Judd Gregg’s defection really crystallized some thoughts for me:

1. Apparently he was not the true believer in conservatism that we thought he was;

2. The word “ideology” doesn’t mean what it once did;

3. “Crisis” apparently is supposed to redound only to the benefit of the left.

1 – Gregg says it’s OK for him to be banished to the Commerce Dept since he has a deal with the NH governor to appoint a Republican, or an independent who would caucus with Republicans, thus preserving a “filibuster-able” count of 41 Republican seats. I got news for you, Judd, it doesn’t matter which party the new guy caucuses with, it’s how she votes that counts. Our 41 seat safeguard is already in peril – think Susan Collins, et al. If the NH Gov appoints a liberal who is a supporter of organized labor, do you think she’ll be on the conservative side when card check comes up? What will Senate Republicans do if she bails? Kick her out of the caucus?

If Sen. Gregg truly believes that conservatism is the best course for the country, and for NH, he would put country ahead of his own ambition and stay in the Senate where he could help to stop some of the leftward excesses of the current powers.

2 & 3 – His first pronouncement was that this was no time to be an ideologue. Ideology is defined as a set of beliefs that determine your world view. Is he saying that ideology is fine in good times, but when times get tough, you have to forget all of your beliefs? My view is that one forms an ideology based on serious thought and experience. The time you test the tenets of your ideology is the time that it is sorely tested; if you give it up in the face of adversity, then apparently you didn’t really believe in it or have no confidence in its efficacy.

Rahm Emmanuel famously said words to the effect of “a crisis is a terrible thing to waste.” In other words, he wants to use the crisis to move the country leftward in a hurry. He doesn’t seem to mind being ideological in a crisis.

Moral of the story: we need people who believe in conservativism. Really believe. Once we find them, then we figure out how to communicate that properly to people in all walks of life. You can tailor the message, but you shouldn’t alter the core beliefs depending on situation or audience.

I sent this as a fax to several members of congress.  May I urge everyone to send something similar. 

Please take a principled stand against these massive spending bills.

In order for the government to spend money, they must either take it in by way of increased taxes or print new money. 

If they raise taxes, they are merely transferring money from the private to the public sector, then sending it back to the private after skimming off 20 – 50% in “administrative costs”, thus providing no net gain to the economy and probably inflicting damage. In addition, it adds to the deficit which is harmful in itself.

If they print new money, they fuel inflation, which is even worse for the economy than higher taxes.

Since the Income Tax was instituted in the early 20^th Century, we have been through one depression and several fecessions.  Hoover and Roosevelt tried to forestall the Great Depression with massive public works and spending programs, resulting in more than 10 years of economic stagnation.  Other recessions were battled with tax cuts and other private sector stimuli, such as less regulation and encouragement of world wide trade, and those downturns were much milder and shorter.

So let’s cut taxes, which will allow productive citizens to keep their earnings and stimulate the economy, which will increase tax revenues overall and help cut the deficit.

The only ones who gain through massive government spending are those who believe in bigger government and less individual liberty.

 

Think about this: most of the countries of Europe have had organized governments for more than 500 years, and have been “civilized” for a couple of thousand; China and Japan have been “civilized” and had governments for thousands of years. 500 years ago North America was occupied by widely scattered tribes whose civilizations were light years behind those of Europe and Asia. 230 years ago a small strip of colonies along the East coast of North America came into existence with a unique form of government and economics.

In the absurdly short span of 230 years, the USA has come to dominate the world like no civilization in the history of the planet. Gross Domestic Product (GDP, the value of all goods and services produced), of the US in 2007 was $13.8 trillion which is 25% of the WORLD GDP, according to World Bank figures. It is bigger than the COMBINED 15 countries of the “Eurozone”. The 2^nd largest country is Japan and it’s GDP is $4.3 trillion, less than 1/3 of the US’s. Have you heard the stories about how China and India are catching us? China is in 4^th place at $3.2 trillion, 23% of ours with a population of 4 times ours; India in 12^th place at $1.1 trillion, less than 8% of ours, also with a population triple ours.

We have 4.5% of the world’s population and have 6% of the land area of the world. But our economy is 25% of the world’s.

The “poor” people of the US are infinitely better off than the middle classes of the vast majority of the world. The average “poor” family in the US owns a home, 2 cars, a microwave, color TVs (and subscribes to cable or satellite) and a cell phone. The average “poor” family in the rest of the world is starving and lives in a mud hut with no electricity or indoor plumbing.

How did this happen? The basic reasons are individual liberty and capitalism. When an individual is empowered to keep the fruits of his own labor, he works hard, innovates, invents, discovers and develops. When he is required to give a large percentage of his earnings, from whatever source, to the government to redistribute to those who don’t do those things, he loses his incentive. 

Now, we are looking at the very real possibility that we will elect a very real socialist as President and give him a compliant Congress.

The true problem with Obama’s previous associations is their political outlook. In his youth in Hawaii, according to his own book, his “mentor” was “Frank”, now identified as Frank Marshall Davis, a card-carrying communist. Rev. Wright and Father Pfleger are unabashed socialists. The “unrepentant terrorist”, Bill Ayers, and his equally unrepentant terrorist wife, Bernadine Dohrn, want to remake the US as a socialist country and make no apologies for that. Michelle Obama has made no secret of the fact that she doesn’t like the US as it is, and even Barack, in an answer to a 7-year-old’s question about why he was running, said it was because he wanted to re-make the US into a country he could be proud of.

What scares me about Obama is the very real possibility that we will be unable to undo the socialism that he can inject into the country. It has been 65 years since WW II ended the Great Depression and we not only have not ended most of the socialist programs instituted by FDR, we have actually expanded many of them.

The great engine of US prosperity, which has translated into world prosperity, is the individual US citizen. That same US prosperity has enabled the US to be the greatest force for good in the history of the world. PLEASE don’t allow what should be a momentary problem to turn into a permanent age of darkness.

So Valerie Plame is scheduled to testify before Waxman's committee on Friday.  The rumors that I hear are that she will NOT be sworn.  The "purpose" of her testimony is to see if the Democrats can hang Cheney, Rove or someone else with some kind of misdeed.

So Republicans caved in to the combination of Democrats and the media and gave Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald unlimited power to investigate the "crime" involving Wilson and Plame.  Within a week, Fitzgerald knew who had "leaked" Plame's name and knew that there was no crime involved.  According to his press conference announcing the indictment of Scooter Libby, he STILL didn't know whether Plame was an undercover employee of the CIA.  During that press conference, Fitzgerald took pains to say that the indictment was NOT to be interpreted as a condemnation of the Administration nor as an indication that any crime had been committed by the "leaking" of Plame's identity. 

During the years that Fitzgerald "investigated" this non-crime, to my knowledge at least, he did not put Plame/Wilson under oath one single time.  He did so with Libby several times, Rove several times, and so on.   And all of this was AFTER he knew there had been no crime.

So there is one way to try to remedy what has been a completely unfair and one-sided situation:  when Plame appears Friday, PUT HER UNDER OATH.  Then ask her whether her employment was undercover as defined in the law.  Also ask her whose idea it was to send Wilson to Niger and what his initial report back said, and why there was no written report.  And then investigate her answers for truthfulness   If she refuses to answer, make her give a reason and if it's something like National Security, investigate that.

It is ludicrous that this investigation was allowed to continue as long as it did without checking the veracity of the accusers.  Republicans have rolled over and played dead in too many of these situations.  I am sick and tired of taking these beatings and never fighting back.