The Democratic Lumping Technique

After what seemed like a long absence Katrina Vanden Huevel of The Nation Magazine has begun to appear on television and last week she was in the roundtable discussion on This Week with George Stephanopoulos. She offered her typical diatribe of Republican and conservative sins saying they were anti-minority, anti-poor, anti-immigrant, etc. Like most liberals she likes to mix terms to confuse the issue and make her opposition appear to be not just against something, but against everything. For example when discussing immigration Katrina likes to say conservatives and Republicans hate all immigrants, no matter how many times Republicans say they support legal immigration and are against "illegal immigration" Lumping legal and illegal immigration together makes for easy tirades and putting the opposition in a not-so-pretty box. This week on ABC Katrina aired the latest effort to confuse voters by saying people who are in favor of reducing entitlements must mean they are for cuts in Social Security and Medicare, when she knows that entitlement reform will be focused on those entitlements that are taxpayer-funded in contrast to Social Security and Medicare, which are tax-payer supported. To be sure there is abuse and fraud in both programs than can discovered and corrected and we can find ways to make them self-supporting through growth and reform. However, once again by lumping "entitlements" as all part of the same thing liberals and Democrats hope all the tax-payer funded, non-self-supporting entitlements will escape scrutiny. There is little doubt that "entitlement reform" is likely to become part of the discussion as we approach the 2012 election. It is important to recognize this little Democratic device and call it when we see it.

Newt's Surprise Win in South Carolina

Newt's win in South Carolina was a real surprise for many of the so-called expert pundits who for the second time in less than a year wrote him off and then referred to him as Lazarus. Last September when his campaign staff walked they said it was over. Then as the debates proceeded he seemed to be gaining ground until he had re-established himself before the Iowa contest. His poor showing in Iowa gave the experts reason to once again say this was his last opportunity and a poor showing in New Hampshire would really be the end. He accommodated them in New Hampshire with a poorer than poor showing there and was basically written off. Then the John King debacle on CNN, which was preceded by the old news ABC redo of an old Esquire interview of Marianne Gingrich, the Speaker's jilted wife. In the interview she charged he asked for an open marriage and that we was an egomaniac who should never be President and she was going to do everything she could to prevent it. King asked Newt if he would like to comment. The Speaker gave John King what for and it proved to be one of the turning points that lead to an overwhelming win that may yet propel him to the nomination. It’s too early to tell, but you never know. Maybe it just me, but I love it when a guy comes along and proves his detractors to be all wet. Newt may not be everybody's cup of tea, but one thing is for sure; many of the insiders say he shouldn't be the nominee and that's just enough to make me think he might be the right guy.

Will America Change Course on Energy

President's Obama’s decision to not go forward on the Keystone XL Pipeline has sparked a new conversation on fossil fuel production in the United States. While President Obama and his environmental allies may not have intended to start this debate, it may be one they might well regret. The United States is now finding itself in the position of being able to produce more than enough fossil fuel energy to be self-sufficient in a world that is getting more and more dangerous, as well as hostile to American interests. Americans are getting tired of being held captive to high priced energy to satisfy the so-far unrealized desire for non-polluting fuel. Wind and Solar are absolute failures both in Europe and in America. Ethanol has lead to rising food prices throughout the world. And, of course the dirty little secret is that all alternative fuels require fossil fuel to make the devices that provide the energy or fossil fuel backup in case they stop working. The emergence of clean coal, oil fracking and an abundance of natural gas can reopen the gates to prosperity for our nation and other countries if they follow our lead. Cheap energy has been one of the keys to America's prosperity for more than a century and has been responsible for moving the entire human race forward. We should not let this opportunity pass us by to satisfy the not always well-meaning intentions of anti-energy special interest groups.

MLK Day: A Field Day for Racists

Martin Luther King's birthday was been a field day for liberal racists like AG Eric Holder and NAACP President Ben Jealous. They both spent the MLK hoiliday fighting voter id laws instead of fighting voter fraud. After choosing not to follow through on the prosecution of two black man intimidating voters in front of a polling place claiming they were "his people," Holder spoke at a rally protesting new voter ID laws. NAACP President Ben Jealous claimed that the only reason states wanted voter ID laws was to create a new version of the Jim Crow "Poll Tax." He falsely claimed there have only been 352 cases of voter fraud over the last 30 years and completely ignored the 13 states that conducted voter faruad investigationsagainst ACORN in 2008, as well as the people charged with fraud and found guilty because of those investigations. Racism does live, but we need a new appraisal of who practices it and where it lives.

Closing Commerce is Getting it Backwards

American Obama's plan to eliminate the Commerce Dept is just another deceptive political ploy to make it look like he is cutting spending. Analysis shows he does want to close Commerce to save $3 billion over 10 years. In its place he wants to open a new export agency and does not mention its cost. He wants to put the U.S. Export-Import Bank, Overseas Private Investment Corp, the Trade and Development Agency, the Small Business Administration and parts of the Commerce Department under a new roof. Maybe it would be even cheaper to move those other agencies into Commerce instead. Starting a new bureaucracy is more expensive than altering an old one. So while saving $3 billion over ten years (that's $30 million a year) he will be spending over $100 Million this year to create a new agency. That is no way to cut spending.

Why China Cannot Overtake America

American nay-sayers, like Fareed Zakaria of CNN, love to say China will overtake America economically by 2020. Our current GDP is 14.7 Trillion. China's is $1.35 Trillion. For China to surpass America they must grow at 100 per year for the next five years and American must not only not grow, but decline as well. American nay-sayers are wrong. What's more China holds only about 6% of our national debt, so they do not "own" us in any way. We must dispel these crazy notions by the progressive left with the truth.