Whither The Republican Party

BY B. JAY COOPER
Reprinted from BJayCooper.com

Short  answer: I don’t know. But I do know that many of our new “frontrunners for the 2016 nomination” aren’t defining that path either.

I just read a piece by Bobby Jindal, Louisiana GOP governor, who said he’s laid out seven “ideas for change.” Let me briefly sum them up: stop looking back, compete for every vote, reject identity politics, stop being the stupid party, stop insulting the intelligence of voters, stop being the party of  “big,” focus on people not government.

Thanks, governor…but where are the ideas for change? I see navel gazing. Now where do you lay out a policy path for change, which is what the Republican Party really needs. I know the Tea Party types think they have that, and what they have is 100 percent acceptable…by them. Continue reading →

Security Leaks Are Not Us

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON

A 29-year-old kid, and I can call him a kid because I’m a 66-year-old grandparent, decides he should strike a blow for liberty and release highly classified information to the media and maybe directly to our adversaries.

So we’re again having an emotionally, politically, and ideologically charged debate over government secrets, national security, the public’s right to know, and the peoples’ right to privacy. It’s a good debate to have and keep having until we resolve some of the serious questions these incidents raise. Unfortunately, it will peter out soon after the next crisis erupts in the headlines.

It would be helpful, though, to break down those questions and focus on the most relevant.

The first question can be dispensed with rather quickly. Is Edward Joseph Snowden a hero or a criminal? Here’s a hint: Socialist filmmaker Michael Moore, libertarian Senator Rand Paul (who is already exploiting the incident to raise money), technology terrorist Julian Assange, the Russians and the Chinese think he’s a hero. Most legal and intelligence experts we’ve heard from think he’s a criminal. Senator Diane Feinstein, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee called him a traitor. Continue reading →

Friends & Enemies

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

Human beings need enemies. Often for good; sometimes for ill. But having an easily definable enemy is very helpful.

Organizations need enemies to send you mail and call your home asking for donations. The March of Dimes was established by Franklin Delano Roosevelt to combat the crippling disease of polio.

With the advent of the Salk and later the Sabin vaccines, polio was effectively wiped out in the United States and the March of Dimes needed a new cause. It found one in preventing birth defects later expanding into helping women have healthy pregnancies.

During World War I and World War II the enemies were easy to identify. They wore uniforms that called out “I am your enemy” and combatants generally stayed on their own side of the battle line. Continue reading →

Obama in Ireland

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

It’s good that the President and the First Family traveled to Ireland, and all of these news reports that make a federal case out of the cost are missing the point.

It is safe to say that Mr. Obama would have never made it to the White House if it weren’t for two prominent Irish Americans.

Ted Kennedy gave the Illinois Senator the critical boost he needed when he endorsed him for President. And Richie Daley, the iconic Mayor of Chicago, gave the former community organizer the backing of his machine and its critical resources to help first get to the Senate and then make the leap to bigger things. Continue reading →

Father’s Day

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON

Father’s Day is the product, not surprisingly, of a woman’s effort, a daughter raised by a widower in Seattle a hundred years ago, but it took 60 years for the day commemorating fathers to be celebrated nationally.

I have enjoyed the observance of Father’s Day 32 times. And in most of those years, my children have presented me with cards, hand drawn with color crayons in the early years; gifts, many handmade, and a hearty Sunday brunch.

I have accepted all with gratitude, a few tears, some embarrassment for being the center of attention, and some guilt for accepting love and kudos when I know I wasn’t the best father I could have been or my children deserved.

Continue reading →

How to Pay What We Owe

BY FRANK HILL
Reprinted from TelemachusLeaps.com

Inflation. Pure and simple.

Inflating the national currency is the tried-and-true way that governments have used for centuries and millennium to get their way out of budget problems caused by excessive debt.

But it is a dangerous bet and one that would not be necessary had we been responsible adults about our budgets and not run much debt, or any at all, over the past 40 years.

No budget deficits, no national debt. No need to borrow…from anyone. Case closed.

Inflation hit the stratospheric level of 12% per year in 1980-81. Interest rates spiked up to 21%. President Jimmy Carter’s anti-inflation policies were an abysmal, absolute, abject and total failure. Continue reading →

Jedi Mind Trick Fail

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

The Ranking Member of the House Government and Oversight Committee tried to channel his inner-Alec Guinness the other day, but he failed spectacularly.

Elijah Cummings, the Maryland Democrat, tried to pull one over on the American people earlier this week.  Here is how the Wall Street Journal’s John McKinnon put it:

“Earlier this week, the top Democrat on the committee, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), said he’s ready to drop the matter, following an interview on Thursday of an employee in the Cincinnati office that oversees handling of tax-exempt applications. The employee, who was a manager at the time, said the scrutiny started in early 2010 with an agent who noticed a single tea-party application come in, and flagged it for closer review. The manager “agreed that the case should be forwarded up the chain to technical officials in… Continue reading →

Duck Sex and Essential Government (Part I)

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON

I’ve been observing the genitalia of ducks for several years now. Did you know, the female duck has an anatomical part similar to a cork screw that acts as a deterrent to male ducks the female is not interested in, uh, screwing?

Well, I should clarify that statement.

I really haven’t been studying the under carriage of ducks. Patricia Brennan has on my behalf and yours. She’s a professor at the University of Massachusetts who studies duck sex under what has become an 8-year project under a $384,000 (what we presume to be an annual) grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), which you and I support with our tax dollars. Continue reading →

A Changing World

BY GARY JOHNSON
Reprinted from Loose Change (TCBMag.com)

The National Security Agency’s Prism revelations have contributed to America’s growing ambivalence and fear around privacy and personal data. Who knows what legislation may result from it all.

I know that, like many fellow citizens, I was not alarmed by our government’s data-gathering practices. I am more alarmed by what private enterprise can and may do with my data. But, for me, that’s an old saw.

Author Mitch Joel released a book, Ctrl, Alt, Delete, that attempts to establish a certain level of fear and foreboding in us by offering up some staggering statistics indicating how our world has changed, transformed by the digital revolution. It’s yet another police siren the digerati persists in blowing and I’m not sure why.

We know the world is changing, for God’s sake. Rather than dish facts, how about demonstrating some traction and results? Continue reading →

State Department Acting Undiplomatically

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

As if President Barack Obama didn’t have any embarrassing issues to deal with, now come the reports – not proof – of some really ugly allegations. The original reporting came from CBS which came into possession of a memo from the Diplomatic Security Service alleging wrongdoing and possible interference in at least eight investigations.

According to CBS, among the allegations were:

  • A U.S. Ambassador having “routinely ditched” his security detail to meet up with prostitutes in a public park.
  • Members of Hillary Clinton’s security detail procuring prostitutes while overseas which activity, the report claimed, was “endemic.” Continue reading →

Tread Carefully on E-Verify

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

Republicans have rightly condemned both the costs and the intrusiveness of Obamacare. They believe, and I agree with them, that the new law will increase health premiums, hurt innovation, cost a boatload of money (actually, more than a couple boatloads), drive down quality, and put the power of health care decisions in the hands of government bureaucrats.

Republicans have a healthy skepticism of an overbearing and expensive government, and they have consistently voted to defund it or repeal it on dozens of occasions.

If too much government is a bad thing when it comes health care, why is it suddenly a good thing when it comes to hiring a nanny, getting some help with the lawn, or hiring a short-order cook at the local deli. Continue reading →

Tracking My Calls

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

I am trying to get spun up over the story about the National Security Agency tracking every phone call made by every customer using a cell phone over the Verizon network. But, I can’t.

I don’t think it’s a big stretch to think that the NSA is also tracking your calls if you are on AT&T’s network, T-Mobile, Sprint or the Harry’s Cell Phones & Discount Beer network.

As I understand it, the NSA isn’t listening in to our phone calls – or at least they haven’t been caught at it yet. They are tracking the number called, the calling number, the duration of the call, and the location of the calling and called phones. Continue reading →

Privacy in the Age of Exhibitionism

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

Privacy is over-rated.

We say we want our privacy, but we really don’t care that much about it. The government wants the privacy to invade our privacy in order to sniff out terrorists. Despite the best efforts of Rand Paul and the ACLU, most Americans are just fine with that.

Polls show that when there is a competition between privacy and security, the American people pick security every time. Continue reading →

Getting Good Help is Never Easy

BY GARY JOHNSON
Reprinted from Loose Change (TCBMag.com)

“If one wanted to crush and destroy a person entirely…all one would have to do would be to make him do work that was completely and utterly devoid of usefulness and meaning.”—Fyodor Dostoevsky

My father-in-law owned restaurants. Like retail, it was a rough, tough business. His loudest and most common gripe was not being able to find good help. Competent, trusted waitresses, dish bussers, bartenders, even managers were hard to find. And the good ones were even harder to keep, many jobs back then being thankless tasks for pennies and nickels. Continue reading →

Protecting Chinese Oil

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

According to the Washington Post, 6,648 U.S. service personnel were killed in Iraq starting in April, 2003. The vast majority of those killed, 4,588 or 69 percent were young people under the age of thirty.

I am not going to re-litigate the Iraq war today. Or, probably, ever. But I do want to point out an issue that has arisen over what has happened to all the oil in Iraq over which, according to many, we had gone to war to protect for our own use.

It didn’t work.

According to an article by reporters Tim Arango and Clifford Krauss in the New York Times over the weekend, “Since the American-led invasion of 2003, Iraq has become one of the world’s top oil producers, and China is now its biggest customer.” Continue reading →

Thanks Frank

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

Frank Lautenberg died today. He was 86.

Most political pundits will immediately turn their attention to Chris Christie and whom he will appoint to the Senate to replace Senator Lautenberg.

There’s not a lot of sentimentality in Washington, so that’s not that unusual. You die in Washington, and the first thing people think about is who will take your place. Continue reading →

Why Samuel Adams Matters Today

BY FRANK HILL
Reprinted from TelemachusLeaps.com

And no, it is not because his name is on the great beer brewed by the Boston Lager Company.

Samuel Adams actually was not a very good brewer back in the day and probably lost more money borrowed from his wealthy dad than he ever made in any venture he undertook.

But he was a darned good writer and was able to catch the revolutionary spirit about as well as Thomas Paine or Benjamin Franklin or anyone else back in the day.

For his senior thesis at a small community college back then known as Harvard, Sam Adams wrote on this question: “Whether it be lawful to resist the supreme magistrate, if the commonwealth cannot be otherwise preserved?” Continue reading →

On the Record

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

In the good old days when there were rules and there were people who knew the rules, and they taught the rules to new people, who then followed the rules there were basically three levels of discussion between reporters and sources: 1) On the Record  2)  On Background  3) Off the Record

This is a good topic for discussion because the Attorney General of these United States, Eric Holder, is participating in an Obama Administration-wide charm offensive with the national media in an effort to try and get back to what President Obama considers to be the normal state of affairs: The press fawning over his every word, and every deed.

Unless you have been in Malawi or Zambia for the past few months you know that scandals are cascading over this White House like a storm surge over Carolina barrier islands.

Continue reading →

Don’t Focus on Only Scandal

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

Can they walk and chew gum at the same time?

That will be the question for congressional Republicans as they navigate the next year and a half before the 2014 elections.

The scandals that have dogged the Obama administration at the beginning of its second term have presented the House GOP with a seemingly golden opportunity. But all that glitters is not gold, and the temptation to put all of the political eggs in the scandal basket might be overwhelming but should be resisted.

The conservative advocacy group Heritage Action has sent a warning letter to congressional Republicans telling them to stop walking toward legislative accomplishments and focus only on chewing up the administration on the scandal front.

Continue reading →

Obama on the Ropes

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

Over the past few weeks I’ve been writing like Grandma Moses painted: Sooooo very sweet.

Well, that’s over. So as Bette Davis (as Margo Channing) said in “All About Eve” in 1950: “Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy night”

The IRS is going to be the death of the Obama Administration. NOBODY LIKES THE IRS. I’m not saying all IRS employees are bad people, but neither are all meter maids bad people – we just don’t like to see them sniffing around our stuff.

Actually the IRS is not Obama’s biggest strategic problem.

James Rosen is. Continue reading →