Well apparently Google has decided that Alain’s Newsletter is “hate speech”. What started this was Alain approached Google about possibly listing his site on their news crawler. Google responded back that they did not list “hate sites” on their news crawler.

Now, I have friends who subscribe to Alain’s Newsletter and I have read some of the newsletters that she has sent. I also spent some time on their website, just to see for myself what Google is so afraid of. If this is “hate speech” then evangelicals beware. Your church could be the next on their list of “hate sites” if they have a website (as the church I attend does.

Keep an eye on Alain’s Newsletter for further updates.

Just a couple of quick links to follow up on my post here on the absence of NOW when it comes to the rights of women in the Islamic world. Front Page Magazine had this on gender apartheid in the Islamic world. MEMRI has this on an Islamic Cleric who decided that sex with infants is AOK by Allah. Lastly is this written by a woman who was brought up in an Islamic household.

Again, just where is NOW when they are needed?

Saw this from Drudge.
And why am I not surprised?
I asked a friend of mine who flies for a major carrier if we were any safer now than we were on 10 September? He said no. we weren’t.
The only successful thwarting of the 9-11 terrorists were the appropriately once named Flight 93 militia.
One of the most poignant and deeply moving pieces I’ve ever read on what happened on 9-11 is by Dave Barry. It’s called “On Hallowed Ground” Please read it. It speaks volumes about that day and those 33 passengers and 7 crew members.