The American Spectator

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TOUCHDOWN
Re: Quin Hillyer's The Final Completion:

Commenter "Appleby's" suggestion that Jack Kemp was more liberal than John McCain is ridiculous. No modern day political leader was more committed to allowing the average American to decide how his hard earned wages were to be spent than Jack Kemp. The Jack I knew never saw a tax he liked. I don't recall him advocating an increase in gas taxes. We had Reagan's tax cuts because of Congressman Kemp. 

Yes, he was for giving currently occupied-and-paid-for government housing units to those who lived there. That is a far cry from saddling the mortgage market with paper people couldn't pay for and that later destroyed our credit markets. Rather, it was giving people already helped by government an ownership share in "government property." It was Thatcher like; not McCain like. 

Kemp was a great conservative. He helped Young America's Foundation and Young Americans for Freedom every time he was ever asked. He defended Goldwater, Reagan, Gingrich and other conservatives especially in front of blue collar workers. I am from Buffalo, interned for Jack, and admired his career from his quarterbacking days. To call him a liberal is absurd.
-- Ron Robinson
President, Young America's Foundation

A wise man I can not give credit to once said, "the problem with conservatives is that they let 'facts' do the talking for them." When we were making headway against a growing wave of Marxism, we had a bullhorn -- Reagan. George W. Bush might have actually governed more conservatively than Reagan but who would know in a world of 300,000,000 truths?  With 80% of the media voting Democrat and most Democrats never hearing or seeing anything put forth by Republicans not skewed by an overwhelmingly Democrat media the idea that the "facts" alone are going to make any long term difference is almost silly. The School of Hard Knocks is probably going to make the decisive difference when it arrives in the near future.  

I suspect Kemp would understand all too well that to win anything in life you must penetrate your opponents' side of the field to score points. The Republican Party has been leaderless and on the defensive since Reagan left office and far too many so called Republicans see doing Democrat Marxism one better as the way back into power. As a way back to power that might be true in the short run but real world problems require real world solutions and Democrat solutions don't solve anything beyond lining their pockets with gold and silver and subsidizing the very problems that get them the vote. Leaderless movements eventually die. So do nations. 

Add to this an unaccountable public school system that produces future Democrats at $100,000 per copy, all paid for by tax payers who have no say or interest in fixing what is wrong with the public school system, and you have a ready made supply of unproductive, unmotivated and truly ignorant Cyborgs. The real JFK spoke once upon the dangers of an ignorant electorate. His surviving brother is living proof of this. 

The founders of this republic were a pretty diverse group of people but were able to come together on a very limited set of principles of governance paid for in blood, sweat and tears. John Adams's belief that our form of government was only fit for a "moral people" is universally true. Only a moral people value the self worth and responsibilities necessary to support the republic. Every time we excuse murder for the sake of convenience, lying to win favor or stealing from one's person's labor to buy the vote of another in order serve a political end (or the end justifies the means) we brand ourselves as something far less than a moral people.  

So here we are in 2009 wishing for the good old days back in 1980 with half the able-bodied population paying little income taxes, run away government spending and we don't seem to understand why we can't put forth a better candidate than John McCain? If Christ himself ran for the Republican presidential ticket so called Democrat Christians (and many Republicans too) would brand him all sorts of the ugly names because his words wouldn't reflect their blending of Marxism grafted onto the teachings of their version of Christ. The list of Democrats lining up to be Judas would be endless... 

The central ingredient in the bulk of our real problems starts and ends with personal responsibility and accountability. No one wants to deal with that in the public arena, not even the Church of Jesus Christ it seems. Jack Kemp is just one of many fallen foot soldiers in a crusade for founding principles that is starting to look like the annual salmon swim up river to produce an ever smaller next generation of salmon.
-- Thom Bateman
Newport News, Virginia

50% TREACHEROUS
Re: W. James Antle, III's Irreconcilable Differences:

Reading that legislation that could have been stopped, but was not because not one man or woman in Congress offered the moral courage to do so, really set my morning on edge. We live in days that are devolving into an autonomy where we soon will be told what to do, where to work, how much we can spend, etc, etc. We are on the downhill slope of losing personal choices of very great magnitude. 

That alone would have me stunned but I also deal with a son's soon departure to war for his tenth tour over. And what he faces is daunting even for him to face, much less his mother and his wife. He speaks of a world quickly coming undone. And I believe he is right because we see whole countries ready to fall, either to terrorists gaining territory (Pakistan), or the country to the south of us, Mexico, that is on economic watch list because of flu and financial failures. We face multiple enemies who all desire our demise as a country and as a people and we have, at our helm, the most inexperienced President perhaps in all history. Couple that with his nefarious background and teachings he was exposed to for many years, and you find our nation at the pinnacle of looking at "the perfect storm".

As I lift my son in prayers, and others who fight with him, I am mindful to ask God's protection over us collectively. We always knew God was in control but no time more than now.
-- Beverly Gunn
Texas

Kent Conrad was on CSPAN last week discussing the budget. He chided Republicans for daring to say anything about the irresponsibility of the federal budget his committee was putting together. Conrad sanctimoniously spewed forth that old tired line "well YOU guys spent and spent and spent when YOU were in power. So don't say ANYTHING about us."

Fair enough. But now senator YOU are in the driver's seat. Its now YOUR party completely in charge. When my kids and their kids, burdened by horrendous tax rates, look back at what happened, YOU will be the one they blame. After all, it was YOUR budget committee that made the problem not just worse, but unsustainable.

Conrad's irresponsible (dare I say moronic?) philosophy when it comes to the federal budget is no different than the person who goes out and spends $5000 they didn't have on a credit card. The solution? Why go out and spend $15000 more!

The day of reckoning is coming senator. You are on your high horse for now. But it's a long, long fall to the ground. And you ultimately will be the one held in contempt for your arrogance and irresponsibility. You will be the one held accountable.
-- Garry Greenwood
Gearhart, Oregon

KUDOS
Re: Patrick O'Hannigan's Defending Mary Ann Glendon:

Mega kudos to Mary Ann Glendon for her stand against tyranny and her willingness to be vilified, as all people of principle will be by this new gang in charge. I do not want to minimize this praise of her by shifting the focus to Obama but has anyone else noticed the many similarities of Obama and his South American friend Chavez? First their appearance (they both have the same sh*t-eating grins in the gift exchange photos), their common tendency to prosecute and imprison their political opponents, their desire and actions to control the media, their ever-readiness to nationalize or federalize private companies, the massive egotism and self-aggrandizement, etc., the list goes on and on. All this by a man who has no personal accomplishments to speak of other being an ACORN community activist. Scary as hell!
-- Jack Wheatley
Royal Oak, Michigan

Let me try to understand the crystal clarity of what I just read (Patrick O'H) -- Our former president George W. Bush who with his VP approved torture is "unscrupulous."  And the present president is somehow sullied by his rhetoric -- and no doubt soon you will weigh in on his use of the word "empathy."

Prof. Glendon has worked unquestioningly for the USSCB, an all male group for twenty years. Why change now.
--Barbara Lonnquist 

INFORMED AUDIENCE
Re: George Neumayr's The Pre-School President:

What we are missing about O's pronouncements in each and every new event is this…it is all he really has to offer. Better to expect this and plan to care for yourself. But saying that to the crowd at The American Spectator is redundant. We already know how to think for ourselves!
-- B. Gunn
Texas

ALWAYS BE PREPARED
Re: John C. Wohlstetter's One Second Too Late: America's Fate?

This book (on CD) arrived yesterday and is the next book my husband and I will listen to. And while we listen we will be grateful we still have my 1968 Volkswagen and my husband's favorite old truck, a 1972 Chevy longbed. The VW is in working order and its engine was rebuilt by our son when he was 16. His father was convinced that since he planned to become a pilot he must rebuild an engine in order to know how an engine works. My husband reasoned that if he knew what made an engine work that it might made the difference between life and death if he was in a plane that was shot. Having augered in a Cobra helicopter in Vietnam, my husband understood the value of personal knowledge makes.

The summer Ben rebuilt it was hot and long and tedious for me, as he ranted and threw tools as he worked. He talked out loud the entire summer about how idiotic the task was. Six years later, in his first week of flight school, I still remember the phone call from him. I answered and Ben said simply, "Mom, tell Dad that I am the only pilot in training here that knows how an engine works and I now know what he wanted of me. Tell him thanks."

We are prepared here at the Tangle-T for any event, including EMP due to owning cars from "the olden days!" Our problem as a country is we have a young inexperienced President who wouldn't know much or understand the value of planning ahead, having never faced hard physical work of any kind. He will be the President of Panic when this happens, of that I am sure. 

Just the thoughts of an old Texas rancher...
-- Bev Gunn

JUST WAIT .08 OF A SECOND
Re: Eric Peters's Obama's Man from MADD:

Just to clarify a few facts: 

MADD does not support a lower BAC level for the general public. We support .08 BAC for everyone.  

MADD is not against responsible drinking by those 21 and older.

We've also helped save more than 330,000 lives since our founding and serve about 50,000 victims/survivors every year at no charge. 

I'm very disappointed to see ongoing misinformation about an organization committed to saving lives and preventing injuries. 

Background:

An average 170-pound man must have more than four drinks in one hour on an empty stomach to reach a .08 percent blood alcohol concentration (BAC) level. A 137-pound woman would reach .08 BAC after about three drinks in an hour on an empty stomach (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) – a level that exceeds what is commonly accepted as social drinking.

Regardless of how much alcohol it takes to get to this level, at .08 BAC any driver is a dangerous threat on the road. .08 BAC is the level at which the fatal crash risk significantly increases and virtually everyone is seriously impaired, affecting all of the basic critical driving skills including: braking, steering, lane changing, judgment and response time (NHTSA). 

The risk of a driver being killed in a crash at .08 BAC is at least 11 times that of drivers without alcohol in their system. At .10 BAC the risk is at least 29 times higher (Zador). 

More than 20 percent of alcohol-related traffic deaths involve BAC levels below .10 percent (NHTSA).

If every state enforces the .08 BAC law, about 500 lives will be saved each year (Hingson, et al). 

.08 BAC is a proven effective measure to reduce alcohol-related traffic deaths. Studies have shown a 6 to 8 percent reduction in alcohol-related traffic deaths in states following the passage of .08 BAC (MADD).
-- Misty Moyse
Director of Media Relations, MADD National
Irving, Texas

TOUGH LUCK, SAILORS
Re: George H. Wittman's Admiral Wu Steams Full Ahead:

Our US Navy, the continued bastion of liberalism in our military organization, unfortunately has the mission to deal with China's dream of a resurgent world super power. Unfortunately for us, it lines up nicely with our new administration's view of military policy.
-- Condon McDonough

WHERE IS THE PRESS?
Re: Quin Hillyer's The Facts on Fascism:

This is a very important piece, seminal I hope, in the early stages of journalistic coverage of the Obama administration. The dangers of authoritarian control of the economy, as the writer points out, are real dangers that are unfolding right before our eyes -- industry executives rebuked, chastened or fired by the state, while union workers (bulk voters) are stroked and appeased. Unfortunately, the current cadre of TV news-readers, pundits, and print reporters has neither the historical knowledge nor the economic perspective to grasp what is happening or to comment on it intelligently. (All modern "reporting" is essentially commentary.) They are completely lost, adrift in the swirl of public policy "change" and their own thinly concealed reverence for a black president. There is no irreverence out there in the press corps, among which, I suspect, fully 95 percent voted for Obama and are cheerleading for him on their beats.

Very little of this drastic ongoing government intervention has been necessary. It is all public relations to convince the public that the Democrats are doing something about the recession, hence the poll numbers suggesting more people think "the country is moving in the right direction." Additionally, it is part of a strategy by Democrats, many of whom have no discernible convictions about economic freedom in the first place, to replace the American system with a command-and-control regime -- in which they call the shots.

Closely observe the president's consigliere Rahm Emmanuel -- he of the dark, brooding countenance, the history of ferocious partisanship, the multimillion-dollar investment bank windfall, the shadowy Chicago machine connections -- and try to say that he doesn't suggest a character straight out of Ayn Rand (Cuffy Miegs, perhaps) almost to the point of caricature! But of course that scowling face is now on newsstands as one of People magazine's "beautiful people." Perfect.
-- Woodlander

A 5-YEAR PLAN, BECAUSE THOSE WORK SO WELL
Re: Philip Klein's Preparing for Failure:

This piece of legislation is pre-designed to fail by initially being too small (c.f. Krugman) because the funds are to be dispersed over years not days, weeks, or months. The stimulus is actually a fraction of the total cost, so what we have is a Soviet-style five year plan that is underfunded. Five year fully funded Soviet economic plans did not work, so I would expect that partially funded ones will not either. As long as the free market still moves, the biggest compromisers so far are the Democrats and the president.
-- R. Welton
Pinconning, Michigan

ALAN MOORE COULDN'T HAVE SAID IT BETTER
Re: Nicole Russell's Hooked on a Feeling:

"The Gift, a Kiss -- a Fable for Our Time"

The Gifted One stood looking down on the adoring crowd, holding a life-like plastic doll and smiling at his teleprompter screens.

Then he spoke, "I hold in my hands a living baby, the bastard child of George Busssshhhhh, which he left on my doorstep for me to cure with My Gift.

"I will now kiss this baby with the Kiss of Hope and Change, and with this kiss create One Hundred Thousand New Jobs and several of the other high-blown things I promised you."

With those words, he punched the doll with crushing force upon the face and said, "My gentle and loving kiss upon that face will cure the ills of the world, I promise you."

And the people began to bring forth their own children, crying, "Please take my child, O Gifted One, and kiss him too."

"No, no, kiss mine!" oft came the reply.

And then, "Kiss not my child -- kiss me."

The Gifted One smiled and clenched his fist for another kiss as the moaning cry undulated across the land --

"Kiss me."

"Kiss ME!"

"KISS ME!"

[Not The End.]
-- A. C. Santore