The War On Success

The socialist left in America, and their wholly owned subsidiary; the Democrat Party, have always been at war on success. For the last half century, progressive tax schemes have been foisted upon the taxpayers of America. Tax policy that is designed for one thing: punish the people that succeed and redistribute their wealth, wealth they and their families have worked for, to those with less drive.

This War On Success even permeates our schools.Political correctness run amok have caused many schools to ban competitive play at recess for elementary children. No more kick ball or dodge ball; anything that would have a “winner” and a “loser.” High school sports in some schools do not keep score. If you have no score, you have no “loser” who might have their fragile feelings hurt! Schools that have no grades in the classroom! “Well, Johnny, if you feel that 2 + 2 = 5 then that is just fine with us!” No grades, no failures. That pretty much takes care of the little annoyance of accountability of teachers. The bad teachers are just as good as the excellent teachers; at least on their pay stubs! Again, excellence is not rewarded. Take away the incentive for excellence and you just dumb down the system.

Now, do not get me wrong. There are many, many excellent teachers out there somewhere in this cesspool called "the system." They are just buried by bureaucracy and hobbled by the insane "political correctness" and dictates of the NEA and other liberal education organizations. My hat is off to you out there fighting the good fight, futile as it may seem.

The past few classes of “graduates” from our very expensive public school systems, in many cases, are an embarrassment, despite the effort of the good teachers. Just about any employer who has had the misfortune to interview a high school “graduate” lately will attest to this. The first year or two of the four year college curriculum is, in effect, remedial reading, writing and arithmetic. Where is the outrage? How are these “kids” supposed to survive in the rough and tumble world of a global economy? Will they just whine, kick and scream and then sue if they do not get the job they are not qualified for? Probably.

This has not been an accident. The liberal left and their party have, for years, worked covertly and overtly, to make more and more of the population more and more dependent upon government for everything from food to housing to jobs (handouts) and now, healthcare. There is no longer much incentive to go out and work hard, take risks and succeed. Where is the reward if you can just sit back and whine and demand that someone that has more than you be forced to give it to you?

Abject – Squalid – Shameless

Columbia University’s bizarre decision to offer a platform to Ahmadinejad, the Iranian head of a violent terrorist state, was “abject, squalid, and shameless.” This is how Winston Churchill described the resolution passed by Oxford University’s prestigious Debating Union in 1933 – the year Adolf Hitler came to power – that “this House will under no circumstances fight for King and Country.”

The Columbia mis-adventure, like the 1933 Oxford resolution, sent (quoting Churchill again) a “very disquieting and disgusting message” to friends and foe alike.

Unfortunately, many Americans do not understand that message. Their blindness goes to the heart of the Left v/s Right divide in our country; much like the one 1930s Britain that split men like Churchill from the appeasers of Europe’s dictators.

On one side of the divide, there is outrage and incomprehension that anyone could extend an invitation to a sworn enemy of the United States to speak on an American campus (a campus, by the way, that bans its own military ROTC!); the head of the world’s biggest terrorism sponsor in a city that was 9-11’s principal target; a Holocaust-denier welcomed at a university that has so many Jewish students and alumni. (One would only hope this is remembered when it is time to write that donation or tuition check!)

On the other side, there is bewilderment that anyone could possibly be offended. Therein lies the problem!

The Loony-Left in this country concluded long ago that this is not a war between Islamic extremist fascism and Western civilization, but a fight between Islamic “militants” and President Bush, with the Left favoring the “militants.” The attack of 9-11 never changed the Loonies’ view that the real menace to world peace is the Bush Administration; what former Senator J. William Fulbright called “the arrogance of American power” – much as the British leftists in the early ‘30s assumed that the real cause of war wasn’t men like Hitler and Mussolini, but capitalism and arms merchants.

Sadly, too many men and women at Columbia (and on other US campuses) see the War on Terror as something that they are free to judge and criticize as if it doesn’t involve them at all.

Adolf Hitler got the clear message of the 1933 Oxford Union debate: We will not oppose you. Ahmadinejad is bound to use his speech at Columbia to a hall of “open-minded” Americans as a major public-relations victory. How tragic that the Looney-left and the loonier media should hand him such a coup!

As Churchill said, “There is no place for compromise in war. That invaluable process only means that soldiers are shot because their leaders in council and camp are unable to resolve.”

He added, “In war the clouds never blow over; they gather unceasingly and fall in thunderbolts.” It was the falling thunderbolts of Nazi bombs that finally convinced the appeasers of the ‘30s that they had been wrong. New York City has already gone through its Blitz. What more will it take here, today?

The Truth Behind HillaryCare

When Hillary Clinton last took a stab at ‘repairing’ America's health-care system, an overwhelming majority of Americans rejected her grand vision of an enormous government-run health-care bureaucracy and they will again, I feel.

Hillary Clinton and health care do not mix.

The crux of Hillary's plan is an ``individual mandate,'' which requires that all Americans buy health insurance whether they want to or not. So much for freedom of choice!

To accomplish this, the plan will create a government- regulated national pool through which individuals can purchase insurance. Those who are already insured would get to choose whether to keep their current health coverage or purchase the new national plan.

Additionally, Clinton would force big businesses that don't offer health insurance to pay a punitive tax.

In order to sell to the national pool, the government would demand that insurers cover all applicants (``guaranteed issue'') and that premium levels would have to be indiscriminate, regardless of people's health status when they apply (``community rating.'')

She estimates that her plan would cost $110 billion per year – which, if history is any guide, is woefully underestimated.

To pay for it, Clinton hopes to exploit the significant savings from improved health-care technology, particularly from electronic medical records (which is the only good idea of the whole plan). She would also use some of the revenue from the repeal of President George W. Bush's tax cuts. In other words, raising taxes on all who actually pay taxes. Additionally, she advocated a cap on the tax deductibility of health insurance for wealthy Americans with expensive insurance coverage in effect punishing the “evil rich” for being able to afford the coverage they want.

In other words, Hillary is telling every American that they must purchase a health-insurance product the government likes. This is inconsequential if you already have a plan the government will like, but a serious problem if government makes you purchase something you don't want.

Here is the problem: individuals with costly health problems will want to gravitate toward generous and costly plans. Healthy individuals, especially the young, will want to avoid getting stuck with big insurance bills, either by purchasing the narrowest coverage possible, or by avoiding the purchase altogether. This, in the insurance industry, is called “adverse selection.” The result will be the “sick” will utilize the system at a much higher rate than the healthy, driving up the cost of medical service for all. Then HillaryCare will have to stick taxpayers in general with the soaring costs of the plans that attract the sick.

The hand of government will have to be heavy indeed. The most likely outcome is that federal law will require proof of insurance of every individual, even those without a job. Penalties for those without insurance would likely be monetary, and steep enough to force many individuals to purchase insurance products they otherwise would avoid.

It would probably take a little while for Hillary's plan to make a complete mash out of the current health-care universe. When it does, you can bet that the ``fix'' will be the implementation of socialized medicine, which has failed everywhere it has been tried.

Condemed! (And About Time!)

The Senate voted Thursday to condemn an advertisement by the liberal anti-war group MoveOn.org that accused the top military commander in Iraq of betrayal.

The 72-25 vote condemned the full-page ad that appeared in The New York Times last week as Gen. David Petraeus, the top military commander in Iraq, testified on Capitol Hill. The ad was headlined: "General Petraeus or General Betray Us? Cooking the books for the White House."

The resolution condemning the ad was sponsored by conservative Republican John Cornyn of Texas. Voting against it were Democratic presidential hopefuls Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Christopher Dodd of Connecticut. This will be a huge problem for Clinton from now on. Moveon.org was created as a Clinton Machine front organization during the Clinton impeachment proceedings. Hillary is a captive of her own creation. She cannot distance herself from them because she is ‘them’. The beast has taken on a life of its own and is no longer controllable by its master; A sure recipe for disaster.

Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, another contender for the Democratic nomination, did not vote, although he voted minutes earlier for an alternative resolution by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. That resolution condemned the MoveOn ad as an "unwarranted personal attack." Sounds like Osama-Obama (as Sen. Ted Kennedy (d) in his usual drunken stupor called him) may actually have voted for the intent of the resolution before not voting for it. The old Kerry shuffle!

Good for the Senate! However, you will be hearing the Liberal Losers whining about the Senate spending time debating a newspaper ad, but the issue is much deeper than that. The issue here goes to the core of our being as a nation. Do we support the men and women who serve and protect no matter what we think about their mission, or do we throw them under the bus as happened during the Viet Nam era? The leaders of the Liberal Left are just a bunch of old hippies who got their anti-war credentials wallowing in the mud of the seventies while ‘not-inhaling.’

Hillary's Medicinal Tea

Liberals are sipping Hillary Tea (for medicinal purposes only, I assume). It seems like deja vu all over again, it’s 1994 and we have a Hillary Clinton health care plan to cover all Americans and O J in jail. It is too early to criticize Hillary’s health care plan in detail because as usual the details are still missing. What I can say that should scare everyone is that Hillary says it will not be a government run system but in the next sentence said it will cost the American Taxpayers 110 billion dollars per year, and we all know how accurate cost projections by politicians are. Take for example; Medicare Part A was passed in 1965 and projected to cost 9 billion by 1990 but the actual cost in 1990 was 67 billion and in 1987 when the Medicaid subsidy was passed it was projected to cost 100 million per year but actual costs were 11 billion per year. Hillary Care is projected to cost starting at 110 billion per year, based on history just imagine the real cost. What I feel this would lead to is medical rationing, a shortage of doctors and a shortage of the modern medicine we have become accustomed to. Also you can bet you will not be able to see the doctor or specialist you need to see in a timely manor.

The number of 47,000,000 uninsured is tossed about with abandon. How many of those are temporarily uninsured due to the waiting period on a new employer's health plan? Does this number include the 12 - 20 million ILLEGAL aliens? As usual, no answers from the Tea Sippers. Just big fuzzy numbers spouted out for maximum political impact but nothing to back them up. Just like the myth that people do not have access to health care. Federal law mandates any hospital anywhere treat anybody anytime regardless of health coverage status. The Universal Health Care ploy is just another attempt to extend the reach of government control into your everyday life and make you even more dependent on Uncle Sugar for everything. The liberals want to make you like a ‘person of ill-repute’ (to be politically correct about it!) Get you hooked on goodies, make you go out and do your thing and then turn everything you make over to the gov't pimp.

Oops! Got Caught! My Bad!

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign said it will return $850,000 in donations raised by Democratic fundraiser Norman Hsu, who is under federal investigation for allegedly violating election laws.

Clinton, D-N.Y., previously had planned only to give to charity $23,000 she received from Hsu for her presidential and senatorial campaigns and to her political action committee, HillPac.

Really? Will they show proof that this money has been returned and to whom? What charity? One of Bill’s? So many questions and so few answers!

The FBI is investigating whether Hsu paid so-called straw donors to send campaign contributions to Clinton and other candidates, a law enforcement official said Monday.

"In light of recent events and allegations that Mr. Norman Hsu engaged in an illegal investment scheme, we have decided out of an abundance of caution to return the money he raised for our campaign," Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson said in a statement Monday night. "An estimated 260 donors this week will receive refunds totaling approximately $850,000 from the campaign." This only after she got caught with her hand in the cookie jar, again.

The Clintons and the Chinese have always been a little too cozy. Bubba-Bill had a regular “Orient Express” to the White House during his 'adventure' at 1600 Penn. Ave. Any body remember Charlie Trie? Hmmmm? Sounds like Hill is planning the same thing. But Hill is not worried. She knows that the Main-Stream Media will never derail her honey train.

Have You No Decency?

"Let us not assassinate this lad further, senator. You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?" The words of Army lawyer Joseph Welch to Senator Joseph McCarthy in the spring of 1954 in defense of a young Army lawyer whose career McCarty was destroying in his anti-communist crusade against the Army.

These words should be used to counter the character assassination of another member of our Armed Forces this week. General David Petreaus, a highly decorated four-star US Army General is being rhetorically assassinated by the Ugly Left and their Democrat hand-maidens.

Democrat House of Reprobates Tom Lantos (CA), in his opening remarks in the congressionally mandated hearings, basically called General Petreaus a liar for daring to appear before his committee. All because it was likely that the report from Iraq might just have a bit of positive news in it, which it does. The same for House Matron Nancy Pelosi (d) and Senator Harry (Have I Got A Land Deal For You!) Reid (d).

None of this even comes close to the filth contained in the ad by Moveon.org, which the New York Times gladly ran (which I am sure they did not do for free, further prostituting themselves). The ad, bastardized the name “General Petreaus” into “General Betray Us.” In doing so, implied, not so subtly, that General Petreaus, a 35-year veteran serving his country with honor and distinction while proving himself as one of the Army’s greatest generals, betrayed his country! The word “betray” was not chosen lightly. In the military culture, this word carries the same impact as treason. The one word that is sure to inflict the maximum amount of hurt to the person at whom it is aimed.

It is disgusting and despicable but not surprising coming from what is now the Democrat Party. This once great party, now a wholly owned subsidiary of the Ugly Left, is totally invested in the defeat of the United States in Iraq. There is no saving them politically if the US should actually win this segment of the War on Terror. They have long ago gone over the brink and there is no bringing them back. What remains to be seen now is if reasonable people (voters) who have historically called themselves Democrats are willing to follow, lemming-like, this herd of rabid mouth-foaming radical hard-left creatures over the cliff of reason. November 2008 will tell.