Editorial

At some point the air has to come out of the Democrats’ balloon.  Sooner would be a lot better than later – for America’s sake.  Like the old Kenny Rogers’ song “You got to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em” – I think the day is coming when America is going to call the Democrats’ hand.

To be honest, Republicans have had their share of mistakes and lost opportunities.  Growing government, increasing debt, failure to seal the borders, reform a tax code out of control, and fix entitlement programs threatening the nation’s financial solvency just to name a few.  This isn’t about GOP success, but the complete failure of the Democrat’s’ big ticket agenda items. 

The Democrats bet the farm on America’s failure and defeat in Iraq.  When public sentiment turned against George W. Bush, they organized an all out frontal assault promising to end the war, immediate withdrawal of troops – capitulation and humiliation.  MoveOn.org – the controlling arm of the Democrat Party – branded General David Petraeus as a traitor.  Now, they have to eat their words as the Surge is working, Iraq is indisputably improving, and even rabid opponents like Rep. Jack Murtha (D-PA) and Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) have recognized the progress.  The Democrats are looking for a place to land.

They derided Bush for insisting on multi-lateral negotiations with Kim Jong-Il to reduce the threat of nuclear weapons build up in North Korea.  Kim has begun dismantling his nuclear program, and Bush has relaxed sanctions.  Score: Bush 1 – Democrats 0.

The Democrats claimed ownership of all things welfare and entitlement related.  But, it took Republicans to reform welfare, dragging a kicking and screaming Bill Clinton to the table to sign the legislation and scores of lives were transformed in the process.  Democrats pretend that Social Security and Medicare are “just fine, thank you” when the truth is they along with Medicaid are on the road to bankrupting the nation.  When John McCain honestly called the Social Security funding scheme a “disgrace” recently the Democrats were quick to blast him.  They should have agreed with him.  Tip O’Neil knew the truth, but today’s Democrats don’t – or won’t.

They have supported the education establishment for decades already being in the air every time the NEA says “jump.”  But, those chickens have come home to roost, too.  Pushing parents out of the classroom, opposing academic standards, maintaining business-as-usual has failed miserably.  They have failed to deliver the Promise of America and sentenced countless otherwise capable citizens to the “soft bigotry of low expectations,” as George W. Bush calls it. The Democrats bet on the status-quo – and they lost the bet.

The Democrats and their environmental coalition of supporters promoted shutting down America’s energy industry, locking up our forests and the lumber industry, and prostituting the Endangered Species Act to accomplish their agenda of seizing private land and furthering their radical agenda.  Thirty years ago America produced about 2/3 of our energy domestically and imported 1/3.  Today that ratio is reversed with a huge percentage of our needs coming from regimes that hate America.  At the soaring price of oil, some estimate we’ll send over $1 trillion abroad in 2008 just to keep our economy running.  In Colorado our forests are a tinder box of dead trees attacked by the Mountain Pine Beetle.  Democrat policies of “roadless wilderness” and thou-shall-not-touch helped create the problem, limit the solution possibilities, and invite a catastrophe of unimaginable proportion.  They made the wrong bet – again.

As guilty as the GOP is for allowing spending to get out of control, Republican sins pale by comparison to the Democrats’ obsession for tax increases, regulation controls, and pandering to the trial lawyer’s insatiable appetite.  Evidence is plentiful.  They uniformly pledge to rescind the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 that undeniably led the nation out of the last recession and the horrific impact of the 9/11 attacks.  That would amount to the largest tax increase in history.  Further, in the face of unprecedented energy price increases to every consumer – a cost disproportionately painful to the poor – the Democrats want to impose a windfall profits tax and more regulatory controls, increased costs that would be passed on to consumers with even higher prices.  American’s are waking up to the reality that you can’t tax, regulate, or litigate prosperity.  The Democrats made the wrong gamble again.

The smart people who make a living by predicting the future are saying that the Democrats are going to gain a bunch of seats in both the U.S. House and Senate, and that Michele Obama just as well start measure for new drapes for the Oval Office.  Maybe so, but my crystal ball tells me that the Democrats have been on the wrong side of too many critical issues.  Their bet might not be called by the American people in time to make a difference, but there will be a day and they’ll be holding a hand full of jokers instead of aces.

Obama:  “Teach your kids Spanish”

As if you needed more evidence that Barack Obama is a card carrying member of the Blame-America-First Club, watch this video  from a campaign event July 10, 2008 in Georgia.  Listen how he disparages America and lusts after those Europeans and other sophisticates of the world.  This guy is not ready for prime time, and he sure isn’t ready for the White House.

At a time in our history when shamefully too many of our children are already functionally illiterate in English – a tragedy that sentences them to a life of poverty and dependency – Obama says that our focus as parents and a nation doesn’t need to be on teaching all children how to be citizens of America, but citizens of Mother Earth. 

There is a reason that much of the world has adopted English as a must-have second language – it’s the language of the West and economic opportunity.  It is the path to a better life.  Obama would be well advised to first focus on making sure all American children have the same advantage. 

Well, they did promise that things would change…

Remember back 24 months ago during the 2006 election cycle when Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid promised the American people that things would be different if only the Democrats were given a governing majority.  The Democrats got their wish, and things most certainly have changed.

According to the research folks at American’s for Tax Reform http://www.atr.org/ there has been a good bit of change – but, in the wrong direction.  In a brief report appropriately titled Hell in a Handbasket: Life in Nancy Pelosi’s America, ATR offers the following as evidence:

The 2008 agent for the Democrats “change” message is Barack Obama.  It’s anybody’s guess at this point what kind of change he has in mind.  Now that he’s sewn up the nomination by outflanking Hillary Clinton to the left, the young Senator from Chicago has changed his rhetoric on a whole host of issues.  Elsewhere in this issue, Rich Sokol explains some of Obama’s most conflicting statements regarding the Middle East and Israel including his original invitation to an unconditioned negotiation with the terrorist from Tehran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.  With the primary over, Obama’s got a different tune.

Obama’s also had a change of heart about NAFTA and free trade, about immediate withdrawal of our troops from Iraq, about the surge and Gen. Petraeus, and about the need for wiretapping surveillance of suspected foreign terrorists, about the constitutionality of the 2nd amendment and the death penalty, and about public financing of elections. 

Obama has already twisted himself into more different positions than a contortionist, and there are still four months of campaigning to go.  We have to wonder if he recognizes himself in a mirror, or if he has any real convictions.  Saying whatever works with a given crowd whenever necessary appears to be his only guiding principal.

Barack Obama’s record of legislative accomplishments is empty, but his words are catching up to him. Listen his tortured statements about Iraq.  The Obama campaign most certainly is about “change” – and, lately it’s a change in his position on key issues virtually every day. 

Change happened in Colorado, too

Not to be completely outdone by the big players in Washington, Bill Ritter offered to change Colorado with his largely empty Colorado Promise that included the “new energy economy.”  Eighteen months into this administration, the results are starting to show what that part of the Promise was about. 

In 2008 the Ritter administration launched into an effort to increase the tax and regulatory burden on the state’s energy industry.   Actions have consequences – especially within an economy.  The Canadian based Fraser Institute reviews the world’s political jurisdictions in the oil and gas production business annually and publishes their findings in their Global Petroleum Report. The 2007 report ranked Colorado as the #1 best place to be doing business of 54 global jurisdictions evaluated.  However, due to changes to “permit requirements and more stringent environmental and wildlife standards” the 2008 findings ranked Colorado as the 29th worst place on the planet for oil and gas production out of 81 states and nations.  The report specifically reference the Colorado Oil and Gas Association estimate that the “new rules could increase drilling costs by $60,000 to $600,000 per well.”

That’s “change” for sure. 

Democrats Finally Pass Surveillance Bill

Five months after the telecommunications surveillance authority all the intelligence agencies said they needed to fight against the threat of jihadist terrorism the Democrat controlled Congress finally passed a bill on July 9.  Nancy Pelosi arrogantly refused to even allow a vote on legislation overwhelmingly approved by the Senate late last year.

Pelosi finally had to eat crow and the House adopted the bill in late June.  The Senate passed the legislation by a margin of 69-28, with 20 Democrats and every Republican voting ‘aye’. 

Pelosi sat in her bunker as long as she could with the ACLU who described the legislation as "a blatant assault upon civil liberties and the right to privacy." Senator Kit Bond (R-MO) summarized the sentiment of the majority and those who prefer protecting American’s security instead of the “privacy” of foreign terrorists.  According to Bond, no one has anything to worry about “unless you have al Qaeda on your speed dial.”

Exposing Americans to increased security risk for nothing more than political arrogance is inexcusable.  Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell said "…allowing the Act (FISA) to expire … had real and negative consequences for our national security. Indeed, this has led directly to a degraded intelligence capability."  

Saddam’s Yellowcake stash

You just might have noticed an article or two over the last five years decrying the fact that no weapons of mass destruction had been found in Iraq as Bush – and most of the rest of the world – believed Saddam Hussein possessed.  But, did you happen to notice a disclosure recently about Saddam’s stash of 550 metric tons of yellowcake uranium?

Yellowcake is a form of processed uranium ore that can be used to make fuel for nuclear reactors, or if further enriched as fuel for nuclear weapons.  The charitably inclined would be quick to offer that Saddam was likely in pursuit of “peaceful energy production” for his people just as his Iranian neighbor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad now professes to the world.  Count me among the skeptics that are less charitable. 

The disclosure that 550 tons of yellowcake was discovered after the invasion, and recently sold and shipped to Canada received almost no coverage in the mainstream media. 

Make of that what you will.  I’ve made my conclusion.