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December 13, 2007
Merck recalls 1 million doses of childhood vaccine — baltimoresun.com
More than a million doses of a common vaccine given to babies as young as 2 months were being recalled today because of contamination risks, but the top U.S. health official said it was not a health threat.
Posted in Natural Philosophy, AmeriKwa
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INSERT INTO wp_bdprss_items_v3 (item_feed_id, item_url, item_name, text_body, item_update_time, item_time, item_date) VALUES ('56', 'http://spectator.org/archives/2008/11/20/interesting-times-are-here-aga', 'Interesting Times Are Here Again', '<p> WASHINGTON -- Somewhere in his very interesting Journals 1952-2000, the late historian, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. erupts with the observation that history is unfailingly interesting. Over the years I delighted in disagreeing with Schlesinger, but on this I am in hearty accord. History is always interesting. Even when not much is happening, history is interesting. </p> <p> Today there is a lot happening and observing history now is more interesting than usual, but even a few years back when sophisticates were droning on about "globalization" history caught my attention. The year was 2003, and I was sitting in on symposia at the Yale Law School. A recurring topic was "globalization," and most of the <em>soi disant</em> liberal intellects were for it. As globalization seemed to be a capitalist tool, I was amazed by their sanguine acceptance of it. It was s<em>ooo</em> materialistic. Did the assembled sophisticates not realize that there might be a downside to globalization? I heard few caveats. </p> <p> Well, the present globalized economic crisis suggests that there has indeed been a downside, namely the worldwide freeze on credit. It has led to recession in many of the world's leading economies. What will be done about it? Will the incoming American president know how to take action? </p> <p> President-elect Barack Obama is a man of many firsts, some of them auspicious. One of his firsts, however, is not so auspicious. Mr. Obama is America's first motivational speaker to be elected to the presidency. He has absolutely no executive experience, though during the recent presidential campaign he insisted that running a political campaign was an executive position. Well, if that be the case, he has at the age of 47 only really run one competitive political campaign, his race for the presidency. His 2004 U.S. Senate race was against a stand-in Republican candidate, Alan Keyes, a sometime radio host with no roots in Illinois politics and no prospects for victory. State senator Obama's seasoned Republican opponent, Jack Ryan, had been forced to withdraw owing to a sordid scandal. In earlier state senate campaigns, starting in 1995, Mr. Obama had no competition at all. And his effort to unseat Congressman Bobby Rush in 2000 was an abject failure. </p> <p> Naturally our country's first motivational speaker has no experience with economic policy. All that we do know about him is that he seems to be a man of the left, a community organizer whose answer to economic setbacks is government largesse. Economic growth, he says, "comes from the bottom up," which is not very reassuring when those at the bottom are broke. Who from Mr. Obama's leftish background might serve as a model to him in this time of globalized economic crisis? </p> <p> My candidate is Britain's Labourite prime minister, Gordon Brown. He has been a leader -- some might say the leader in pointing the way to worldwide economic recovery. Brown recognizes that the major problem facing the world is a credit freeze. Banks and other lending institutions need liquidity to resume lending. </p> <p> Prefatory to last weekend's G20 summit Brown had taken the lead in persuading other countries, specifically the United States, to do something to inject capital directly into banks and other lending institutions. With that capital they can resume lending to consumers and to businesses so global growth can resume. Brown, who was the Chancellor of the Exchequer (comparable to our Secretary of the Treasury) under Prime Minister Tony Blair, has learned a great deal about international finance. Unlike the wrongheaded measures taken in the 1930s to deal with economic collapse, Brown's prescriptions recognize that the present problems demand globally coordinated fiscal and monetary policies. He sees the need to help banks cushion their losses and amass cash reserves to resume lending and economic expansion. Such has been Brown's example as leader of the UK's Labour government that there is reason to believe President Obama will follow his exhortations as reiterated at the recent G20 summit. </p> <p> Yet here in the United States there is another policy the Obama Administration might adopt. Suspend the accounting policy of "mark to market." Because of this policy banks and lending institutions have had to mark down their assets, thus devaluing on their books the capital that they have available to lend out. Many of these institutions have healthy cash flows. Yet because they are faced with (hopefully temporarily) devalued assets they are hindered from making loans, and the consequence is the lending freeze that has put the economy into recession. </p> <p> It will be interesting to see in the months ahead how the new government endeavors to get the economy going again, but then history is always interesting -- right, Professor Schlesinger? </p>', '1227204626', '1227204625', '2008-11-20')
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INSERT INTO wp_bdprss_items_v3 (item_feed_id, item_url, item_name, text_body, item_update_time, item_time, item_date) VALUES ('56', 'http://spectator.org/archives/2008/11/20/should-congress-have-a-cao', 'Should Congress Have a Cao?', '<p> Sit down and make yourself comfortable, because this is one of those stories you just won't want to miss. It's the kind of story for which this poor pen might not do justice. And it's the kind of story of which the world of politics needs more examples. </p> <p> It's a story that effectively starts three days before the fall of Saigon in 1975, when eight-year-old Joseph Cao escaped South Vietnam with a brother and sister and eventually made his way to the United States, where he settled with an uncle. As the story continues today, Cao is the Republican nominee for Congress from Louisiana's Second Congressional District (mostly New Orleans), running against William "Cold Cash" Jefferson -- also known as "Dollar Bill" -- who for years has been fighting multiple-count bribery-related indictments after federal agents in 2005 caught nefarious activities on tape and then found $90,000 from the taped transaction hidden in his refrigerator freezer. </p> <p> Because the congressional primaries were delayed by Hurricane Gustav, the general election was pushed back to Saturday, December 6. </p> <p> But before you read about the congressional campaign, you'll want to know about what happened between Saigon and today. </p> <p> What happened first was that Cao's father, a South Vietnamese military officer, was sent to a Viet Cong "re-education camp" for six years. That's why his children had to escape Vietnam without him. As a certain recent presidential candidate could tell you, a Viet Cong camp is not a place where one is treated well. </p> <p> Anyway, Cao settled in Indiana for four ears, then resettled in Houston for high school, then earned a B.S. in physics in 1990 from Baylor University. Baylor is a Baptist university. But upon graduation, Cao joined the Jesuit order. For six years he remained a Jesuit -- novice, scholastic, regent -- while earning a graduate degree in philosophy from Fordham University, several times doing social (anti-poverty) work abroad (including in his native Vietnam) and then teaching philosophy at Loyola University of New Orleans. </p> <p> But he was never ordained a priest. He had become interested in politics, and "religion and politics don't mix," he told me. Cao continued teaching philosophy at Loyola while attending Loyola's law school. (From physics to religion to philosophy to law -- quite the intellectual journey.) Along the line he married, and eventually fathered two children. He found that New Orleans East had a vibrant Vietnamese expatriate community boasting a nursery run by Vietnamese nuns and an active church. He set up a shingle as general-practice attorney. He was appointed in 2001 to the National Advisory Council for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. He became a board member of a charter school, and a board member for a community development corporation that runs a medical clinic, a retirement center, and an urban farm. </p> <p> Meanwhile, he and his father, who was eventually released to the United States in 1991 and eventually wheelchair-bound, both greatly admired a U.S. senator named John McCain, whose service to both their native country and their adopted country had been so valiant -- and so similar, in so many ways, to that of Cao's father. He supported McCain strongly in his race for president in 2000 -- and again in 2007-2008, when he was one of McCain's earliest Louisiana backers and eventually a national convention delegate pledged to the senator. </p> <p> But along the way, there came two little hurricanes. Or maybe not so little. Katrina in 2005 left eight feet of water in Cao's house (in an area mostly home to commercial fishermen, a few miles east of where most of his fellow Vietnamese expats lived), and effectively wiped out the Vietnamese community. "We lost everything," he said, simply. </p> <p> Local businessman Fenn French, a Republican stalwart whose family has been in New Orleans (and Mardi Gras "royalty") for generations, takes up the story. New Orleans East, he rightly notes, is one of the most unprotected parts of the whole metro area. It was utterly destroyed. "But," he says in enthusiastic admiration, "the Vietnamese community was the very first to stand up its neighborhood again, and they did it without government assistance." </p> <p> Cao -- short, slight, soft-spoken, and described by French as "one of these good-hearted, salt-of-the-Earth guys" -- was a leader in that effort. After brief sojourns in Baton Rouge, in a nearby town called Westwego, and then in a rental home back in New Orleans East, Cao's own family rebuilt as well. </p> <p> "It's peaceful out there [where he lives]," Cao told me. "The people are extremely nice, and it's a close-knit community." </p> <p> IN 2007 CAO MUSTERED the gumption to run for a state legislative seat. He carried the New Orleans part of his legislative district, but he was swamped in the portions that crossed into neighboring St. Bernard Parish, and he thus missed getting into a runoff by a mere 250 votes. </p> <p> Undaunted, Cao looked at the developing scandal around Rep. Jefferson, and his background in philosophy kicked in. Forget the 66% to 11% (23% "other") Democrat-to-Republican edge in the Second District. Forget the 62% black voter registration (Jefferson is black). "Clearly," said Cao campaign treasurer Murray Nelson, himself the loser last year of a state legislative race and recently the statewide executive director of McCain's Louisiana campaign, "this is a real David going up against a Goliath, but he's a guy who actually taught ethics going against a guy facing multiple indictments. I think he's just offended [by Jefferson's ethics], and he's doing this race for the right reasons, not for himself." </p> <p> "I want to bring reform back to the Second District," Cao told me. Again, simple as that. </p> <p> First, though, there was the little matter of meeting his hero McCain in mid-summer and telling his hero about his father's admiration for the senator, and then the Republican National Convention where he could cast his official vote for McCain's nomination. His plane ticket for Minnesota was all lined up -- and then Hurricane Gustav bore down on the Louisiana coast. </p> <p> Cao had seen that movie before. So Cao forgot the plane ticket. He packed up his wife and two children -- they were not intending to go to the convention -- in the car and drove them all up to Minnesota. Good thing he did. Gustav swung a little south and west of New Orleans but, even so, low-lying New Orleans East got drenched again. From the convention, Cao spoke to a friend who told him Cao's house had a foot and a half of water in it. A foot and a half is a lot. It causes serious problems. He was the only member of the entire Louisiana delegation (or at least of the ones who actually made it to the convention rather than canceling at the last minute) who had major home damage in the storm. </p> <p> When the convention ended, the Caos returned to find they needed temporary lodging with friends. But now the family is back in its own home, living on the second floor while doing major repair work on the first, still waiting for their flood insurance to come through. </p> <p> If somebody can shrug over the phone, Cao shrugged. "It is just an inconvenience," he insisted. </p> <p> The question is, though, whether Cao's campaign is just an inconvenience for Jefferson, or whether Cao actually has a chance. </p> <p> NOBODY SEEMS TO THINK a win is likely, but local political pros insist that it <em>is</em> doable. There is, of course, the matter of Jefferson's indictments and the local embarrassment about them. There are also investigations and indictments involving non-profits to which Jefferson funneled grants. <em>And</em> several investigations of Jefferson's family members who have served in other local government offices. </p> <p> On national Election Day, Jefferson won his own primary over a white Democratic opponent, Helena Moreno, by a margin of 92,080 to 70,159. The GOP and independent registration combined is 34 percent and, if Cao can pick off a significant portion of Moreno's Democratic votes -- this time in an election without the heavy pro-Obama turnout working in Jefferson's favor -- the arithmetic starts to look less daunting. </p> <p> "He has an outstanding chance," insists former New Orleans City Councilman Brian Wagner, also a former Republican National Committeeman. "We have a very compelling candidate who is someone who can do an outstanding job in Congress. He has fought poverty [while with the Jesuits] all over the world, and he's probably the closest thing to a saint who I have ever known who has ever run for Congress…. He has two wonderful, intelligent children, and his wife graduated <em>cum laude</em> at the pharmacy school at Xavier [University in New Orleans]…. It's just a matter of combining that message with the right turnout." </p> <p> For the last two and a half weeks of the campaign, Cao has about $70,000 cash on hand, with Republican Party committees committed to pitching in (independently) the maximum allowed $84,000. And that was before any late money came in from fundraisers thrown by pillars of the New Orleans community both Tuesday and Wednesday nights, along with a Dec. 4 major fundraiser featuring newly minted New Orleanian Mary Matalin, the famous Republican political consultant. It's enough money for a reasonable TV ad buy and lots of radio ads. And the campaign is hoping for some late endorsements, too. </p> <p> If Cao wins, he would be the first Vietnamese-American ever elected to Congress -- from, it should be noted, the neighboring district to the one that first sent to Congress a man of Indian descent, Bobby Jindal. And as long as the U.S. Congress should exist on this Earth, Cao might remain the only Congressman who is a Vietnamese refugee-turned physics major-turned Jesuit-turned philosophy professor, lawyer, and dual-hurricane survivor. </p> <p> And yes, history sometimes does choose odd pathways, and unlikely heroes. </p>', '1227204626', '1227204624', '2008-11-20')
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INSERT INTO wp_bdprss_items_v3 (item_feed_id, item_url, item_name, text_body, item_update_time, item_time, item_date) VALUES ('56', 'http://spectator.org/archives/2008/11/20/piracy-then-and-now', 'Piracy Then and Now', '<p> Reading about the activities of Somali highwaymen, seawaymen rather, brings to mind the circumstances of our Republic's first experience in power projection. </p> <p> In 1785, as soon as the colonies -- battered by the War for Independence -- were in condition to resume the lucrative trade with southern Europe, two American merchant ships were seized by Algerian pirates, and their crews held for ransom. </p> <p> Domestic considerations and fair-weather foreign friends caused the young nation to waste valuable time while figuring out how to respond, during which its citizens suffered further damage to their interests and lives. In the end, Thomas Jefferson's initial reaction was the right one: "Weakness provokes insult and injury, while a condition to punish, often prevents them." </p> <p> The Barbary pirates at the end of the 18th century had two operating methods. They sold "peace treaties" and they held ships, crews, and passengers for ransom. The major commercial power of the day, Great Britain, found it worth its while to buy treaties rather than wipe out the North African gangs, which it was well within its power to do. In effect kept in business by British subsidies, the pirates preyed on weaker maritime nations, improving Britain's competitive position. The calculation was a ruthless one. As Benjamin Franklin put it: "If there were no Algiers, it would be worth England's while to build one." </p> <p> The young nation did not have a navy. Indeed, under the Articles of Confederation, the United States did not even have an executive branch legally empowered to devise and execute an anti-pirate policy. And one of the principal problems confronting Thomas Jefferson, the Confederacy's ambassador to France, was that the Congress was not especially keen on raising any money for a national war-fighting machine, either on land or on sea. </p> <p> Thomas Jefferson saw the advantages that a strong central government could muster, diplomatically, if it had some muscle at its disposal. He wrote to James Monroe that with the Unites States taking the lead, "a convention might be formed with those powers establishing a perpetual cruise," which is to say a deterrent force, in the Mediterranean. </p> <p> The Constitution gave the national government enhanced powers and responsibilities, but it was not until 1794 that the Congress authorized funds for a six-shop navy. By then, Algerian pirates had seized 11 more American vessels, putting more than 100 officers and men in conditions of wretched captivity. "Death would be a great relief," wrote one captain. But rather than using force, money and military supplies were used to ransom off the Americans. </p> <p> Mr. Jefferson, temperamentally and philosophically scornful of the practice of paying tribute, accepted the war Tripoli declared on us in 1801. It did not go especially well for us. Capt. William Bainbridge was captured with his ship, the <em>Philadelphia</em>; the entire crew of 300 was put to hard labor and had to be ransomed off. In 1804 Lt. Stephen Decatur sailed into Tripoli harbor and destroyed the ship. Perhaps the most perceptive observation on the war was made by Sen. William Plummer of New Hampshire: "Had [Jefferson] sent a sufficient number of men and ships it would have been expensive -- it might have endangered his reputation for economy and lessened his popularity with the rabble, but most probably would have saved the lives of deserving men." </p> <p> An American named William Eaton, acting in a private capacity, attacked Tripoli from the desert, planning to install opponents of the pirate gang that sat there. The campaign went well, but the Jefferson administration decided to end the war by resuming payments of tribute. </p> <p> In 1815, after the continuing troubles with Great Britain were settled by the War of 1812, the problem of Barbary piracy returned, as Algiers reneged on the tribute deal and captured an American vessel. Congress declared war. Lt. Decatur and Capt. Bainbridge returned to the Mediterranean with much more power than the first time and brought memories of Carthage to Algiers. Great Britain, meanwhile, encouraged by the American example, gave up its policy of paying tribute and instead joined in the naval operations, which included heavy bombardments. Algiers accepted treaties, abolishing tribute; Tunis and Tripoli soon did likewise. Although lone-gun pirates continued to infest the North African coastline until the French established their hegemony there in the 1830s, state-sponsored piracy in that part of the world was finished -- until the 20th century. </p> <hr /> <p> SO YOU SEE. I should note, by the by, that my former colleagues at the <em>Detroit News</em> will I am sure not object to reprinting this interesting little piece, since I wrote it for that storied paper, shortly before President Reagan ordered punitive raids against Libya -- and you will note that it was not until President Bush's show of quite considerable -- but sufficient? -- force in the larger region that the Muammar Qaddafi regime (a) ended its nuclear bomb program and (b) released hostages it was holding on absurd poison-conspiracy charges. The French government took credit for that one, and as far as I know never has apologized for interfering with Mr. Reagan's actions, which almost surely contributed to the losses our aviators sustained while carrying them out. </p> <p> Observe, too, that it is easy to understand Thomas Jefferson's mixture of frustration and stop-and-start policies. What in the world are the Saudis doing with their billions if they cannot hire some tough guys -- there must be some in their neighborhood? -- to go and clean up the Somali coast. Could they know something we don't about what's really going on over there? After all, seizing one of their super tankers must do something not good, from the rest of the world's point of view, to the price of oil. </p>', '1227204626', '1227204623', '2008-11-20')
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INSERT INTO wp_bdprss_items_v3 (item_feed_id, item_url, item_name, text_body, item_update_time, item_time, item_date) VALUES ('56', 'http://spectator.org/archives/2008/11/20/ben-wattenbergs-american-life', 'Ben Wattenberg's American Life', '<p> <em><strong><a href= "http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0312382995/theamericansp-20"> Fighting Words</a>: A Tale of How Liberals Created Neo-Conservatism</strong></em><br /> <strong>By Ben J. Wattenberg<br /> (Thomas Dunne/St. Martin's Press, 362 pages, $26.95)</strong> </p> <p> The year was 1966. Lyndon Baines Johnson presided over a gloomy post-Camelot America. His whiz kid special assistant and <em>Time</em> cover boy, the Rev. Billy Don Moyers, brought the author of an optimistic demography book to the White House for an audition. Moyers liked what he heard from the freelance author and took him to meet the president, who happened to be dressed in his silk pajamas in preparation for a nap. Thus began the beltway career of a B.A. in English and drama from Hobart College. Ben Wattenberg, not an academic as so many have assumed, combined shrewd instincts and a devotion to statistics into a life in "data journalism." </p> <p> Moyers, by the way, pops up at various points in the book. Wattenberg can't seem to be able to believe that the former aide to LBJ decades later became the same man who recently claimed the right would mount a coup if Kerry won in 2004. He is thankful to Moyers for bringing him to the White House and appalled at the same time. </p> <p> The book is both an autobiography of Wattenberg and a light history of neoconservatism. The two go together. Wattenberg, who grew up in a community disproportionately sympathetic to socialism in New York, is one of many Jewish intellectuals who found themselves first trying to move the Democratic Party to the center and then, in many cases, settling among Republicans. Wattenberg never went all the way to the GOP. He worked for LBJ, Hubert Humphrey, and Scoop Jackson before becoming a fixture in the think tank world. Unlike his fellow neocon Daniel Patrick Moynihan (who became a reliable left vote in the Senate), though, he could not reliably support the Democrats, either. It turns out Wattenberg is a rarity in Washington. He is a swing voter. </p> <p> Though the title is <em>Fighting Words: A Tale of How Liberals Created Neo-Conservatism</em>, it isn't quite apt. Wattenberg weaves neoconservatism into his life story, but in this volume, the political movement is really part of his story rather than the other way around. However, rehabilitating neoconservatism is part of the mission. The longtime AEI (American Enterprise Institute) fellow is eager to remind readers that there is more to the movement than aggressive foreign policy. While it's true that neocons began as liberals faced with growing disappointment in the Soviet experiment with Communism, they were also concerned about the degradation of American culture. </p> <p> One of Irving Kristol's most memorable aphorisms is that a conservative is simply "a liberal mugged by reality." The reference to mugging was not merely metaphorical. Crime became a compelling issue in Vietnam-era America. Wattenberg reports that his own mother was mugged once. His father was mugged twice. His son was mugged twice. His sister-in-law was murdered. A key belief that distinguished neocons from liberals of the time was that "law and order" is not code for racism, but rather that it is <em>the</em> code for civilization. </p> <p> The specter of Barack Obama lurks behind a number of the book's confident proclamations about the future of neoconservatism. Wattenberg is bullish on the concept and believes that soft liberals are poison to the Democratic Party while tougher liberals win the prize. Is Obama more like the tough cold warrior Kennedy or the softer McGovern? One suspects Wattenberg would say Obama is the exception that proves the rule. </p> <p> Obama also comes to mind when Wattenberg writes about President Jimmy Carter. For example, Wattenberg explains: </p> <p> "As an unknown, he [Carter] gained a dream situation for a candidate: the ability to describe himself as he wished to be known.…That is why money is so important. It buys the ability…to paint a portrait of a candidate as he or she wants to be known." </p> <p> Those words could have been written precisely for the president-elect. </p> <p> THE BEST TREASURES in the book center on Wattenberg's many experiences in Washington life. In one instance, Wattenberg found himself debating Milton Friedman, which he found profoundly disturbing because Friedman had the "unnerving" debate tactic of chuckling in a barely audible fashion while his opponent spoke. Wattenberg reports he felt a consistent urge to check whether his zipper was open. </p> <p> He also recalls Scoop Jackson (a devout Christian) enthusiastically telling a Jewish audience how his mother instructed him to "love the Jews." Wattenberg had to explain to the senator how that kind of talk made Jews uncomfortable. </p> <p> Some of his anecdotes are earnest and touching. Traveling with Hubert Humphrey, Wattenberg heard the candidate take an audience through an unscripted and heartfelt guided tour of the Pledge of Allegiance with his eyes shining. Humphrey had been instrumental in inserting the words "under God" in the pledge. He told audiences those two words "gave real meaning to human dignity." </p> <p> Wattenberg's book goes in a number of different directions. It is sometimes an autobiography, sometimes a movement history, sometimes a compilation of anecdotal tales of time spent with famous men, and sometimes a lift of the curtain to expose the wizard behind political television and syndicated columns. Despite this stew of different ingredients maintaining their own flavor, <em>Fighting Words</em> is consistently smart and entertaining. It is somewhat ironic that a man who has long focused on examining the data to explain the issues, has written a personal history that explains so much about the last half-century of American politics. </p>', '1227204626', '1227204622', '2008-11-20')
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INSERT INTO wp_bdprss_items_v3 (item_feed_id, item_url, item_name, text_body, item_update_time, item_time, item_date) VALUES ('56', 'http://spectator.org/archives/2008/11/20/the-wicked-witch-of-the-west', 'The Wicked Witch of the West', '<p> I find this on Page 24 of my dog-eared Signet paperback edition of George Orwell's <em>1984</em>. </p> <p> "It was almost normal for people over thirty to be frightened of their own children. And with good reason, for hardly a week passed in which the 'Times' did not carry a paragraph describing how some eavesdropping little sneak -- 'child hero' was the phrase generally used -- had overheard some compromising remark and denounced his parents to the Thought Police." </p> <p> Orwell was obsessed with the totalitarian figures of his time, especially Joseph Stalin, from whose regime he got the model for the above. The great Soviet purges of the 1930s systematically used children as political informers against adults. One wonders how many people went to the Gulag based on the forced, twisted testimony of kids. Which brings me to a school bus full of the latter in Rexburg, Idaho, though I find them for the most part innocent, and not malignantly Orwellian. Their value here is as an exhibit for their potential as tools for manipulation. </p> <p> The day after Election Day some grade-schoolers on the bus were heard to be chanting in singsong "Assassinate Obama." When bored with that, they switched to "Assassinate Obama and Kate" (poor little Kate, whoever she might be, but her presence does illustrate the episode's trivial nature). Anyway, the bus driver overheard this, and some parents got wind of it secondhand from their kids. In short, the Madison County School District was notified. An official e-mail was sent to all administrators, teachers and bus drivers stating this behavior should be met with strong disapproval. News of the scandal reached a Twin Falls TV news station, which devoted a short segment to it. It seems that due to the kids' ages (six to eight) that the United States Secret Service wasn't interested. But Jill Kuraitis was. </p> <p> Kuraitis is the "Idaho Editor" for "<a href= "http://www.newwest.net">New West</a>," a Lefty regional website based in Missoula, Montana, and devoted to Western politics, culture, recreation and business (mostly Green). I find it amusing and visit everyday. It's Missoula's own online New York magazine. If you want to know where to get good coffee, wine or sushi in Missoula -- check New West. There are local blogs (New West-Missoula, New West-Bozeman, New West-Boise). I've always thought of it as a sort of home-away-from-home newsletter for a million expatriate Californians. But back to Jill Kuraitis. </p> <p> She's one of the website's "citizen journalists" and writes regularly. In September she penned a hysterical screed about Sarah Palin. It was impressive; worthy of the Huffington Post or Daily Kos. "She was the head cheerleader who got there by bullying others and having her mother pull strings. She was the girl who would be your best friend one day, then turn on you the next and use your confidences against you….Winning was everything." You get the idea. It was a species of trite sputum usually found in biohazard containers in the exam room of your doctor's office. </p> <p> On November 13, Kuraitis posted a <a href= "http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/eastern_idaho_kids_chant_assassinate_obama_on_school_bus/C559/L559/"> column</a> about those naughty kids in Rexburg. She called the Madison County School District to ask: "What is being done to find out if the parents of these kids have created a home atmosphere where that kind of language and thinking is okay?" E-mails were exchanged with a district "spokesperson" named Janet Goodliffe. Goodliffe's final communication: "I don't know what you mean. It's not even like that. It was the day after the election and the kids were just chanting, really little kids, like six, seven and eight." </p> <p> But Kuraitis is undeterred. She writes: "I'm not saying all six year olds would have known what they were saying. But most would [Really?], and some kind of swift and serious action should be taken to figure out where they got the swill they were regurgitating. The kids and parents should be questioned by law enforcement, if only to emphasize how serious the incident was." Kuraitis continues her piece by decrying yet another one of those hangman's noose incidents, this particular one in rural northern Idaho, with a man named Ken Germana under investigation by the Spokane office of the U.S. Secret Service. "I hope authorities throw the book at him." I would guess that Kuraitis found nothing wrong with Sarah Palin hanged in effigy in California as a Halloween prank. </p> <p> Since the election especially the left has adopted a paranoid stance concerning President-elect Obama's safety. The fact that President Bush has for the last eight years stoically endured the most vicious opprobrium the left had to offer, including starring in the plot of novel that speculated on the virtues of assassination, doesn't faze the Jill Kuraitis' of the world. The double standard is glaringly apparent. </p> <p> But Kuraitis can't comprehend that. With her laser glare focused on six year olds and misanthropic hermits living in the woods, she ends her piece wallowing in histrionic gobbledygook: "I'm at a loss about how to stop this stuff, but that doesn't stop me from using my fury to try to think of something constructive. It's an enormous concept with thousands of years of history to try to fight hate and violence, but we have to start somewhere." </p> <p> I think George Orwell would have been fascinated by Jill Kuraitis. In one tiresome piece she has managed to display both definitions of the word "Orwellian": that related to the political and to the linguistic. </p>', '1227204626', '1227204621', '2008-11-20')
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INSERT INTO wp_bdprss_items_v3 (item_feed_id, item_url, item_name, text_body, item_update_time, item_time, item_date) VALUES ('56', 'http://spectator.org/archives/2008/11/20/crisis-of-faith', 'Crisis of Faith', '<p> Like the GOP, Catholics today face an identity crisis. "Reformers" want the Church to liberalize by softening its positions on homosexuality, women priests, and abortion rights, to go with its already liberal policies on immigration, welfare, the death penalty and healthcare. Then there are your traditionalists who think the Church has abandoned its core principles in a wrong-headed attempt to get hip to the times -- even if the times are to a large extent decadent. </p> <p> The majority of "cafeteria" Catholics dine in moderation, selecting what looks good from official doctrine and passing on the rest. In Barack Obama they smelled something to their liking: a bland dish of creamed corn and Jello. "Catholics voted for Mr. Obama over Mr. McCain by a nine-point margin (54 percent versus 45 percent), a turnaround from 2004 when Catholics supported President Bush over Sen. John Kerry…by a five-point margin," the Washington Times reported. </p> <p> Like their secular brethren, Catholics are deeply divided over abortion. A typical CNN poll found 60 percent of Americans think abortion is morally wrong. But this doesn't necessarily mean Americans think it should be criminalized. After all, gambling, alcohol and tobacco use are often considered morally wrong, but we're not about to go all Carrie Nation on the corner pub. </p> <p> The other 40 percent of Americans say abortion is morally acceptable. These are the Starbucks radicals who seem to believe that Roe v. Wade alone prevents a bloodbath of botched back-alley abortions. One might have made that argument before Roe v. Wade became law in the early 1970s, but times have changed since "Half-Breed" was on top of the pop charts. The stigma once associated with out-of-wedlock births -- the principal reason young women resorted to illegal abortions -- disappeared with the Beat Movement. Today a teenager's unplanned pregnancy is considered a mundane but obligatory rite of passage, like a neck tattoo or a lip ring. </p> <p> OBAMA'S VICTORY and an escalation of efforts by liberal activist groups like Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good and Catholics United was at the top of the agenda as bishops met this month in Baltimore for their semiannual conference. These and similar groups believe it should be possible for a Catholic to oppose abortion individually and morally and still favor choice in the public sector. However, Bishop Robert J. Hermann, of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, spoke for many who think the Church has pussyfooted around too long: "I think any bishop here would consider it a privilege to die tomorrow to bring about the end of abortion," he told the conference of bishops. "…[W]e should be willing to spend the end of our lives dedicated, to take whatever criticism, to bring about the end to this genocide." Speaking jointly, the bishops warned the Obama administration that the Church will do everything it can to oppose his support for abortion rights. </p> <p> Well, maybe not everything. </p> <p> It's not as if the Church hasn't had opportunities to make its point before. And while a few bishops have threatened to withhold communion from pro-choice Catholic politicians, their warnings have had little or no impact. When former St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke threatened to withhold the Eucharist from former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Sen. John Kerry, they simply avoided St. Louis on Sunday morning. </p> <p> If Catholics are skeptical about the bishops' new tough talk on abortion, it may be because the latest guidelines for a statement directed toward pro-abortion Catholic politicians reads like a half dozen lashes with a wet noodle: "The common good of our country is assured only when the life of every unborn child is legally protected," the statement reads. "Aggressively pro-abortion policies and legislation will permanently alienate tens of millions of Americans and would be interpreted by many Catholics as an attack on the church.…We again express our desire that all Catholics in public life be fully committed to public good." Take that, Joe Biden. </p> <p> The bishops could have made their point simply and more effectively by excommunicating pro-abortion Catholic politicians, a tactic Pope Benedict supports. Here in St. Louis, bishops have been excommunicating people left and right of late -- just not for their support for abortion rights. When St. Stanislaus Kostka parishioners balked at turning over to the diocese financial oversight of their flourishing inner-city parish -- a tradition dating back to its founding in the 19th century -- Bishop Hermann had no trouble excommunicating eight parishioners and the parish priest for violating canon law. </p> <p> With such mixed messages emanating from the pulpit it's no wonder Catholics voted for a pro-abortion candidate, and it's no wonder the crisis continues. </p>', '1227204626', '1227204620', '2008-11-20')
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INSERT INTO wp_bdprss_items_v3 (item_feed_id, item_url, item_name, text_body, item_update_time, item_time, item_date) VALUES ('56', 'http://spectator.org/archives/2008/11/20/clintons-cronies', 'Clinton's Cronies', '<p> <strong>HOLDER AND VIGNALI<br /></strong>Re: The Prowler's <a href= "http://www.spectator.org/archives/2008/11/17/beg-your-pardongate"> Beg Your Pardongate</a>: </p> <p> I see the Prowler is reporting Holder urging Obama to include Mayorkas on his transition. <a href= "http://www.laweekly.com/2005-05-26/news/la-s-underground-power-broker/"> Here is possibly the most detailed account</a> you will find of Pardongate as it pertained to convicted drug trafficker Carlos Vignali, and Alejandro Mayorkas' role in a grant of clemency by President Clinton. By definition, Holder would have had to approve that grant (which Mayorkas lobbied for), just as he approved the pardon for Marc Rich.<br /> -- <strong>Jeffrey Anderson<br /></strong><em>Baltimore City Paper</em> (formerly of <em>LA Weekly</em>)<strong><br /></strong> </p> <p> <strong>BIG ASSUMPTIONS<br /></strong>Re: Enemy Central's <a href='http://spectator.org/archives/2008/11/19/keep-the-change' target='_blank' rel='nofollow'> Keep the Change</a>: </p> <p> The Clinton staffer that won't be invited back to the White House is Ms. Lewinsky. The American taxpayer will assume the position directly for President Obama.<br /> -- <strong>Ira M. Kessel<br /></strong>Rochester, New York </p> <p> Let's assume that Obama has placed this reality as his most important when picking those who will work at his right side: The candidate must "worship" Obama, must think Obama is in fact the "savior" our country needs so badly. I refer the reader to the recent movie "3:10 to Yuma," starring Russell Crowe et al. Note his immediate cohort in crime...the guy damn near steals the show, especially in his allegiance and meanness to all those who resist the will of his boss! </p> <p> Imagine how the women in Obama's life greet him when he comes home from work. They adore him. His mother adored him, grandmother too. The guy just loves to be adored! What happens when this adoration ceases? Or when another force comes into the picture diverting the supplicant from his duties? </p> <p> Why, he gets the wrath of Obama. You don't mess with Mr. Cool. </p> <p> Now there are some really tough streets in Chicago where one looks all around as he struts his stuff walking. I don't know if Mr. Cool ever walked such streets alone. I do know on the world stage there are some really tough guys who just for chuckles like to smash the faces of those who get close enough. </p> <p> What happens when the pretty face of Obama gets touched? Do we need to watch him play a pickup game of basketball to get an idea? Or will it show up when he tries to vote "present" for some important item? </p> <p> Will he invoke the wrath of a god to those who trespass against "his will" or "vision" like I imagine he will? Will this Shakespeare of politics wannabe terminate all with his sweet words of condemnation? </p> <p> Note the dead bodies at the end of "3:10 to Yuma." Crowe gets on the train...alone! Good guys and bad guys lay dead all around. </p> <p> Is it time to ask Michael Corleone for his perspective? How about Alexander the Great? Judah Ben Hur? </p> <p> The show is about to start, please be seated...and turn off your cellphones...or else!<br /> -- <strong>R. Philips</strong><br /> Corrales, New Mexico </p> <p> <strong>SPEAK OUT NOW OR FOREVER HOLD YOUR PEACE<br /></strong>Re: Lisa Fabrizio's <a href= "../../archives/2008/11/19/offensive-conservatives">Offensive Conservatives</a>: </p> <p> I must disagree with Ms. Fabrizio about the Catholic Bishops closing the Catholic hospitals if they are required to perform abortions. There is a priest in South Carolina who spoke out against Catholic citizens who voted for Obama thereby tacitly supporting Obama's stand on abortion -- in addition to supporting abortion itself. The priest went further and said that those Catholics should seek absolution for their sin. What happened? </p> <p> You guessed it, the "misguided" priest was told by his Bishop to pipe down. So much for the Catholic Church standing up against abortion or supporting the priests who do take courageous stands. Shame on that Bishop.<br /> -- <strong>Judy Beumler<br /></strong>Louisville, Kentucky </p> <p> As a religious, social and low tax conservative I say Amen, Lisa. The one good thing about the Obama election is that intrinsic Democrat racism and sexism has been dealt a blow by the election of the first African-American "female" for President. Happy Days are here again, and economic policy will be reminiscent of FDR's failures that led to 13 years of economic chaos and impoverishment and the rise of totalitarian fascism. The big difference is "Ms." Obama is clearly sympathetic to the fascist agenda of destroying freedom and liberty in the world.<br /> -- <strong>Michael</strong> <strong>Tom</strong><strong>linson</strong><br /> Camp Habbaniyah, Iraq </p> <p> <strong>DO THE MATH<br /></strong>Re: G. Tracy Mehan, III's <a href= "http://www.spectator.org/archives/2008/11/17/social-conservatives-as-scapeg"> Social Conservatives as Scapegoats</a>: </p> <p> I think that your article is on the right track. The practical politician needs to identify how he is going to accomplish his goals. Where does his 51% come from, or will he support a diversionary third party so that he only needs 47%? Current Republican leadership seems unable to do the math. They have managed to maintain the ability to shift blame to others for their own failures. </p> <p> I'm coming to the conclusion the political elite have absolutely no idea what it means to evangelical Christians to be Christians. As your article says, there are many roads that social and economic conservatives walk in common, they just don't do it together. Strong arguments for energy development and taxation appeal to all three legs of the conservative base, but the liberals chose to be like the Democrats. Big government solutions, giving away other people's money, blaming capitalism while ignoring big government stupidity and corruption were the chosen campaign points. Republicans went for image while they deserted principle. That only works if you are a Democrat.<br /> -- <strong>George York</strong> </p> <p> <strong>ANARCHY APHORISM<br /></strong>Re: Ira Kessel's letter (under "Out of My Way") in Reader Mail's <a href= "../../archives/2008/11/19/marital-strife/print">Marital Strife</a>: </p> <p> Ira Kessel attributed this to Adam Smith: "That government governs best which governs least." </p> <p> Thoreau, while agreeing with that, added this: "Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe -- 'That government is best which governs not at all;' and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have. Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient." Civil disobedience! </p> <p> Somebody please get this message to Congress. Quickly, please! </p> <p> "Super double quick!" (in language more appropriate to this day than it was in 1984).<br /> -- <strong>A. C. Santore</strong> </p>', '1227204626', '1227204619', '2008-11-20')
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INSERT INTO wp_bdprss_items_v3 (item_feed_id, item_url, item_name, text_body, item_update_time, item_time, item_date) VALUES ('56', 'http://spectator.org/archives/2008/11/19/take-the-tax-debate-to-obama', 'Take the Tax Debate to Obama', '<p> The election may be over, but the same is not true for the tax debate. The tax debate is just beginning, with Congress soon to be considering sweeping tax legislation proposed by President Obama. </p> <p> Conservatives and Republicans need to be much smarter and more aggressive about how they deal with Obama on this issue. We are no longer bound by the intellectual weaknesses of John McCain on economics and taxes and his inability to articulate the basic arguments. In fact, we must stop now thinking of McCain as the Republican leader. McCain is already indicating that he wants to be a wooden puppet for Obama on many issues, in "a spirit of bipartisanship." For Republicans and conservatives, the man whose political failures and confusions put the Far Left in charge of our government should now be an afterthought. </p> <hr /> <p> <strong>Smearing Reaganomics</strong> </p> <p> The debate for Obama and the Democrats begins with a smear of the tax policies adopted by Reagan and the Republicans going back 30 years. A good example of this is found in Obama's discussion with Joe the Plumber. During that discussion, Obama said, "We've cut taxes a lot for folks like me who make a lot more, but we haven't given a break to folks who make less." </p> <p> That was not an offhand remark. That was a central theme of Obama and the Democrats all year. In his standard stump speech, Obama would say, "We've given more and more to those with the most and hoped that prosperity would trickle down to everyone else. And guess what? It didn't. So it's time to try something new. It's time to grow this economy from the bottom up. It's time to invest in the middle-class again." </p> <p> In other words, Republicans cut taxes only for the rich, and forgot about the middle class and lower income workers. Hillary's version of this was even more dramatic. She would say, "Republicans have cut taxes for the rich so much that it is now actually hurting the middle class." </p> <p> This is a completely false smear of Reagan Republican tax policy. If we let them stick us with this false tag, they will use it politically against us for a generation. The official U.S. government data from the IRS and the Congressional Budget Office now show that the top 1% of income earners, the true rich, pay 40% of all federal income taxes, almost twice their share of national income. The top 20% of income earners pay 86.7% of federal income taxes. The federal income tax burden today is basically borne by these top 20% of income earners. </p> <p> By contrast, the bottom 40% of income earners as a group pay negative 3.8% of all income taxes. That means instead of paying taxes into the system, on net they draw payments out of the income tax system equal to 3.8% of all federal income tax revenues. The middle 20% of income earners, the true middle class, pay just 4.7% of all federal income taxes. </p> <p> This is the result of Reagan Republican supply-side economics that began with Reagan and Jack Kemp in the 1970s and 1980s, through Newt Gingrich and his Contract with America, to the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003. <em>Reagan and his Republicans have abolished federal income taxes on the working class. Moreover, they have almost abolished federal income taxes on the actual middle class</em> (the middle 20%). </p> <p> Here are the changes that produced this result. Ronald Reagan first proposed the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) in his historic welfare reform testimony before the Senate Finance Committee in 1974. The EITC has now abolished federal income taxes for the working poor, and cut federal income taxes sharply for lower income workers. As President, Reagan cut federal income tax rates across the board for all taxpayers by 25%. He also indexed the tax brackets for all taxpayers to prevent inflation from pushing workers into higher tax brackets. In the Tax Reform Act of 1986, he reduced the federal income tax rate for "folks who make less" all the way down to 15%. That Act also doubled the personal exemption, shielding more income from taxation altogether for everybody. </p> <p> Newt Gingrich's Contract with America adopted a child tax credit of $500 per child that reduced the tax liabilities of lower income people by a higher percentage than for higher income people. President Bush doubled that credit to $1,000 per child, and made it refundable so that low income people who do not even pay $1,000 in federal income taxes could still get the full credit. Bush also adopted a new lower tax bracket for the lowest income workers of 10%, reducing their federal income tax rate by 33%. He cut the top rate for the highest income workers by just 11.6%, from 39.6% to 35%. </p> <p> The other result of the tax policies of Reagan, Gingrich, and Bush is that they were the centerpiece of the economic policies that produced a 25-year economic boom, from 1982 to 2007, what Art Laffer and Steve Moore have called "the greatest period of wealth creation in the history of the planet." In their recent book, <em>The End of Prosperity</em>, they also write, "Adjusting for inflation, more wealth was created in America in the twenty-five year boom than in the previous two hundred years." </p> <p> I will not recount here again how Reagan's economic policies so dramatically reversed what was a collapsing economy by the end of the 1970s, and how the continuation and expansion of those policies produced the 25-year boom. But conservatives must note that they cannot allow the economic turmoil of 2008 to erase the public memory of that enormous, historic, astounding achievement. They cannot allow Obama and his Democrats to say, "It didn't work." And that is going to require a sustained public education campaign as to what did happen, and why. </p> <hr /> <p> <strong>Economic Growth</strong> </p> <p> During his campaign, Obama successfully focused on a theme of rebuilding the middle class, particularly through his supposed middle-class tax cut. This is classic Saul Alinsky strategy, which called for radical reformers to appeal to the middle class, rather than scaring them away with overt radicalism. </p> <p> One key way for conservatives and Republicans to counter this theme and appeal to the middle class in the future is the issue of economic growth. This was central to the political success of Reagan and the Republicans in the 1980s, embracing the policies and rhetoric developed by Jack Kemp in particular. The economic growth theme is what takes conservatives from the mid-40s in public support to the mid-50s. This theme is also essential to appealing to the Hispanics and other minorities that strongly supported Obama and the Democrats this time. This is why it is so important to set the record straight on the Reagan economic boom. </p> <p> The Obama tax plan is vulnerable on this score, because it is so anti-growth. As I have recounted before as well, Obama's plan calls for raising the marginal tax rates on virtually every federal tax -- individual income taxes, capital gains taxes, dividend taxes, payroll taxes, death taxes. It effectively calls for raising corporate income taxes by 25% by closing loopholes and tax havens, even though America's corporations already suffer the second highest corporate tax rates in the industrialized world. Obama ridiculed McCain's proposals to reduce those excessive rates as still more tax cuts for the rich and corporate fat cats. </p> <p> Raising all of these marginal tax rates together amounts to a vigorous assault on the incentives for saving, investment, entrepreneurship, business creation and expansion, job creation, risk taking, work, and overall economic growth. This argument is not hard for the average voter to understand, and polls and focus groups show that they do respond to it. With the current weak economy, this argument may be successful in derailing most or even all of these tax increases. </p> <p> A second chapter of the Obama tax plan is 9 or 10 or more new or expanded refundable income tax credits for various social purposes, such as child care, welfare, health care, education, housing, retirement, and others. Refundable means that if a worker has little or no income tax liability, the government will send him a check for the full amount of the tax credit anyway. In these cases, the tax credits are not tax cuts reducing any tax liability, but new government spending programs hidden in the tax code. Because Reagan and the Republicans have already cut taxes so much for the middle class and lower income workers, Obama is quite wrong in calling them tax cuts for these workers. </p> <p> Tax credits do not promote economic growth as reductions in marginal tax rates do because they do not promote incentives to any significant degree. A tax credit is like a cash grant, and a cash grant for child care does nothing to promote the economy. At best, a tax credit affects incentives only up to the amount of the credit, in general a few hundred or a couple of thousand dollars. But the incentives from a reduced tax rate affect all economic decisions and resources, including those from abroad. </p> <p> Indeed, the tax credits negatively affect economic growth because they are phased out over various middle and higher income levels, effectively increasing marginal tax rates for those incomes. Removing a tax credit as income rises has the same effect on incentives as imposing a tax as income rises. </p> <p> This is not to argue that all tax credits are always a bad idea, even refundable ones. Rather, the argument is that, first, refundable income tax credits for those with no income tax liability are not tax cuts. They are income redistribution, which is basically the opposite of tax cuts. And, secondly, income tax credits do not promote economic growth. </p> <p> Liberals and Democrats will help to make the economic growth issue work for conservatives and Republicans because they will assuredly trash the economy, not only through bad tax policies, but also through hare-brained energy policies that will cause energy and gas prices to soar and leave supplies unreliable, through renewed inflation, through costly regulatory burdens, and through other soft-headed fallacies. Cap and trade global warming policies will wreck the economy by imposing huge additional costs. Obama seems to think he can promote economic growth based on increased government spending. Reality will show that to be disastrously wrong. </p> <p> Conservatives and Republicans should continue to advance pro-growth tax policies, such as reductions in the most damaging top marginal tax rates, and excessive corporate tax rates, as well as reduced tax burdens on savings and capital, such as reduced capital gains tax rates and expensing for business investment. These policies will not be achieved in the current political environment. But they will work politically as liberal Democrat policies fail on the economy, and voters start to look elsewhere. </p> <p> The tax issue will also work politically for Republicans and conservatives, to a spectacular degree, the minute Democrats try to raise taxes on anyone earning less than $250,000, breaking the central Obama campaign promise. Be prepared for a grassroots firestorm as soon as that happens. </p> <p> Moreover, conservatives and Republicans should advance other pro-growth economic policies, such as increased energy and gas production to provide reliable supplies at lower prices, anti-inflation monetary policies, and reductions in runaway government spending. These pro-growth policies together will be central in restoring political success. </p> <hr /> <p> <strong>Conservative Income Redistribution?</strong> </p> <p> To counter Obama's middle class tax cut rhetoric, some conservatives have argued for the idea of a $5,000 child tax credit. They would not make the credit refundable, to avoid effective new welfare checks from the government for most workers, recognizing the dramatic cuts in income taxes for the middle class and lower-income workers already adopted by Reagan and the Republicans. But they would allow the credit to be taken against the payroll taxes funding Social Security and Medicare. </p> <p> But with one or two children, such a credit would quickly eliminate payroll tax liability for most workers at middle-class and lower incomes. Since Social Security and Medicare already suffer from deep long-term deficits, how will we replace the revenue lost to these credits? And why should families with children pay little or no payroll taxes for much or most of their lives, yet receive full Social Security and Medicare benefits? This would just be another redistributionist policy, only focused on favored conservative beneficiaries, which should be even easier to see in the context of the Obama tax credit policy discussed above. Indeed, focusing the redistribution solely on families with children, who already vote mostly Republican, would weaken its political benefit as an alternative to the Obama tax plan. </p> <p> Moreover, this child tax credit would not promote economic growth, for the reasons discussed above. It does not promote incentives for saving, investment, business creation and expansion, job creation, etc. The $5,000 credit loses too much revenue for no pop on the economy. There are much better alternatives, both economically and politically. </p> <p> For income taxes, Republicans and conservatives should focus on cutting middle-class income tax <em>rates</em>. If the 25% middle-class tax rate were reduced to 15%, the result would be a flat rate tax of 15% for close to 90% of workers. The lower rates would promote economic growth as discussed above. Indeed, it would likely lead to renewed middle-class income growth. It could be combined with an increase in the personal exemption, which would apply to children, to ensure that all taxpayers would get a tax cut from the package. Such a proposal would be politically competitive with the Obama tax plan right away, and could even potentially displace his tax credit scheme next year. </p> <p> For payroll taxes, personal accounts should be adopted and expanded over time to eventually phase out the payroll tax entirely, and replace the programs now financed by that tax. This would produce a truly massive reduction in the size of government, with an equivalent increase in the personal resources of families. That would do more than anything to strengthen families. Advancing such accounts will be difficult in the current political and economic climate, with liberal/left Democrats vigorously opposing them currently in complete control at the federal level. But such accounts have long been overwhelmingly popular in polls and focus groups, and their strong political appeal will recover with the economy. Because of the massive, historic reduction in government potentially involved in such accounts, conservatives should greatly favor them over a simple redistributionist giveaway. </p> <p> These are truly exciting middle-class tax cut opportunities, both politically and economically. </p>', '1227204626', '1227204618', '2008-11-20')
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INSERT INTO wp_bdprss_items_v3 (item_feed_id, item_url, item_name, text_body, item_update_time, item_time, item_date) VALUES ('56', 'http://spectator.org/archives/2008/11/19/keep-the-change', 'Keep the Change', '<p> Tocqueville would have understood: The more things change, the more they stay the same, if eight or nine years older. Thus the latest specimen is the Hon. Eric Holder, Janet Reno's former number two and Marc Rich's number one, now in line to dispense Justice on behalf of the Obama Administration. There is also Hillary Rodham Clinton herself, all primed to follow in the footsteps of fellow Wellesley alumna Madeleine Albright at the mysterious locale cheekily known as Foggy Bottom. Under a Machiavel like the Messiah, it could turn out to be nothing more than a ceremonial position for Madame Hillary, much as it was for William Rogers in the Nixon Administration where he proved no match for national security adviser Henry Kissinger. The question now: Who will the Big O select to be his Dr. K? </p> <p> Certainly not Sandy Berger, he of the deep pockets and sturdy socks, the better in which to conceal classified documents implicating him and his boss in shoddy anti-terror work during his time as national security adviser. Yet the spirit of Sandy Berger is already wafting over the new Obama team, in the person of incoming White House deputy chief of staff Mona Sutphen. In the Clinton era, she served as Mr. Berger's special assistant, a position not unlike the one she filled as an adviser to then Ambassador Bill Richardson at the U.N., where her duties included interviewing Ms. Monica Lewinsky for a sensitive post at the U.S. Mission. As it was, Ms. Sutphen got the more exciting job, serving post-Clinton as managing director of Stonebridge International LLC, which is none other than Sandy Berger's big-bucks lobbying firm. In the midst of all this she became a member of the New Leaders Circle of the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), the Council of Foreign Relations, and, the clincher, the Ron Brown Scholarship Program advisory board. </p> <p> According to a secret report <a href= "http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/30/nyregion/thecity/30pols.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin"> published</a> in the <em>New York Times</em> earlier this year, among Ms. Sutphen's prized possessions "is a caricature of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, her face an embryonic scrunch." Can we assume she does not like Dr. Rice? </p> <p> That's okay. Here at Enemy Central we don't always like everyone either. But Obama world isn't making it easier with its teasing appointments and nonappointments. John Kerry, for instance, who has abandoned what dignity he still possessed to plead and beg and grovel to be named Secretary of State. Why, he's even ready to take a trip into Cambodia this Christmas to earn that missing foreign policy credential. And frankly we've missed Teresa Heinz Kerry. Having her back in the public eye would put Mrs. Obama in a whole new perspective. </p> <p> White House matters bring out the heretical side in us, to be sure. The other week, the <em>Washington Post</em> ran a story on a White House butler who'd been serving drinks to presidents and dignitaries for more than 30 years. He's now retiring. Then no sooner did President-elect Obama drop by for a cordial one on one with President Bush than some long-time anti-Bush obsessives were recommending that Mr. Bush stay on as the departing butler's successor. Which made us think: Would it have been better for all concerned if Senator Kerry had won in 2004? </p> <p> But don't expect any reciprocation from the other side. The remarkable thing about this year's winners is their determination to pile on against the losers. There's an entire school of liberal pundits who know better than even Davids Brooks and Frum how to reform the Republican Party. The group's spokesman recently <a href= "http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/16/opinion/16rich.html">declared</a> that the GOP "is now more representative of 20th-century South Africa during apartheid than 21st-century America." Does that mean that the Democratic Party is now more representative of 21st century South Africa after apartheid than 20th-century America? It takes a special rhetorical greatness to set off a debate like that, and Frank Rich has never been one to shy away from his own brilliance. In this instance, Mr. Rich should regard his EOW prize as an achievement award. Let's just hope the Obama regime and the rest of the civilized world doesn't proceed to impose sanctions on the Republican Party. That would put its reform wing out of business. </p>', '1227204626', '1227204617', '2008-11-20')
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INSERT INTO wp_bdprss_items_v3 (item_feed_id, item_url, item_name, text_body, item_update_time, item_time, item_date) VALUES ('56', 'http://spectator.org/archives/2008/11/19/a-permanent-emergency', 'A Permanent Emergency', '<p> How do you end up in the penalty box? Usually, you get there because you misbehaved, and your stay has a defined length. In the case of Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District Number One, known as the MUD, the penalty box is Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. The MUD, though, has not misbehaved. Even so, a three-judge federal district court has decreed that it must stay in the penalty box for 25 more years without any chance of release. The MUD has now asked the United States Supreme Court to reverse that decision. It contends that the three-judge court misread the Voting Rights Act and that the Act, both as applied to prevent the MUD from asking for relief and as extended in 2006, is unconstitutional. </p> <p> Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act is an "emergency" law originally enacted in 1965. It prohibits "covered jurisdictions" from making changes in any laws and practices that affect voting without the permission of the Department of Justice or a three-judge federal district court in Washington, D.C. The original "covered jurisdictions" were covered for the good reason that they discriminated against African-Americans who wanted to register to vote and kept changing their racially discriminatory voting laws in order to moot or defeat challenges to their constitutionality. Congress established a coverage formula that looked at, among other things, the rate of voter registration and turnout in the black community. To the surprise of few, nearly all of the states of the Confederacy failed the test when it was imposed in 1965. </p> <p> Since 1965, the Act has demonstrated "bracket creep" in two directions. First, Congress has extended Section 5 three times. Originally, it was set to expire after five years, but now it will not expire until 2031. That is, unless Congress bizarrely perceives that an emergency that will be 66 years old by then is still an emergency and extends it again -- even though it would almost be old enough to start drawing Social Security. Second, the Act has expanded to cover more jurisdictions. In 1978, the Supreme Court held that the coverage of Section 5 extended to all entities within a covered jurisdiction that had power over the electoral process and was not limited to those entities that registered voters. The MUD and many other entities have been swept up because of that decision.<br /> <br /> Congress did provide a safety valve, known as the bailout procedure. Covered jurisdictions that have done no wrong for 10 years and can meet certain tests can ask to bail out. According to the three-judge court, though, not all covered jurisdictions can bail out because Congress said that only those covered jurisdictions that register voters can do so Thus, the MUD has the power to affect elections, so it is covered, but it does not register voters, so it cannot even try to bail out. In effect, it is a hostage to Travis County, a larger jurisdiction that, while it registers voters, has reasons for not trying to bail out. That said, Travis County opposed the MUD before the three-judge court, something that is inexplicable as a matter of either the law or basic fairness and common sense. </p> <p> This is both a misreading of the Voting Rights Act and constitutionally untenable. The MUD, a special purpose entity with 3,500 residents who elect a governing body, has done nothing wrong, but, until 2031, it has to ask permission before moving a polling place or conducting a referendum. It, and many other entities like it, cannot ask for bailout. Cue up "Hotel California," where one can check out any time he or she likes, but can never leave. There is no good reason why Congress should make the MUD wait on Travis County to do the right thing.<br /> <br /> The MUD wants the Supreme Court to declare that it has the right to ask to bail out. The MUD's experience shows that residents of smaller jurisdictions seem to play better among themselves than residents of larger jurisdictions. Larger jurisdictions like Travis County should work on their own problems, not inflict needless work and expense on subsidiary jurisdictions like the MUD that have done nothing wrong. </p> <p> Indeed, times have changed. In 2004, in Alabama, the turnout of African-American voters was 63.9% of their total, while white voters turned out at a rate of 63.1%. In 2004, in Georgia, black voters were 27.2% of the State's total of registered voters and were 27.5% of the State's citizen voting age population. These figures represent dramatic improvement over conditions in 1965. Meanwhile, the places where problems have occurred, Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004, are not covered by Section 5. </p> <p> The Court should open the door for all covered entities to ask to bail out. There is no good reason for telling the MUD that it cannot even ask for relief. The MUD's appeal gives the Court the chance to remind Congress that emergencies do not last forever. </p>', '1227204626', '1227204616', '2008-11-20')
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INSERT INTO wp_bdprss_items_v3 (item_feed_id, item_url, item_name, text_body, item_update_time, item_time, item_date) VALUES ('56', 'http://spectator.org/archives/2008/11/19/of-faith-and-film', 'Of Faith and Film', '<p> It had all the trappings of a made-for-TV movie: a former sitcom star in the leading role, a Hallmarkian sentimentality, and a direct-to-DVD budget. It's the kind of project studio execs pass on. They did, yet <em>Fireproof</em> raked in the money. </p> <p> <em>Fireproof</em> is the third, and most profitable, film produced by the Sherwood Baptist Church ministry in Albany, Georgia. Its $7 million opening weekend launched the Christian movie into the box office Top 10 with Shia LeBouf's techno blockbuster and Spike Lee's newest joint. </p> <p> Those are big-budget movies with Hollywood support. They come tagged with superstar names and $100 million price tags. The studios funnel even more resources into TV spots, billboards, and other PR stunts. Those films are supposed to make millions of dollars atop the box-office charts. </p> <p> <em>Fireproof</em>, by contrast, was made for half a million dollars by volunteers of the Sherwood congregation. Its headliner, 1980s teen star Kirk Cameron, only received a donation to his charity. And yet, its per screen average was a slim $200 lower than the chart-topping <em>Eagle Eye</em>. </p> <p> The movie industry has fallen on relatively tough times. Ticket sales fell over four percent from this time last year and prices are up nearly 30 cents to compensate. But Hollywood hasn't tried to tap into the underserved Christian market. Bill Maher's <em>Religulous</em> rounded up kooky, bizarre, extreme believers for an evangelical, three-ring circus. Maher and Larry Charles, whose directorial portfolio includes the cynical satire <em>Borat</em>, took a big-top approach to a topic mainstream America holds dear. </p> <p> Maher eviscerates truck-stop-chapel assembly, a Christian theme park's version of Mickey Mouse, and a Puerto Rican man claiming to be the living embodiment of Jesus Christ. In other words, the standard Hollywood stereotype of the religious right. </p> <p> <em>Religulous</em&
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