The American Spectator : A Tennessee Tempest

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A Tennessee Tempest

2.26.10 @ 6:01AM

Gubernatorial candidate Bill Haslam's campaign responds. The Prowler replies. Plus: Scott Brown's independent streak. Tiger brainwashed. Ron Paul's party. Obamacare, and more.

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OUTSIDE THE KNOW
Re: Bill Croke's Big Al's Antique Roadshow:

Why be surprised if a politician of either stripe has never heard of this-or-that publication? We know that the Republican leadership didn't know Michael Steele had a book coming out. These guys don't know what people who -- theoretically -- believe what they believe are publishing. Why should the opposition be expected to know?
-- Robert Nowall
Cape Coral, Florida

SWINE
Re: W. James Antle, III.'s Ron Paul's Party:

I knew James Antle, III. had a thing for liberal blue lapdogs so I guess I shouldn't be surprised to discover he is infatuated with the Republican Hamlet, the "wild shrimp cowboy," Mr. $410 million in earmarks Ron "Porker" Paul. Ron Paul, who denounces "pork" and wasteful government spending, is the poster boy for corrupt DC political demagogues and wasteful government spending. Annually, Paul swaggers up to the government trough and dips his greedy snout into the swill and fills up -- then has the gall to condemn government spending and deficits. In 2009, Democrat MSNBC (who loves wasteful government spending) was so disgusted by Paul they chided the liberalterian Janus's hypocrisy. Who would have guessed the station of Keith Olbermann would be disgusted by excess?

Instead, of TAS trumpeting a pyrrhic CPAC "victory" and trying to shove phony baloney down conservatives' throats, its time would be better spent unmasking liberal frauds like Ron Paul. Why not call for reform that bans the egregious earmarks that make political swine like Ron Paul possible? Frankly, it would have been better for CPAC, conservatives and Republicans if Paul had just let Bruno "pork" him in that DC motel room - then he could GOProud as King of Earmarks.
-- Michael Tomlinson
Jacksonville, North Carolina

GETTING ANNIHILATED
Re: Philip Klein's Obamacare Faces Tough Road in the House:

The ObamaCare fiasco reminds me of General Douglas Haig, the British commander at the Somme in 1916 in the First World War. After his first wave was annihilated by German machine guns, Gen. Haig sent in more waves. The results were hundreds of thousands of British casualties without any significant change in the strategic situation. This insistence on pursuing this health care objective seems, in light of the current political situation, similarly unimaginative and foolish. It is obviously motivated by an ideological attachment to the ideal of a nationalized health care system. The problem is that the cannon fodder that Obama, Reid, and Pelosi are offering for sacrifice are not Tommies in stinking trenches, but senators and congressmen who rather like their jobs and would just as soon keep them. Will they really be willing to go "over the top" when the whistle blows?
-- Michael Hofstetter

WASTED INK
Re: Jeffrey Lord's An Open Letter to Michael Smerconish and Jennifer Stockman:

That's a lot of ink to waste on a talk show host who does little more than harangue his audience on a nightly basis.
-- Mark Epstein

BLOWING UP
Re: Jeffrey Lord's White House Accused of Federal Crime in Specter, Bennet Races:

Maybe Obama and his thugs may learn what "hoist by their own petard" means? Here's hoping.
-- C. Kenna Amos Jr.

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Letter to the Editor View all comments (2) | Leave a comment

IMKessel| 2.26.10 @ 6:16AM

Re: The Fourt Rail

If unions are viewed as entities, and from many philosophical vantage points they are, logic (e.g., Objectivism) dictates that they seek the greatest good for themselves. In the early days of unions, the greatest goods were a working wage and security. When the motivation of the entity are thus, modest, it can work along with other entities to find a natural balance between sets of needs; call this homeostasis (economic and otherwise). But whenever one entity seeks to overpower all others, it does so at its own peril; it abandons reason and logic in an irrational pursuit of power. Unions have long ago mutated into this unhealthy entity.

As with man, the head of the entity is where the greatest follies lie. The leaders of the unions, as they move away from representing people they know to ever higher position, often become distracted by the lure of other incentives. The further from the rank and file the leaders get, the further they lose touch with the pulse of the working class and the faster they develop agendas that are contrary to not only the interests of their members but are also contrary to the long term interest of the economy of all people involved. (A similar pattern of behavior is clearly demonstrated by most politicians; such is the corruptible nature of humanity when it meets power.) The unions and politicians, by seeking their own short term interest above the long term interests of all destroy all.

The answer for saving the states from economic bankruptcy is the same answer as to saving the unions from their moral bankruptcy: devolution. Devolving the union back to smaller units is possible and highly desirable (similar to the designs of the Ron Paul wing of the Right). The corrupt heads of unions and many of the left would fight this, but are they not the ones who have long preached that the power of the union lie with its workers? If they fight, they exposed themselves to be the hypocrites they have always said they despise. The fight for workers rights and reasonable wages was the original raison d'être of the union and the unions did win. The new mission can be to safeguard reasonable work conditions and wages, one of vigilance and not greed.

It is often said that if Moses returned to synagogue today, he would not recognize Judaism; if Samuel Gompers walked into a union hall today, he would not recognize the brotherhood of workers. The difference is he would be disgusted by what he would find. Just as The Tea Party is forcing the GOP to reexamine itself and to reform into a healthier entity, the rank and file workers can do the same with the unions.