THE LAST REFUGE OF A DEMOCRAT SCOUNDREL IS “RACISM!”
The famous observation of Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) that patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel needs to be updated. Today, the last resort of the liberal scoundrel is the false accusation of racism. It's a sign not just of moral and intellectual bankruptcy, but of desperation. And -- with a swiftness that must seem stunning to them in the wake of the big Democrat victory last November -- liberals now have a lot to be desperate about. For the liberal nightmare may be coming true - that when they accuse folks of racism, the folks have stopped listening and no longer care.
WHEN WILL HUGO CHAVEZ BE TAKEN OUT?
In the summer of 2001, I was the keynote speaker at an international business conference in Cartagena, Colombia. Frankly, what I said up at the podium I don't recall. What was memorable was the private conversation I had with the collection of Venezuelan business leaders attending the conference. "As someone who helped bring down the Soviet Union," they asked me, "could you tell us what can we do to bring down Hugo Chavez?" I told them there was one and only one answer to their question, there was no other. He gives you, I explained, "absolutely no other alternative. This is his choice, for he will not give up power any other way. Your choice, then, is to accept his dictatorship or eliminate it by eliminating him. Either-or." But such either-ors do not consider third possibilities, and now, eight years later, there might be one.
DEMOCRATS AND SWEDEN
Stockhom, Sweden. Do you think America would be better off with a Swedish-type welfare state? This question tends to evoke strong reactions from both the left and right, yet few understand Sweden's economic history and the revisions it has been making to its welfare-state model in recent years. Those who wish to chase the Swedish model need first to decide which model they seek: The high-growth, pre-1960 model; the low-growth model of the 1970s and 1980s; or the reformist, welfare-state model of recent years. The irony is that the current Democrat Congress and administration are rapidly emulating the parts of the Swedish model that proved disastrous and rejecting those parts that are proving to be successful.
PATTON AND PALIN
On March 23, 1943, an overconfident Afrika Korps ran into a well prepared ambush at El Guettar, Tunisia. The lead German tanks were slowed by a minefield, then devastated by pre-registered artillery and anti-tank gun fire. "Rommel, you magnificent bastard, I read your book!" gloated George C. Scott, playing Gen. George S. Patton, in the 1970 movie "Patton." And indeed, the real Gen. Patton had read the Afrika Korps commander's 1937 book "Infanterie greift an" ("Infantry Attacks" - Patton could read German) and thus had a good idea of the tactics Gen. Erwin Rommel would employ. The Obama administration has a playbook, too. It's "Rules for Radicals," written in 1971 by Chicago Marxist Saul Alinsky, the godfather of community organizing. Following Mr. Alinsky's tactics has worked well for Mr. Obama. But unfortunately for him, Sarah Palin -- arguably the principal target of rule number 13 -- has read the book, too. Which is why Ms. Palin has run over Mr. Obama's health care plan with a tank.
HALF-FULL REPORT 08/14/09
A buddy of mine, whenever you'd ask how he was, would answer, "If I felt any better, I'd faint." I suspect lots of TTPers are feeling so good this week they're on the point of passing out. Let's all enjoy this while we can. For maybe the Zerocrats will capitulate in the face of the first inkling of a Second American Revolution - for inklings are only what has begun. But we must never forget that they are fascists for whom the aggrandizement of power is their life's purpose. And we must expect them to act accordingly. Lock and load. That said, let's start the fun with the most amazing presidential gaffe of modern times, leaving any of George W. Bush's parsecs behind... ...Here's a question to ask a Congressman at a town hall: why is he focusing on health care at all? Why the gargantuan diversion away from what their total focus should be on, jobs and the economy? Unemployment is rocketing up into double digits, foreclosures are exploding, retail sales are crashing, the economy is imploding, the federal deficit for this year is $1.27 trillion and climbing - and these guys are passionate not about doing whatever it takes to fix this but health insurance and carbon caps? ...Oh, by the way, who knew Bernie Madoff was Chinese?
2010 SENATE SITREP
Things are suddenly going so badly for the Zerocrats now that the GOP has started to think "victory" in 2010. But that's for the House, where anything close to the Pubs' 52-seat gain in 1994 would get their majority back. What about the Senate? November 2010 is a long ways away, but not that far for a "situation report" regarding the GOP's chances for retaking the Senate. Things not only can but undoubtedly will change drastically over the coming months, but here's what and who to keep your eye on now. With Minnesota's embarrassment, Al "Diapers" Franken, giving the Dems 60 seats and the Pubs 40, it will take a massive switch of 11 seats for the latter to pull it off. Switches of this magnitude are rare, but they do occur. In 1958, the Dems gained a net 16 seats, while in 1980, the Pubs gained 12. Both resulted in shifts of majority status. Other years of large switches were 1994 with the Pubs up 8, and last year, 2008, with the Dems up 8 plus Specter's defection for a net of up 9. Next year, 36 seats are at stake, evenly split at 18 each between R's & D's. Let's dispense with the ones that seem now clearly safe.
ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION AND THE DECONSTRUCTION OF CALIFORNIA
The financial unraveling of California currently on display in Sacramento has prompted a long overdue debate on what caused the seeming demise of the once most prosperous state of the union. Outrageous retirement and health care demands on the taxpayer by public employees, and sabotaging the economy through ever more onerous regulations and pie-in-the-sky environmental fantasies like renewable energy, have run against the limits of abuse the system can take and must be sharply scaled down one way or another if California is to remain economically viable. Unfortunately, there is yet another problem that presents an even greater systemic threat to California, even if the ones above were to be somehow fixed. A problem known to all that neither the state's mercenary political establishment nor its politically correct media dare even mention. It is the irreparable damage to California's human capital potential that nearly 30 years of unrestrained illegal immigration has done.
LIES AND EYES
As the philandering husband said to his wife when she discovered him in bed with another woman: "Who you gonna believe? Me... or your lying eyes?" In response this week (8/11) to a question asking whether he still supports a single-payer system (one in which the government is the sole provider of health care services, as in Canada), Mr. Obama said: "I have not said that I was a single payer supporter because, frankly, we historically had a employer-based system in this country with private insurers, and for us a transition to a system like that I believe would be too disruptive." But in a speech to the Illinois AFL-CIO on June 30, 2003, Mr. Obama said: "I happen to be a proponent of a single payer health care program." Your lying eyes can watch him say this on video. Which brings me to Sarah Palin.
WILL OBAMA GO TO OKLAHOMA?
It's starting to feel like 1995 all over again. Public anger against the Democrats and the Clintons was rising to the boiling point - and suddenly was snuffed out when the Oklahoma Federal Building was bombed by a "right-wing terrorist." Remember? "It's only a matter of time" before that happens again, federal officials are now warning in major media stories. Yes, it is only a matter of time - until Zero and his Chicago thugs perpetrate some heinous terrorist act for which they and the media can blame "anti-government un-American right-wing hate groups ." Don't think that Nancy Pelosi's accusation of "un-American mobs" of "angry right-wing" protestors at town halls "waving swastikas" was an emotional outburst. It was setting the stage. Folks, we are being set up. Just like in 1995.
TEN QUESTIONS POLITICIANS WON’T ANSWER
The past week's debate about health care has shown that in Washington the only things more stubborn than facts are politicians who evade them. In spite of a torrent of independent analyses showing that the so-called health-care "reform" bills moving through Congress will dramatically increase the deficit and cause millions of Americans to lose their health insurance, the politicians leading the effort have steadfastly refused to consider that their ideas and policies, rather than the character of their critics, may be flawed. At the same time, the politicians writing the bill still refuse to answer basic questions about how it will be paid for and how it will affect patients. Individual Americans should view the month of August as their best, and perhaps final, opportunity to alter the health-care bills before Congress reconvenes in September. Citizens should ask hard questions without having their motives questioned. I expect such questions at my town-hall meetings. After all, the greater threat to freedom and liberty is not an informed citizenry but an irresponsible, elitist, and evasive political class that refuses to answer hard questions and make tough choices. While I have confidence in the American people to come up with their own probing questions, let me suggest a few questions that my own colleagues have been loath to answer: