Monthly Archives: September 2013

Third Parties

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To the best of my memory, there has only been one successful third party in the history of the United States—the Republican Party. There has been many attempts, such as Teddy Roosevelt’s Progressive Party, commonly known as the Bull Moose Party in 1912, Thomas J. Anderson’s American Party in 1976, and Ross Perot’s ‘Independent’ party in 1992. Neither Teddy Roosevelt, Thomas J. Anderson, nor Ross Perot, were successful. Instead, these three third party candidates insured the election of Woodrow Wilson, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton. How? They sucked away votes that would have gone to the Republican candidate.

If a third party arose today, would circumstances in the next Presidential election be any different? Probably not. Presidential elections are determined by the highest number of votes. It’s is highly unlikely that any number of minor parties could combine and gather sufficient votes to win.

Control of Congress, however, does not have to be a binary decision—dem or ‘pub. Coalitions can exist, and control Congress.

The Republican Party evolved from the disintegration of the Whig Party in 1856. The Kansas-Nebraska Act divided the Whigs over support for slavery and the creation of new slave states. The Whigs had lost their vision and their core during the slavery debates of that time. The anti-slavery elements of the Whigs created the Republican Party that, in 1860, elected Lincoln for President.

The Whig part died over slavery. The Republican party is teetering, perhaps on its death bed, over socialism and big government. Like the Whigs, the Republican establishment has lost its vision.

In my last post, I said the Republican party is dissolving. It hasn’t broken up yet. But, taking that thought further, how could such a dissolution occur?

There are a number of scenarios that could trigger the breakup. One, that I think is likely, is the public formation of a conservative faction within the Republicans in Washington. We know there are conservatives, all we need do is to watch their voting records. They haven’t, yet, created a voting bloc.

As an example, what if Cruz, Lee, Paul, maybe Rubio and others, like those who supported Ted Cruz’s “long speech” last week, were to form a…let’s call it The Tea Party Caucus. A caucus who would examine each voting issue, whether it is the Continuing Resolution, the Debt Limit, or other controversial issues, and determine how they would vote—as a bloc. That would be a first step towards a third party.

The caucus would divide the conservatives from RINOs like McConnell, McCain, Graham, Cornyn, and others like them in the House. The Tea Party Caucus would vote enbloc. They would present candidates for Congressional offices like Speaker and Majority/Minority Leader. They would form intra and extra-party coalitions to wrest control from the establishment of both parties. I note that Mancin (D-WV) has voted very conservatively for a democrat, often against his party leadership. There are a few more dems like him that may slip away from that democrat dictatorship in Washington.

Come the next national election, the establishment of both party would attempt to remove these conservatives during the primary. At this point, if the establishment blocked conservatives during the primary process, or in the primary election, it is quite possible, the conservatives would run as independents—perhaps creating a real Tea Party or whatever name they chose.

It would be a critical decision. Historically, new parties lose their first elections as did the Republicans in 1856 and the American Party in 1972, 1976 and 1980. The Republicans survived and won in 1860. The American Party failed each time and faded away.

Would the new Tea Party political machine fail too? Perhaps, if there aren’t enough officeholders and candidates, and public, grassroots voters to sustain the new party. If the bigger conservative names like Cruz, Lee, Paul and the others move enmass to the new party, the probability of it surviving is much, much greater. The new party would have existing officeholders in the Senate, some would win seats in the House, others would win as ‘Pubs or Dems and vote as a coalition alongside the new conservative Tea Party Congressmen. Another successful election cycle with more officeholders as members of the new party or aligned politically with them and the new third party would remain as a voter option against the big government dem and ‘Pub parties.

Is this a viable scenario? I have no idea. I’m no political pundit, just a retired engineer with a taste for history and political trends. Will something happen? Yes. Every day brings more evidence of the disintegration of the Republicans. Just look at the antics over defunding Obamacare. The Senate ‘Pubs betrayed their constituents, again, allowing Reid to reinstate Obamacare funding. The CR went back to the House where Boehner assured the funding for Obamacare while cutting a minor tax of medical devices and delaying some of the Obamacare deadlines. The ‘Pub establishment of both houses of Congress has not endorsed funding Obamacare.

The Republican establishment sided with the dems to protect Obamacare. The one beneficial result is that we now know explicitly, who are our ‘Pub Senate traitors. Here is Missouri, a Facebook group, “Replace Roy Blunt,” doubled its membership within hours of Blunt’s vote to allow Reid to reinstate Obamacare funding.

These are the 25 Republicans who voted with Reid to invoke cloture on the CR:

Lamar Alexander (R-TN)
Kelly Ayotte (R-NH)
John Barrasso (R-WY)
Roy Blunt (R-MO)
John Boozman (R-AR)
Richard Burr (R-NC)
Saxby Chambliss (R-GA)
Jeff Chiesa (R-NJ)
Daniel Coats (R-IN)
Tom Coburn (R-OK)
Thad Cochran (R-MS)
Susan Collins (R-ME)
Bob Corker (R-TN)
John Cornyn (R-TX)
Lindsey Graham (R-SC)
John Hoeven (R-ND)
Johnny Isakson (R-GA)
Mike Johanns (R-NE)
Mark Kirk (R-IL)
Ron Johnson (R-WI)
John McCain (R-AZ)
Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)
John Thune (R-SD)
Roger Wicker (R-MS)

— CNS News.

The Cloture vote had 25 establishment ‘Pubs supporting Harry Reid and 19 ‘Pubs who supported Cruz and Lee. Nineteen potential members of a new conservative party. Let’s remember in the coming elections, who supported us, the conservative base, and who, like Roy Blunt, didn’t and supported Harry Reid against us.

Friday Follies for September 27, 2013

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Quote of the Day:

“…the fresh crop of newcomers — Rand Paul of Kentucky, Marco Rubio of Florida, Ted Cruz of Texas — are children of the new age — noisy, rambunctious, impatient and impenitent, even. They’re not coming to town to carve out a sinecure, to be carried out feet first a quarter of a century later leaving no impression but the shape of their ample bottoms in an easy chair. They’re neither impressed by the ritual of “the world’s oldest deliberative body,” nor respectful of the ivy-encrusted tradition that binds it to the past. They’re contemptuous of all that. For better or worse, they’re coming only to do a job.” — Wes Pruden, The Washington Times.

***

If you were to draw back and review the events of the last few weeks dispassionately, you would see what is hidden from the GOP establishment. The Republican Party is dissolving.

If we are to believe the GOP establishment, Obamacare will collapse of its own impracticability. All we have to do is wait. The New Boys (a term I’ll adopt in want of a better one,) say, “No! Kill it now before it irretrievably damages the country.”

Those two viewpoints reveal the dichotomy of the GOP, the division between the establishment who wants not to make waves least they be damped, and those who knows the waves are coming regardless and we’ll all be wettened in the deluge of failing liberalism.

Wes Pruden, in the article that I took his quote above, notes the changes and the divisiveness within the GOP. The New Boys have come to town with an agenda. It’s not their agenda, it is the agenda of their constituents that says, “NO MORE.”

It is increasingly apparent that the divisions will not—can not heal given the intransigence of the Washington establishment. I now believe it is only a matter of time before the conservatives of the GOP depart. They will declare themselves ‘independent’ one by one, no longer giving allegiance to the GOP. At some point, they will declare a unity of goals and principles and a new party/association/alliance will emerge and the two-party system will dissolve.

Pundits will declare than our government was designed as a two-party system. That is not true. It was envisioned to be without political parties at all, but, given human nature, people of like opinions will gather and merge into political forces.

Perhaps it is time for the two-party system to become a three-party system. The libs should applaud. After all, the nation will then follow the multiparty politics of their beloved Europe.

No post today—busy

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Check back tomorrow. We’ll see if McConnell and Boehner screw up again. But, if it is deliberate, is it a screw up?

Mr Cruz goes to Washington

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Ted Cruz is Jimmy Stewart. Mitch McConnell is Claude Rains…or is it the other way around? In the movie, Mr Smith goes to Washington, Jimmy Stewart is in the Senate filibustering a corrupt bill. Claude Rains, supposedly Jimmy’s friend and fellow Senator, is quietly stabbing him in the back.

That is exactly the situation that is happening now in Washington, DC. All you need to do is change the names to Ted Cruz and Mitch McConnell. If I have calculated correctly, Ted Cruz is in his 19th hour, filibustering. He’s long surpassed the mark made by Rand Paul last year.

 The national media, the dems and the ‘Pub establishment are all stabbing Ted Cruz and his Senate partner, Mike Lee, in the back. But! Back home, people are outraged and letting their Senators know they are outraged. I called Senator Roy Blunt’s office yesterday to demand that he support Cruz and Lee. Their reponse? Blah, blah, blah. Blunt opposed Obamacare, etc. etc., but when asked directly if he would support Cruz, the answer was…**crickets**.

Bit by bit, other Senators are joining Cruz and Lee. One of the first was Marko Rubio, in an attempt to regain his “Tea Party” creds, (too late and too little, Marko. People are lining up to oppose you in the next primary,) quickly followed by Rand Paul and Pat Roberts.

Others are slowly joining according to Erick Erickson of RedState.

Finger Lickin’ Frauds

By: Erick Erickson,  September 24th, 2013 at 09:11 PM

Within hours of Liz Cheney, now a candidate for the Senate in Wyoming, announcing her support of Ted Cruz’s filibuster, Senator Mike Enzi, who Cheney is primarying, took to the floor of the United States Senate and declared he stood with Ted Cruz.

Pat Roberts, the elderly Senator from Kansas who may soon be getting a stiff primary challenge, stiffly stood on the floor of the United States Senate to show he too stood with Ted Cruz.

Rand Paul, after NBC News reported he may disagree with Cruz’s filibuster threat, went to the floor of the Senate and stood with Ted Cruz.

Meanwhile, John Cornyn and Mitch McConnell and Lamar Alexander and other Republican Senators are leaking attacks against Cruz on background. They complained to reporters about Cruz suggesting they were cowards. They did so off the record and in the shadows.

Mitch McConnell, instead of standing with Cruz on the floor of the Senate, participated in a teletownhall in which he told listeners the only way to stop Obamacare was for him to be Senate Majority Leader. [update: this information came after the initial post]

The article continues at the website.

At the last minute, Reince Preibus, reading the writing on the wall from his party’s core, decided, reluctantly, to enter the fray and back Cruz and Lee.

 It’s very unlikely that Cruz, Lee, et. al., will be successful in their filibuster. They need 41 votes. At this time, they don’t have the votes. But what is happening, however, is that Cruz and Lee are forcing the ‘Pub establishment to visibly take sides. If McConnell lets Harry Reid strip the Obamacare defunding language from the Continuing Resolution, McConnell and Boehner, into whose lap the CR will fall into next, will own the issue. They will be the ones who allowed funding of Obamacare.

John Boehner is increasingly expected to allow a vote that would pass the budget resolution with help from Democrats and a minority of House Republicans. — The Guardian, UK.

The likely result? This diatribe from Breeanne Howe, writing in RedState. For too many, the betrayals of McConnell, Lamar, Boehner, Cantor and others has lead to this.

We’re Breaking Up

By: Breeanne Howe,  September 24th, 2013 at 11:30 AM

Dear GOP,

I’m breaking up with you.  It’s not like we didn’t see this coming.  We’ve had our ups and downs.  The Tea Party years were tough enough, but I truly thought we could make it when we elected (who we thought were) more principled leaders to replace at least some of the old guard.  Unfortunately, the old guard and their old ways just won’t go away and you seem to be more in tune with them.

To be honest, I’ve been drifting away from you for some time now.  I was getting the sense your values weren’t in line with mine and then Syria happened.  And, well, let’s just say that Syria really showed me what is important to you.

But the death knell to our relationship wasn’t Syria; although that one cut pretty deep.  Nope, it’s your treatment of Senator Ted Cruz.  You’d think he was a Democrat with all the open hostility you’ve been hurling at him.  Senator John McCain has been reported, for the whole world to see I might add, as f***ing hating Cruz.  Now you’ve sent opposition research on Cruz to a reporter, hoping the press would help you in your crusade.  No wonder so many Christians don’t vote.  On the one side, we have Democrats okay with baby murder and on the other side we have Republicans openly knifing one of their own.

I can’t take it anymore.  I don’t know what you stand for.  I can’t figure out what your strategy could possibly be.  Are we to be the party that folds in the face of any pressure and hangs out to dry anyone in the party that might actually stand for our supposed values?  No thanks.  I’ll take my vote and dollars elsewhere.

Yes I know my dollars won’t be missed.  They are a pittance compared to the money the old guard is stuffing in your pockets to act like losers.  But consider this: I’m your base.  I’m a Christian, wife and mother with conservative values.  You don’t have to like me but you should know I’m not going away.  If you want an open fight then we shall have one.  I’ll be standing with Ted Cruz and Mike Lee and the few who are brave enough to stand for me.  And I’ll be sure to let my mom friends, who mostly don’t care to keep up with your shenanigans, who stands for them.

See you at the polls.

Says it all, doesn’t it?

Betrayed by the establishment—again

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Ted Cruz and Mike Lee are in a battle. they are battling Harry Reid, Senate dems, Obama and the GOP establishment. The issue is that Ted Cruz and Mike Lee want to block Reid’s amendment to the CR that would remove the defunding of Obamacare. That means, an amendment that would allow funding of Obamacare.

McConnell won’t help and can’t understand why Cruz is filibustering. Either McConnell is astoundingly stupid and therefore unfit for the Senate, or he’s an active supporter of funding Obamacare. On second thought, McConnell is probably both.

The real issue is the Ted Cruz and Mike Lee won’t kowtow to McConnell’s magnificence and that of the rest of the GOP Senate leadership. Consequently, McConnell will try his best to torpedo Cruz’s attempts to keep the defunding Obamacare in the CR.

Erick Erickson, from RedState, posted a column about Cruz’s fight and McConnell sabotage. I’m not a Erickson fan, his writings are a bit too raw for me, but in this case, he’s nailed it.

A Cruz Missile Launch, Like a Light, Shows the Cockroaches Scurrying

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  September 24th, 2013 at 04:30 AM  |

A curious moment happened on Fox News Sunday. Chris Wallace told Karl Rove that a number of Republicans in Congress had sent him opposition research on Ted Cruz once Fox announced Cruz would be on.

Rove responded. He said this was all happening because Cruz and Mike Lee had not worked out strategy in the regular Senate Republican Conference lunches on Thursdays. Rove said that was what was supposed to happen. Except that for a year now, Senate Republicans have routinely leaked the proceedings of those meetings to the New York Times and Washington Post in ways designed to harm Cruz, Lee, and others who side with them.

In fact, as one Senator noted in last week’s meeting, this would not be happening but for John Cornyn and Mitch McConnell choosing not to lead. Had Lee and Cruz approached their Senate colleagues, they would have been dismissed. I can say this confidently because it has happened repeatedly and since their election to the Senate their Republican colleagues have routinely taken to “on background” leaks assailing them.

…

Let’s be clear here — absent the American people lending a loud, clear voice for Cruz and Lee, the Republicans will cave. They will not stand with Cruz and Lee unless dragged kicking and screaming against their will. I hope they will. I hope a collection of House conservatives will stand strong and force the issue. But the majority of them will betray Cruz and Lee. In fact, Senate Republican Leaders have built up so much irrational hatred of Cruz, they want him to fail just so they can say they beat him — damn the Obamacare implications. Their pride comes before the nation.

Cruz only needs a few dozen Republicans in the House to stand firm to be successful. He might get that. But the bulk of the GOP in the House will try to cut a deal with the Democrats and move on.

Like a light switch flipping on, Ted Cruz and Mike Lee are casting light on the scurrying of Republican roaches in and out of the Capitol. Republican congressmen and Senators are now openly attacking Cruz and Lee. Outside groups like Americans for Tax Reform and outside media interests like the Wall Street Journal are amplifying attacks made by the establishment GOP against conservatives. Lobbyists are up in arms.

Mike Lee and Ted Cruz are showing the leadership skills others have claimed for themselves and conservatives now see just how badly they’ve been played by their so called leaders and many outside groups that have hung for too long on the conservative label while really being affiliates of the Republican Party itself. Because of Lee and Cruz, polling against Obamacare is up and the GOP’s favorability is up.

Even more importantly, the Republican base’s willingness to get back in the game has gone up too in the aftermath of a bitterly depressing 2012 election that saw a good bit of disengagement by the base. Conservatives may see their leaders now as the pathetic lot they are, but they have also seen real leadership in Cruz and Lee. They’ve also found real voices on the outside like Heritage Action for America and the Senate Conservatives Fund with which they can engage for education and motivation.

The column continues at the RedState website. I urge you to read it all.

John Cornyn, R-TX, sent out an e-mail proclaiming support for defunding Obamacare all the while supporting McConnell’s schemes against Cruz and Lee. I see our own Roy Blunt sent out a similar message. I don’t see him supporting Ted Cruz and Mike Lee, either.

Erick Erickson and RedState aren’t as big as some of the other internet media outlets, but others have taken noticed of McConnell’s spitefulness, too. Byron York, writing in the Washington Examiner, had this to say.

GOP flinches at Obamacare plan devised by Sens. Ted Cruz, Mike Lee

By BYRON YORK | SEPTEMBER 23, 2013 AT 6:31 PM

There are 44 Republicans in the Senate not named Ted Cruz or Mike Lee. By and large, they have been quiet during the various twists and turns in the effort to defund Obamacare. This week, they’ll speak.

Cruz and Lee took to the Sunday shows to advocate a complex plan under which Senate Republicans would filibuster the House-passed continuing resolution that also denies funds to Obamacare. Of course, that is the very bill Cruz and Lee asked the House to pass. But under the new scenario, filibustering the House bill would somehow pressure Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to grant concessions that would allow Republicans to successfully defund Obamacare. So Cruz and Lee advocate filibustering the bill to “preserve” it.

What York doesn’t say is that Cruz and Lee are filibustering Harry Reid’s amendment to the CR that would reinstate funding for Obamacare.

All that might take time, Cruz and Lee concede, and the clock is ticking toward a possible government shutdown. So in the interim, instead of closing the government, they want the House to pass a number of spending measures to keep agencies up and running.

It is a very far-fetched scenario. The question now is how many Republicans will go along with it.

In July, Lee circulated a letter asking his fellow GOP senators to pledge to “not support any continuing resolution or appropriations legislation that funds further implementation or enforcement of Obamacare.” Just a dozen — out of a total of 46 Republicans in the Senate — chose to sign. Since then, a couple more have come along.

But the bottom line is that about one-third of the Republican caucus has signed on to the plan. That’s a minority of the minority in the Senate.

Ask defunding advocates about the letter today, and they get a little irritated. “The letter is irrelevant,” says one GOP aide who supports the defunding strategy. “It is totally meaningless. It was simply a signal to our leadership of what we intended to do.”

Maybe so. And perhaps there are many more Republican senators who are on board with the plan. But there’s a strong possibility that lots of Republicans will choose not to go along with Cruz and Lee’s complicated bank-shot strategy. They are all opponents of Obamacare and all support defunding Obamacare, but they don’t want to be involved in a gambit they believe will result in failure and possibly a government shutdown. — The Washington Examiner.

The issue is that McConnell and Cornyn don’t want to be seen as the ones who “shutdown the government.” Some of us thing that’d be a good thing, shut it down and let Obama take the heat. No, they’d rather let Reid reinstate Obamacare funding and send the bill back to the House—where Boehner, in the conference committee, would rubber-stamp the change and Voila!, Obamacare is funded!

So, readers, be prepared to be sold out by the Washington GOP establishment, again. It’s getting to the point where voting for a democrat against McConnell and Boeher, would almost be worth the effort just to get rid of those traitors once and for all.

Liberalism in the news

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The lead story for today is another example of liberal agendas. This time in a public library. For years, the Hudson Falls Free Library, NY, had a summer reading program. It was limited to school children. The one who read the most books won. It was a competition.

Tyler Weaver, age 9, won this year by reading 63 books in six weeks. The library director decided that instead of awarding the prize to Tyler, the winner would be drawn from a hat, “to make it fair.”  You see, Tyler had won five years in a row. That unset the library director.

Lita Casey, who worked as an aide at the Hudson Falls Free Library for 28 years, said she was “stunned” after a library board member called her with the bad news on Monday night. — New York Daily News.

The news of the rule change was leaked and the controversy began.

Library Director Marie Gandron, wanted to change the rules to end the child’s winning streak. Gandron reportedly said the boy “hogs” the contest and should “step aside.” — New York Daily News.

Casey objected. When TV news crews and international reporters arrived. The library board acted. Gandron was suddenly gone after 41 years at the library. But that wasn’t all. Lita Casey was told she was fired too, after 28 years as a reading aid. When Casey asked why she was fired, she was ignored. I suspect Casey was fired because she objected when Gandron tried to implement her “redistribution of achievement.” Gandron created the controversy and was rightly fired. Casey objected to Gandron’s act of tyranny and the library board could not allow that.

Just another day in a liberal paradise.

***

What goes around, comes around. In this case, it’s to come to Chief Justice Roberts.

Exclusive: Rand Paul wants Chief Justice Roberts, all federal workers, to enroll in Obamacare

12:40 AM 09/23/2013

Arguing federal workers should not get special treatment, Rand Paul says he does not want taxpayers subsidizing the personal health-care plans of any federal employee — including Chief Justice John Roberts — anymore.

With some in Congress arguing lawmakers and their staff should not get subsidies to cover their health insurance as President Obama’s health-care law goes into effect, the Republican senator from Kentucky told The Daily Caller on Sunday that he’s going to start pushing a constitutional amendment that goes even further.

Paul’s proposal — outlawing any special exemptions for government employees — would mean all federal workers would have to purchase health insurance on the new Obamacare exchanges instead of getting taxpayer-funded subsidies. Some critics say those subsidies amount to special treatment. The Obamacare health insurance exchange opens Oct 1.

“My amendment says basically that everybody including Justice Roberts — who seems to be such a fan of Obamacare — gets it too,” Paul told TheDC by phone on Sunday from Mackinac Island in Michigan, where he won a straw poll of potential Republican candidates for president in 2016.

“See, right now, Justice Roberts is still continuing to have federal employee health insurance subsidized by the taxpayer,” Paul said. “And if he likes Obamacare so much, I’m going to give him an amendment that gives Obamacare to Justice Roberts.”

Roberts famously voted to uphold the constitutionality of Obama’s unpopular health-care law when it went before the Supreme Court last year.

Paul’s constitutional amendment says no federal employees should get special exemptions from laws. The senator also plans to push a proposal requiring that Congress and all federal employees rely on Obamacare for their insurance.

His proposal comes after outrage from conservatives about a so-called “exemption” for members of Congress and their staff from Obamacare.

There’s much more at the Daily Caller website, go and read the rest of the story…like the ‘Pub Senator who created the exemption.

***

Abuses of power. We seem to see more and more examples, a ground-swell of political, prosecutorial and judicial abuses of power. The article below fell into my email box this morning. It was triggered by the news of Tom DeLay’s acquittal. There there were other instances where federal prosecutors abused their authority as well.

High-profile cases show a pattern of misuse of prosecutorial powers

By Jeffrey Scott Shapiro — Special to The Washington Times

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Despite the Fifth Amendment’s double jeopardy prohibition, federal civil rights statutes enable U.S. prosecutors to pursue felony charges against a defendant in limited instances even if they have been acquitted of underlying state crimes.

Evidence in the New Orleans case was compelling, and the officers were convicted, but U.S. District Court Judge Kurt Engelhardt ordered a new trial last week, saying the government “engaged in a secret public relations campaign” by anonymously making extrajudicial statements against the defendants on a New Orleans news site.

“This case started as one featuring allegations of brazen abuse of authority, violation of the law and corruption of the criminal justice system,” he wrote in his order. “Unfortunately the focus has switched from the accused to the accusers. The government’s actions, and initial lack of candor and credibility thereafter, is like scar tissue that will long evidence infidelity to the principles of ethics, professionalism and basic fairness and common sense necessary to every criminal prosecutor, wherever it should occur in this country.”

The Duke University lacrosse players’ case is one of the most notorious of selective prosecution designed for political gain. North Carolina prosecutor Michael Nifong made numerous public statements incriminating the team and turning the media against the defendants.

Despite the accuser’s history of falsely reporting incidents and lack of evidence, Mr. Nifong pushed the politically popular case in the midst of his re-election campaign. State officials took over the case, dismissing all charges, taking the unusual step of declaring the defendants innocent — not merely “not guilty” — and Mr. Nifong was ultimately disbarred.

Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky once said that “you can judge a society by how well it treats its prisoners.” The same could be said of how fairly a judicial system prosecutes its accused defendants. Arrogance, not ethics, is emerging as criteria for prosecutorial discretion, and the result is a society based on fear, not freedom.

• Jeffrey Scott Shapiro is a former prosecutor in Washington, D.C.

I suppose it is a stretch to call governmental abuses liberalism. It’s pure corruption and has been present whenever government seizes too much power—and immunity. In these instances, the abusive acts have rebounded on their perpetrators. It’s a good start.

Acquitted!

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Tom DeLay Acquitted!

Many of you, especially the under-40 crowd, may not remember Tom DeLay. He was the ‘Pub Majority Whip in the mid-90s while Newt Gingrich was Speaker of the House. It was his job to get the ‘Pubs in line whenever a vote or an issue arose. He did his job so well, he was known as the “Hammer.”

In fact, DeLay was so effective that he was specifically targeted by Texas democrats. They charged him with money laundering—in Austin, “the only liberal hotspot in Texas,” not DeLay’s home county—chose a specific prosecutor who was a long-time enemy of DeLay—and cherry picked a liberal jury. As the democrats planned, tom DeLay was found guilty, fined an enormous amount and sentenced to prison for not less than three years.

“Got ‘im!” they thought.

Then their plans unraveled. DeLay appealed and was allowed to go free pending the appeal. The dems dug in their heels and delayed, and delayed, and delayed for nearly a decade. DeLay was in limbo. He could not run for his House seat while convicted, not even while under appeal.

Yesterday, the Texas Appellate Court announced their judgment. Not only was the conviction reversed, Tom DeLay was acquitted! That last, the acquital, was very, very unusual. You see, there was NO crime. Money cannot be laundered unless it was illegally gained. The money DeLay was accused of laundering was campaign donations. There was nothing illegal about the money. Therefore, if the money was legal, there could not be any criminal ‘money laundering.’

The Texas democrats used a law to specifically target a political opponent. The prosecutor in that case is now, herself, under investigation—as she should be. What goes around, comes around.

***

Will they or won’t they? Defund Obamacare, that is. (Update: the House just passed a CR that does not include funding for Obamacare.) The title of the article below tells the tale. There are ‘some’ GOP who are willing to stick to their guns and keep funds for Obamacare out of the Continuing Resolution and the subsequent debt limitation bills.

Boehner and Cantor in the House and Mitch McConnell in the Senate are the core of the weak-willed in Congress. Sure, the House can delete Obamacare funding and Harry Reid will stick it back in—as he has already vowed! The bill(s) will go back to the House where the dems expect the spineless GOP to cave and vote to accept the CR with the funding of Obamacare intact.

I’ve discussed this topic on several venues. One FB commentator took offense at the idea of defunding Obamacare. He called it, “an abuse of Congressional power.” I called it an application of checks and balances as designed in the Constitution. He, like all too many of the ignorant, listen to the lies of democrats. He should, instead, heed the intent of the Founders to limit the power of government by balancing power between each branch of government. The Executive branch is not supreme, contrary to the dictates of Obama.

Some in GOP willing to endure government shutdown to defund Obamacare

By DAVID M. DRUCKER | SEPTEMBER 19, 2013 AT 3:47 PM

Congressional Republicans’ willingness to risk a government shutdown to defund Obamacare could squander their single biggest political asset heading into the 2014 elections: the party’s unified opposition to this increasingly unpopular law.

House Republican leaders calmed a brewing intraparty divide this week when they announced support for a budget bill that would keep the government running beyond the Sept. 30 deadline, but eliminate funding for implementation of the Affordable Care Act. The legislation is set for a vote Friday and the overwhelming GOP support it is expected to have should quiet a sharp disagreement over the tactics of defeating Obamacare that has engulfed Republicans for weeks.

But the reprieve is likely temporary. The issue is sure to resurface early next week, when the Democratic Senate takes up the budget bill.

The Senate is expected to strip the Republican bill’s Obamacare provision, replace the money for its implementation and return the legislation to the House, putting back in Republican hands the responsibility for passing a budget bill or allowing the government to shut down on Oct. 1.

Neither House Republicans committed to defunding nor pragmatists worried that a shutdown will backfire politically have figured out what to do when the Senate and President Obama inevitably reject the defunding provision and the government shuts down. One option is an alternative House bill that doesn’t defund Obamacare but would delay its implementation for a year. Republicans bent on defunding, however, have so far showed little enthusiasm for a delay.

“I think we have a united front, not just among conservatives, but among the majority of our conference, to really fight for this thing,” said Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., a House leader of the defund movement. “Going back on my word, to allow Obamacare to be implemented, is not something that I can do, nor many in our conference can do.”

Polls continue to show low public support for the new health care law, whose implementation will accelerate on Oct. 1. Among Americans’ worries is that Obamacare would raise insurance rates and reduce access to quality care.

The article continues at the website.

The establishment ‘Pubs, like Lamar Alexander (R-TN) fear a backlash of voters in the next election. I say to them, “Fear a backlash of your core supporters. We can remove you from Congress quicker than any democrat backlash.”