"The truth that makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear".
                                             -- Herbert Agar (1897-1980, American Journalist/columnist).

IN THIS ISSUE

ARTICLES

Ho-hum
"….it is a tale,
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."

There is hope at last…(or is there?)
Apparently there is a new Democratic focus since the Boston Tea Party II

Is it too little, too late?
Some prognosticators feel that, even if it is successful in the November elections, the Conservative Movement will be too late to save America's primacy in the world

An Open Letter to Congressman Ed Perlmutter
In the aftermath of the Scott Brown victory in Massachusetts, I wonder if my Congressman got the obvious message.

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ARCHIVES

UPDATED: January 28, 2010

HOLDING CONGRESS ACCOUNTABLE

See how the Senators and Representatives from your state have voted on key issues in the 111th Congress. Click HERE

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ARTICLES

Ho-hum
“….it is a tale,
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.”
January 27, 2010 by Jack Ott 

You would think that Macbeth had just heard President Obama’s first State of Disunion speech, or that we had just seen a video replay of a 2008 presidential campaign speech. Either scenario accurately describes tonight’s widely televised (and tele-prompted) laugher emanating from the House Chambers. Glorious platitudes, soaring rhetoric, and empty promises filled the air, with a grinning Joe Biden and a dramatic Nancy Pelosi providing the sleazy backdrop.  

With unabashed chutzpah, there was Barack Obama once again promising transparency in government, bans on lobbyists, and the elimination of earmarks in legislation. It was déjà vu all over again. All of the other regular elements were there as well, including blaming George Bush for all of the soaring budget deficits and every other unsolved world problem, and calling on Republicans in Congress to play along in a bipartisan fashion regardless of how repugnant most of the Democratic legislation has been. One of the FOX News panel members had counted the use of the word “I” 96 times, and “me” 18 times. On the other hand, Obama’s extolling of traditional American values and the U.S. Constitution were roughly comparable to hearing Eminem praising the virtues of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. 

While undoubtedly there were some viewers who were sucked in by the charismatic oratory (what was that famous line by P. T. Barnum?), the Anointed One did little tonight to restore his creds. He did not take the dramatic turn toward the political center that many pundits expected him to do, but instead promised that the coming year would be more of the same old, same old. Somewhat surprisingly, he implored his Democratic allies in Congress not to abandon ship in the middle of the election year. That he had to do so was an acknowledgment that some of them are in deep doo-doo with the electorate back home. “Take one for the Gipper,” he seemed to be telling them, except he would never allude to that famous line from the old Ronald Reagan movie. “…maybe the unemployment lines will not be as long after November.”  After all, he did state that his primary focus for the year would be on the economy and providing jobs. It would have been far more assuring and comforting if he had added that he would be enrolling in an Econ 101 class at Georgetown, however. 

As usual, the Opposing Party’s response after the Address was somewhat anticlimactic, although

Virginia’s new Governor Bob McDonnell did an admirable job in presenting it. The fact remains, however, that not much can be accomplished in a 10-minute response to an hour-long speech by the U.S. President.  

So the blogosphere will have something to discuss for the next week or so, then things will return to normal. The President’s approval rating may bump up a point or two, but then reality will set in once again. By spring or early summer, I doubt that anyone will be pointing back to tonight’s speech as a turning point in the 2010 elections…especially anyone who is worried about having to stand in a post-November unemployment line.

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There is hope at last…(or is there?)
Apparently there is a new Democratic focus since the Boston Tea Party II
January 27, 2010 by Jack Ott 

The internet newspaper World Net Daily is reporting today that an advertising group called Grassroots Campaigns has placed ads on Craigslist in various cities around the country searching for directors to run offices in 32 cities “…to counter the hysteria and lies of Glenn Beck” and to “…stop the lies of the tea baggers.”  The organization has previously done work for the Democratic National Committee and MoveOn.org. 

According to the ad, each director will be paid a salary of $24,000, and will be responsible for hiring 15 to 50 local canvassers to go forth and spread the gospel of progressive liberalism to the unwashed masses who might otherwise be sucked in by those who promote individual responsibility and limited government. 

Let’s see, now… 

If each of these new directors hire an average of 32.5 canvassers, that will provide at least 2.5 million jobs that the Obama Administration will be able to claim as either “created” or “saved.” 

We are happy to see that the Democrats are at last becoming involved with ending our country’s rising unemployment. 

This new concern was further illustrated by a quote from Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-CO) in this morning’s Denver Post in which he said, “ Abraham Lincoln had this saying, ‘You fight one war at a time'….The focus has got to be on jobs and small business, on jobs and on the people in the middle.” Kudos to Rep. Perlmutter; it took him just three years in office to figure this out. One still must wonder, however, if he came up with this new reality all by himself or was told by his ventriloquist Nancy Pelosi to say it.

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Is it too little, too late?
Some prognosticators feel that, even if it is successful in the November elections, the Conservative Movement will be too late to save America's primacy in the world
January 24, 2010 by Jack Ott

There have been several articles written of late by fellow conservative writers lamenting the current state of affairs in this country and suggesting that it is already too late to restore America’s economic and political primacy in the free world. At fault, they say, is America’s infatuation with big government solutions to its problems and its fiscal irresponsibility over the last several decades. It has now been exacerbated by the radical budget deficit policies of the Obama Administration and the Democratic-controlled Congress. It is probably too late, they say, for America to ever regain its past dominance. 

Writing at American Thinker, conservative author Randall Hoven opines, “I'm not sure if Republican wins will fix things, even if we get genuine conservatives in office, because the necessary actions are also unpopular. We need to cut entitlements -- even get the federal government out of Medicare/Medicaid. If Republicans try that, they will be tossed out. In the current debate, it was Republicans saying ‘don't cut my Medicare.’” The implication here is that the situation in America is beyond fixing, and that, as Americans, we might just as well accept the fact that our economic well-being will never be what it once was, or what it had the potential to be. 

There is a certain amount of logic in Hoven’s thesis, in that a basic American characteristic is that we always want more. Most followers of political trends would probably agree that, by a wide margin, the immediate concern of Americans today is the ongoing economic recession, most clearly exemplified by ever-increasing unemployment levels. The voter frustrations that were demonstrated in last week’s special election in Massachusetts were not as much that President Obama’s Health Care efforts are seriously flawed, as the fact that Congress and the Administration were not only wasting their time and acting like stereotypical Chicago politicians in trying to implement it. They were not instead focusing on the country’s primary problem, which is fixing the economy. Only when that is accomplished and we once again get government growth and spending under control should we move on to address what we consider now to be secondary issues such as health care, immigration, and energy policy. Apparently, in the world of Hoven, following this track will only restart the downward spiral into national economic oblivion. 

In many ways, I have to agree with him. The American electorate is well known for its short attention span and failure to learn from the past. If this were not the case, the Carter Administration would have been the final flirtation with the concept of a progressive/socialist   “Utopia” in American history. Americans quickly forget, however, and easily buy into campaign rhetoric that seems to promise a change from their current situation. 

Ultimately, complete “economic security” and “social justice” can only be brought about by totalitarianism; total government control over our lives and property, risk and opportunity, freedom and liberty. Most Americans realize this but are sometimes slow to recognize it. It is, however, an outcome that is anathema to them. It is also the path on which the Obama Administration and its progressive Democratic allies have been leading us, and we are finally waking up to this fact.  

This banana-republic junta made a fatal mistake. After its election win in 2008, it assumed that it had free reign and that the majority of the American public would quietly acquiesce, joining with those who are too apathetic to care, too mired in an entitlement mindset to oppose deficit-inducing handouts, or because of those overly opportunistic people who see some perceived political or economic advantage that a nanny-state environment would provide.  The arrogant and self-absorbed delusions of the Obama Administration were epitomized in June of last year when Press Secretary Robert Gibbs smugly responded to a question regarding the administration’s decision to close the Guantanamo Bay prison facility by asserting that it was justified and not open to questioning simply because, “We won.” 

If we were to describe the cyclical nature of American politics with a traditional sine curve of trigonometry, it would show that we have just passed the highest point of the curve or the lowest, depending on your political perspective, but that the direction of the curve is reversing in either case. The major Republican victories in Virginia and New Jersey in November, and more recently the major upset in Massachusetts, have sent a loud and clear message to the Democratic Party that it is in serious trouble as we approach the midterm elections this year. Several Democrats in Congress and in state houses have already jumped ship through resignation, while others have abandoned their support for major Obama initiatives. The Health Care Bill is all but dead in Congress, and the future of Obama budget-killers such as Immigration Reform and Cap-and-Trade is diminishing daily, despite Obama’s façade that nothing really has changed, and that all he has do is fight harder. However, the American people have not acquiesced. As a result, the President’s approval ratings have already dropped below 50% just one year after his election, a modern record for any new president.  

The real question, then, are whether the conservative “Second Revolution” that seems to be taking hold in our country will be successful in bringing about significant changes in the 2010 and 2012 elections, and then carry them forward? If it does, will the conservative movement be able to prevent the loss of conservative values in government, as happened after the huge conservative victory in 1994 under Newt Gingrich’s “Contract with America?.” Our political history over the last 60 years indicates that it will not. Making matters worse, each time the pendulum swings back to the Left, it moves slightly more to the Left than previously. This is why some conservative prognosticators are pessimistic about America’s long-term future despite our recent victories and high hopes for the upcoming elections.

Here in Colorado, it is becoming difficult to find many other than incumbent Democrat office holders who have a kind thing to say about our forty-fourth president, and even harder to find someone who does not perceive House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid as little more than sleazy political thugs. Even the liberal newspaper, the Denver Post, has turned against The Anointed One, urging him and his congressional allies to abandon their efforts to pass their polluted and convoluted Health Care debacle. On a more local level, my very own Congressional Representative, Democrat Ed Perlmutter, and his congressional neighbor and partner in folly, Rep. Dianne DeGette, have been silent of late regarding health care. Perhaps  this is only because they have not yet received marching orders from their liberal thought-controller and mind-master, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who herself appears to be wandering around in circles and wondering what to do next after Massachusetts voters overturned her great plans and those of her Senate counterpart, “Searchlight Harry”.

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An Open Letter to Congressman Ed Perlmutter
The latest in a series of letters to my representative regarding Healthcare and other issues
January 21, 2010 by Jack Ott

TO: Rep. Ed Perlmutter
Washington, DC

“Can you hear me now?” is the famous line from the Verizon Cellular commercials that seems especially appropriate after Tuesday’s stunning Democratic loss in deep-blue Massachusetts. If that election had instead taken place in Colorado, little notice would have been paid to it. The message, however, would have been the same. It seems as though it takes a major electoral event such as this to get those in power to sit up and take notice. I sincerely hope that you are among those with the intelligence to recognize that the failed agenda of the Nancy Pelosi/Harry Reid clique is a farce and a failure, and that the real focus over the past year should have been to turn the economy around and put people back to work. The old excuse that our economic problems were all inherited from the previous Administration have become a broken record, and the people of Colorado, and the rest of the country as well, recognize that it is nothing more than a lame justification for accomplishing nothing during a year of total Democratic control of the government. The preponderance of backroom deals and bribes-for-votes, the lack of promised transparency, and little concern for Constitutional principles have been the hallmark of this Congress, and has become an embarrassment to Americans in general. Our children and grandchildren are being burdened with overwhelming debt while the irresponsible legislature goes about its business of granting political payoffs to its biggest supporters. 

The Obama Administration and the Democratic leadership in Congress have perceived that the American voters are fools, and have assumed the arrogant position that they know better than the citizenry what is good for them. In their zeal to promote what they foolishly refer to as “social justice”, they have set about to drag everyone down to the same level rather than raising the economic well-being of all Americans. You would think that after the “New Deal”, the “Great Society”, and the “War on Poverty”, even Democrats would recognize that you cannot legislate poverty away altogether, but that we can certainly place the burden of debt on future generations only to exacerbate the situation, making more and more people dependent on the federal government for their welfare. Then again, this is perceived to be the method for retaining power. The radical Socialist Saul Alinsky described it perfectly in his many writings. Unfortunately for his adherents, it doesn’t work that way in America, as we will see in November. 

Can you hear me now?

Jack Ott
Lakewood, Colorado 

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