Redstate: Karen Handel for Governor

After highlighting the political and ethical deficiencies of her opponents, Erick Erickson at www.Redstate.com endorses Karen Handel for Governor of Georgia thusly:

She is most decidedly not one of the boys. Of the top tier candidates — Deal, Johnson, Handel, and Oxendine — she is the only one yet to be touched by media reports of scandal. Honest observers of the race pretty much agree they’d all be surprised if anyone raised something serious and credible about her.

RedState has endorsed Handel, but we have not done a very good job of sending her money. She’s a pro-life, pro-entrepreneur Secretary of State and has given every indication that she would be as Governor too. She knows how to balance budgets and cut waste. She stands out from the pack on the campaign trail. And like with Nikki Haley in South Carolina, we need to help get Karen Handel elected.

We stand on the verge of promoting the next generation of conservatives to office. Karen is one of them and she is one of us. Let’s help her win.

America at the Tipping Point?

He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city” (Proverbs 16:32).

This week Senator Harry Reid got the 60 votes he needs to pass the Democrat health care legislation in the Senate along partisan lines. While final passage is not assured, what is certain is that America has as of this hour ceased being a republican democracy. The country has fallen into the hands of a corrupt and unaccountable kleptocracy, aided and abetted by Republicans but chiefly operated by Democrats.

This is evidenced not by the fact that only Democrats will vote for this legislation. It is evidenced by the way the legislation—like all such legislation these past 11 months-- was managed from start to finish in both houses: secret deals cut behind closed doors; the opposition party shut out of the process; drafting done out of sight of all members save a chosen few; weekend and midnight roll-calls; bribes and extortion using taxpayer money (that we don’t have); handouts to favored businesses, unions and assorted cronies; deceitful accounting tricks, and total disregard of either body’s rules, minority rights or the will of the people.

Only in a kleptocracy do elected officials attack citizens who dare to oppose this shameful exercise of Chicago-style thuggery. This week Democrat Senator Sheldon Whitehead suggested that opponents are dominated by “birthers and fanatics in right-wing militia and Aryan support groups.” Does Senator Whitehead assume that those on the Left who have risen to oppose the Senate bill are also in thrall to right-wing racists? Perhaps demagoguing his fellow citizens is the only way that Senator Whitehead can call attention to himself in the World’s Most Egotistical Deliberative Body.

The assaults on our civic sensibilities and common sense come fast and furious. That is the intent of the ruling class. One day unelected “czars” determine pay limits for private businesses; the next the EPA usurps Congress by “finding” it can regulate water vapor. Barney Frank seeks power to shut down private businesses while giving Fannie and Freddie free reign. Government payrolls swell by 12% while private sector jobs shrink. President Obama promises fiscal discipline while presiding over the second budget in a row with $1.4 trillion deficits.

Not to worry; according to the President the trillion- dollar- plus health care bill will reduce the deficit by a couple of billion dollars over 10 years. (That is, of course, if Congress allows the bill’s $400 billion in cuts in Medicare take effect, which is the fiscal trick at the core of this bill: Congress has no intention of cutting Medicare).

Meanwhile a bunch of unelected bureaucrats and despots from crappy little countries gather in Copenhagen to extort billions from the “rich” countries to fund their “carbon-reduction programs” (i.e., to fund their lavish parties in Paris and their brutal tyranny of women, homosexuals and dissenters at home). The worst part is that the rich countries—who are “rich” only to the extent of their indebtedness to foreign powers-- -- happily offer up the wealth and prosperity of their citizens as guilt-offerings to the most radical Leftist and irredentist regimes on the planet. Our own country is only too willing to lead the way.

Global warming may or not be occurring, but the science is beside the point. “Cap-and-trade” is a global Ponzi scheme designed to lighten your wallet, restrict your freedoms and shovel billions, maybe trillions, into a global bottomless pit where it will be administered (for a small fee) by the same folks who did such a good job running the Oil for Food program a while back.

Iran is allowed to pursue its nuclear program unchecked while Israel is monitored for infractions of its building codes. Casualties mount in Iraq and lip service is given to the “necessary” war in Afghanistan while timetables for retreat are articulated, then denied. The one clear constitutional responsibility of government—to defend and protect the United States—is treated as a footnote to the really important work of bowing to foreign leaders and apologizing for our very existence.

If we had a reasonably fair and professional media, even a biased one, one might feel better about all this. With a press dedicated to truth and its role as government watchdog, we would know that in time the secrets, lies, fraud and corruption would be exposed to the light of day. But in truth we have not just a biased media but a corrupt one, gleefully urging on the agenda of the elites and providing cover for their schemes. It is all very disheartening.

Yet, we citizens—patriots—do have access to information, primarily through the “alternative media” of talk radio, the internet, cable news, email communication, Twitter, Facebook, and the like. And we have the ability to share it at lightning speed with dozens, indeed hundreds or thousands of others. Might our wise and good masters attempt to commandeer these electronic wonderments for their own purposes, denying access to those with whom they disagree? With this crowd anything is possible. But recall that in an earlier age, in an hour darker than this one, Americans with the benefit of only the printing press and a determination to live as free people found a way to spread the truth and rally their fellow citizens to the cause of independence.

I don’t suggest that we are faced today with the dire circumstances that confronted our founders in 1776. But we are at the start of an unprecedented era where, left unchecked, government is bound to tighten restrictions on political liberty and economic freedom, much like the period that began in 1763 with the Stamp Act. And like British Parliament of the 18th century, our own Congress grows more contemptuous of its subjects with each passing day.

It is said that Americans are slow to anger, but mighty when provoked. As I will detail in a subsequent post, Americans suffered under increasingly despotic British rule for a decade and a half before finally acting to sever the bonds that existed between American and England. Forbearance is a virtue, but like all virtues it has its limits. Our political masters should not conclude that because Americans have yet to rise up as one in anger that they never will.

We would do well to recall that in America power ultimately resides with the people, not the media, the bureaucrats or even with Senators and Representatives. Americans may be loathe to give up their comforts and conveniences, but they still hate tyranny and love freedom. As long as that continues, we can be assured that they will rise to whatever demands are made of them to preserve their rights and liberties.

It’s just a matter of time.

Massachusetts Dem tells Fellows: "You're Screwed"

Democrat Rep. Michael Capuano returned to Washington after losing the Democratic primary for the Senate seat recently vacated by Ted Kennedy. According to The Huffington Post, in a weekly meeting of the Democrat caucus he gave his fellow Dems a two-word warning: "You're Screwed:"

Everywhere Capuano went in his state, he said, he was bombarded with demands that the government do more to create jobs. He was also greeted by deep skepticism about Obama's escalation of the eight-year-old war in Afghanistan.

Of course, many Americans believe that the government doesn't actually "create" jobs. But the fact remains that if Capuano is right, the voters of deep blue Massachusetts--like all voters --care more about jobs than they do about health care "reform," cap-and-trade legislation, the war against Wall Street "fat-cats" and other misplaced priorities of the Obama administration.

No one can be surprised that the economy and jobs are the most important issues on the minds of voters everywhere. No one, that is, except the statists and social engineers who populate the White House, the cabinet and Capitol Hill.

Once the best and brightest in Washington do turn their attention from destroying capitalism to more mundane matters like "creating" jobs it may just be too late. They will have cooked the proverbial goose that lays the golden egg.

Democrats would be wise to heed Rep. Capuano's warning, or else the goose that gets cooked may well be their own.

"A Leap of Faith"

Christian, Muslim or Jew, if you are a Believer you will appreciate this reflection by Redstate's Erick Erickson on faith and trust in G-d and the power of prayer.

"A Senator’s Gift to the Jews, Nonreturnable"

Finally, a Senator who actually does something to celebrate.

To see video of Senator Hatch's ode to Chanukah, click here.

"Journalism and Freedom"

From Rupert Murdoch in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal on the prospect of government subsidies for newspapers:

The prospect of the U.S. government becoming directly involved in commercial journalism ought to be chilling for anyone who cares about freedom of speech. The Founding Fathers knew that the key to independence was to allow enterprises to prosper and serve as a counterweight to government power. It is precisely because newspapers make profits and do not depend on the government for their livelihood that they have the resources and wherewithal to hold the government accountable.

When the representatives of 13 former British colonies established a new order for the ages, they built it on a sturdy foundation: a free and informed citizenry. They understood that an informed citizenry requires news that is independent from government. That is one reason they put the First Amendment first.

Our modern world is faster moving and far more complex than theirs. But the basic truth remains: To make informed decisions, free men and women require honest and reliable news about events affecting their countries and their lives. Whether the newspaper of the future is delivered with electrons or dead trees is ultimately not that important. What is most important is that the news industry remains free, independent—and competitive.

A Doctor Email on Healthcare

Hugh Hewitt at www.Hughhewitt.com has been soliciting and publishing emails from M.D.s all across the country in order to gain their unique perspective on health care in America and the legislation being foisted on Americans by Congress to "fix" the health care "crisis."

As this email suggests, whatever else may be said about the pending legislation, it will by no means "fix" the problem of too few doctors serving too many patients. In fact, by subsidizing access to millions who otherwise wouldn't pay for private medical insurance while at the same time cutting doctor's reimbursements for services, the legislation will ensure that thousands of young doctors and would-be doctors will flee the medical profession and choose to apply their talents elsewhere, thus turning a problem into a disaster.

Believe it or not, altruism is not an adequate incentive for a talented young person to incur hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt and to defer career income for 8 to 10 years after college. It is the prospect of ultimately doing well financially while doing good medically that sustains the sacrifice in time, money and effort that all docs suffer.

Nothing wrong with that in a free society. Is there?

Barack Obama Channeling Bush, says Jon Stewart

Jon Stewart skewers Barack Obama on his Afghanistan policy.

Considering that millions in Generation X and Y (is there a Gen Z yet?) view Jon Stewart's show as their sole source of news, this is likely to resonate.

Huckabee's Hopes Dashed by Clemmons, See?

Lets face it. Mike Huckabee was never going to be the Republican nominee for president in 2012. The smooth-talking former minister and faux-populist Arkansas governor doesn't have the economic credentials and foreign-policy experience that the GOP will need in it is next nominee in order to seek to rescue the country from the grips of Obamanomics and Obama's foreign policy disaster.

But Huckabee would have made a go of it had he ran. And he would have provided a distraction that would have drawn media, money and votes from more promising candidates for the GOP nomination. All that changed when Maurice Clemmons killed four police officers in Lakeland WA, near Seattle, the other day while they were filling out paperwork in a local coffee shop.

Clemmons had been released from the Arkansas State prison system nine years ago after then-Governor Huckabee commuted his sentence over the objections of prosecutors. Instantly Clemmons has become a weight around Huckabee heavier even than the one called "Willie Horton" that haunted 1988 Democrat Presidential nominee Mike Dukakis. Unlike Dukakis, who did not personally set Horton free, Huckabee signed the clemency papers that set the stage for Clemmons' parole.

This is not not to say that Huckabee is morally culpable for the evil Clemmons did. After all, as Huck himself points out, "a series of failures" throughout the Arkansas and Washington State bureaucracy led to Clemmons being free to roam the streets of Seattle. But the fact remains that but for Huckabee's signature Clemmons might still be in prison and the children of those four Lakeland cops might still have their fathers.


Luckily, Clemmons was shot dead by a police officer Tuesday morning near Seattle. So its over for Clemmons. And for the families of Clemmons' many victims, who will be spared the agony of a drawn out process of pre-trial motions, courtroom theatrics and post-trial appeals that would have undoubtedly delayed or even prevented the delivery of the justice that these families so richly deserve. (For a chilling account showing just how depraved Clemmons was, click here).


And its over for Huckabee too, at least politically. As blogger Dan Calabrese said, Huckabee may be a good man but he's a lousy leader. His Christian evangelic compassion and belief in personal redemption are admirable qualities in a preacher but are problematic in an executive. Said Calabrese two years ago:


[Huckabee] seems to see his position of authority as a mechanism to impulsively apply his evangelical agenda. As governor, he pardoned or otherwise advocate (sic) the earlier release of more than 1,000 criminals, with beneficiaries including 13 murderers (one of whom went on to kill again), Huckabee acts as though his seat in the state house is license to bestow a Christ-like gift of grace to anyone he chooses.

Even Jesus didn’t cut the thieves down from their crosses. He just offered them a place in Heaven.

I am the last person to weigh in on matters of Christian theology and the concept of grace. But I do think that Huckabee's sense of moral certainty flowing from his religious beliefs has ultimately done him in. His inability to balance his own firmly held views of forgiveness, compassion and grace with his responsibility to protect the common weal apparently led him to gamble on the divine redemption of provably dangerous criminals at the expense of the public's safety.


The Maurice Clemmons affair proves the old adage that to govern is to choose. Motivated by a sense of religious duty and evangelical mission Mike Huckabee chose to dispense justice with a liberal use of his pardon pen. Now his choices have caught up with him, and he will be consigned forever to political purgatory.

But feel not sorry for the Huckster. After all he's got a cable TV show all his own.