The Secret Republican Strategy for 2012?

Well, it was a secret until now.

Fact 1: Mike Huckabee, former Republican presidential candidate hosts his own TV show. He no longer is in a position to make political errors,make political  enemies, or develop political  obligations but he can expand his popularity with voters.

Fact 2: Tim Pawlenty, a probable Republican candidate announces that he will not seek another gubernatorial term in Minnesota and is unclear on his near term activities.

Fact 3: Sarah Palin, former vice-presidential candidate  announces her resignation as Governor of Alaska and will cheerlead for other Republicans.

Fact 4: Chuck Hagel, former Senator and presidential hopeful for many of us, does not run for senatorial election in 2008 and instead takes a position with the Atlantic Council. In the words of Steve Clemons: “And depending on how things go these next couple of years, Hagel is in an ideal spot to bide his time and be actively engaged in the civil society side of policy debate.”

Fact 5: Weak and vulnerable Republican hopefuls are weeded out by scandal  four years in advance of 2012 elections  so  that there are no John Edwards exposés to distract the election process. 

With my wet finger in the wind, I predict that the next Republican presidential candidate will be someone not then currently serving  in a government position.   

The secret strategy of the Republican Party is to proffer experienced candidates with no recent political history to be used against them.  Hope and change will wear a new red suit in 2012.

Republicans Against Bachmann? Let’s hope so.

Woodbury attorney Chris Johnston says he is “mulling a run” against Rep. Michele Bachmann in the next Republican primary. Johnston says the district needs to be represented by a Republican “who thinks before they speak.”

Defeating the Bachmann Overdrive Campaign for President will be difficult for either party. But let’s hope the Republicans do it first.

Bachmann fills her coffers

Michelle Bachmann continues her meteoric rise to become the next GOP contender for President or Vice President.

Rep. Michele Bachmann took in more than $300,000 during the first three months of the year and had nearly a quarter-million dollars in the bank as of the end of March, according to newly released reports from the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

Among the Minnesota legislators who have so far reported first-quarter fundraising figures to the FEC, Bachmann has pulled in the most cash.

Look out Sarah Palin! The Bachmann Overdrive campaign is underway….She will  save us all from re-education camps…Huzzah! She will arm all Americans…Huzzah!

But can she skin a moose or give a TV interview while turkeys are being killed behind her? Let’s wait and see…

Is competence necessary in government?

Well, of course it is. What I mean is why are we letting all of these other factors muddle the picture?

During the Bush Administration, we knew that one must be a Republican conservative before one was allowed to take a government job. If your views on abortion or gun control did not fit the Administration then you were excused from the interview while they sought someone else.

Today we seem to want only the perfect person to serve the public at large. And as a matter of fact there is a drumbeat and a hue and cry if you ever went through a learning experience to get where you are today.

Could Bill Clinton become a congressmen today? Regardless of experience, sadly he could not. Could George Bush run for Governor of Texas today? Not likely.

What is it that is making us seek a holy person for office? And what is it that drives us to prove just as strongly that he/she is not?

Ann Coulter proves Dems are the party of the rich!

In the bizarro world of Ann Coulter, Democrats run Wall Street. Who knew that those Big Business Republicans were really Democrats? Ann knew.

Last September, The New York Times reported that individuals associated with the securities and investment industry had given $9.9 million to the Obama campaign, $7.4 million to the Hillary Clinton campaign and only $6.9 million to the McCain campaign. Either they’re all Democrats or some commodity named “hope” was going through the roof last year.

Employees of Lehman Bros. alone gave Obama $370,000, compared to about $117,000 to McCain. (No wonder Bush let them go under.)

According to Ann Coulter, whoever gives the most money to a candidate means they are that political affiliation. If you give money to Democrats , you must be a Democrat. It never occurred to Ms. Coulter that perhaps the Wall Street guys decided to back a winning horse: Barack Obama. Given two options by Ann (they’re all Democrats or some commodity named “hope” was going through the roof last year) it was inconceivable that “hope” and change could be a factor.

So now we all must connect the dots with Ms Coulter and say that because Wall Street  were Democrat supporters, they were saved. Hooey!

In a particularly proud moment of identifying partisanship, Ms Coulter says : “Since 1998, the financial sector has given a total of $37.6 million to Obama, compared to $32.1 million to McCain. But Obama ran for his first national office only in 2004. So McCain got less from the financial industry in a decade that included two runs for president than Obama did in four years.”

It never occurred to Ms. Coulter that, in the minds of Wall Street, perhaps John McCain was a poor choice for President for the past ten years.

We all should recognize the superior intellect of Ms. Coulter.  She accuses Rahm Emmanuel of being a bagman for Clinton and says :” Democrats take care of the financial industry — and the financial industry takes care of Democrats. After honing his financial skills as the bagman for Bill Clinton’s White House, Rahm Emanuel was hired by the investment bank Wasserstein Perella, where he worked for 2 1/2 years.“

Gee, isn’t it amazing that Wasserstein Perella is NOT a bank that needs a bailout? Perhaps Rahm Emmanuel knows how to pick them?  And did you notice that Ms. Coulter failed to mention that Bush’s Sec’y of the Treasury, Hank Paulson, WAS A GOLDMAN SACHS EXECUTIVE and that Goldman Sachs DID RECEIVE BAILOUT MONEY FROM THE GOVERNMENT? She must have missed that point. Oh, well.

Ann Coulter is not known for her accuracy or for her unbiased viewpoint. If I were to believe Ann Coulter, I would have to believe that all the Hollywood companies are liberal Democrats, that all of the news media are liberal Democrats, all unions are liberal Democrats, and all of Wall Street is liberal, too. I wonder if there are any industries that are bastions  of Republicans? Ann has not told us. I wait with baited breath to learn. How about you?

Getting ready for a new presidential election?

Ouch.

If you have not been aware of it, there have been a number of people that are challenging Barack Obama’s status to be President. I have thought that all of these were frivolous law suits being led by sour and sore losers, or by racists determined to keep Barack Obama from assuming office.  And I guess that could be the case. However, I have just read a compelling article on why the Supreme Court should decide if Barack Obama meets the requirements to become President of the United States. It may be unconstitutional for Obama to be President.

There is no question that Barack is a citizen of the United States, at least not by any rational thinking adult. He has the birth certificate, he has had two comprehensive FBI background checks, and he had an American mother. If you want to read a good post about why Barack is a citizen, then I suggest you read Ed Darell’s piece over at Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub.

The question is: Does Barack Obama fulfill the constitutional requirements to be President?

Clause 5. No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been Fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.

Barack Obama may not meet the requirement of ‘natural born citizen’ according to this article by Judah Benjamin over at TD Blog

Mr. Benjamin describes what was meant by the term ’natural born’ at the time the Constitution was crafted. Among other things,  it was a question of divided loyalty between the allegiance resulting from a place where one was born (and perhaps raised) versus one’s biological parents and their citizenship and allegiance.  Barack Obama possessed dual citizenship: British and US.

“Natural-born citizen” is a Common Law concept of the type known as “a term of art”. There are innumerable references to it and to its older cognate “natural-born subject”. In essence, a natural-born citizen is an individual born with only one, single, undivided allegiance or loyalty and who is, and has always been, subject to only one legal jurisdiction. There is not, and has never been, any real doubt that this is true and correct. The term itself is not vague, it is in fact, provably, quite precise and anybody who attempts to deny that is fudging the issue because they have an agenda.

Anybody born in territory over which the United States claims legal jurisdiction, at the time of birth, and both of whose parents are United States Citizens is inter alia, and by definition, a natural-born citizen of the USA.

Anybody born abroad of two US Citizen patents is a natural-born citizen, if they are born in a country which does not use ius soli law on birthright, if they are the child of a diplomat, or if the country in which they are born does not for whatever reason assert jurisdiction over them. A secondary condition is that the individual must not have been expatriated by any legal process.

Which leads the author to eventually conclude:

 BHO II is a much more straightforward case. Let us assume for the purposes of this article that the information on the so called “COLB” is correct, truthfully we have no evidence that it is not, though equally we have no evidence that it is, and even under Hawaiian State Law such an abstract is regarded as insufficient to fully establish one’s status in law. BHO II’s own surrogates have freely admitted that he was born bipatride under the UK Nationality Act of 1948 and that in virtue of his father he was a United Kingdom and Colonies Citizen and a Subject of the British Crown at birth. That would have been true had he been born on the moon. Assuming that he was born in Hawaii, BHO II was born a US Citizen under ius soli also. No act of volition was required in either event. Thus he was first a Subject of the British Crown and a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies and second a citizen of the USA.

I am not convinced that there is a heirarchy and that a person with dual citizenship is first one thing and secondly another. I would have to know more before I could accept that fact.

Yet Barack Obama does not appear to meet the test of possessing a single and undivided allegiance to the United States as intended by the Constitution, if you believe the assertions in this article. The idea that Obama may be declared ineligible to assume the Presidency is startling.

As the article points out, Congress cannot pass legislation overruling the Constitution. This may become a Supreme Court case that involves determining what was meant by the term ‘natural born citizen’.

This is an interesting article to read in full. It concludes with a list of people who would have faced this same challenge of dual citizenship if they had been elected: John McCain and Bill Richardson.

It is quite possible the Supreme Court will decide not to hear this case at all in advance of Barack Obama becoming President. Because a risk exists to public order, they may choose to refuse the case until the lower courts have reviewed it. This may well delay this for years. To this point in time, all court cases challenging Barack Obama’s eligibility have been dismissed for various reasons.  

It is all speculation as to whether the Supreme Court will choose to hear this case and it is speculation to consider how they would define ‘natural born’. However, this is the first that time that I have given a mote of credence to anyone’s claim that Barack Obama is ineligible to be President.

I would not like to choose between Obama and the Constitution. But if I did, the Constitution would win and I would be unhappy about that. It would lead to another federal election and Nancy Pelosi would become President of the United States until a new President is elected. You already know that I do not like the Speaker of the House. This result would be painful for everyone.

Cynthia McKinney gets her game on…

The Green Party presidential candidate, Cynthia McKinney, is relatively unknown by many of us. Our total exposure to Ms. McKinney is likely when she smacked a congressional guard who (allegedly) did not recognize her and she (allegedy) did not identify herself. (I think I have that straight)

Ms. McKinney has sent a letter to her supporters about the financial mess. Her letter makes three points that I also make:

1. There is no difference between the deeds of Republicans and Democrats

2. Nancy Pelosi is a terrible Speaker of the House

3. Election integrity is being challenged by electronic voting machines

Ms. McKinney’s letter also lays out her 14 point financial plan for restoration of America. I am not convinced that her 14 point plan has value when the need to prevent a credit-availability problem was so immediate. And I am not convinced that the federalization of everything is the answer either. But I give her a kudo for putting it on paper and taking a stand.

Here is what she said about Ms. Pelosi:

  In light of the tremendously important election this year, she could have insisted on enacting some measure of election integrity to prevent another election being held where the announced outcome is truly in doubt. But she did not.

She could have taken her seat at the table as the one player in the room with the winning hand, but she did not.

Instead, she assumed the position of the beautiful girl in the short skirt holding the platter of drinks, serving the men at the table. She could have been the leader and spokesperson for us all, but she is not.

I do not support Ms. McKinney’s positions on almost any issue, however, she has put herself out there for the people to judge her by her frank talk. She is the American citizen in action whether we agree with her or not.

Give her letter a read. She is a genuine article in American democracy.

Wisdom from a smarter man than I

The impotence of Congress traces to the Great Depression.  As Theodore Lowi in his classic book, The End of Liberalism, makes clear, the New Deal stripped Congress of its law-making power and gave it to the executive agencies.  Prior to the New Deal, Congress wrote the laws.  After the New Deal a bill is merely an authorization for executive agencies to create the law through regulations.  The Paulson bailout has further diminished the legislative branch’s power.  

Congress no longer has any power to stop the Executive Branch. Unwilling to fight the President and unable to stop him, Congress spends its time with insignificant and nonbinding resolutions instead of legislation to manage America.

Will the day come in America when people say “Why are we talking to the President when Congress is the authority?”

I don’t know.

Brick #22: NSS: Propaganda from your own government

I continue to find the bricks that the government is using to build a National Security System that imperils all Americans. From surveillance to police presence to joint military and civilian operations, the National Security System is surrounding all Americans like a homeland security python. The coils are surrounding you but they have not yet begun to squeeze. Not yet.

 If you build a National Security System, they will come. The despots. The monarchy. The oligarchs. The families that wish to run America for their own benefit. All of them are the ones that think you should be more like them. They are afraid that you may not be like them at all and that you must be controlled, or observed, or reviewed regularly.

Today we learn that the government is creating a system to expectorate propaganda. Even when there is no good news, it will be created and distributed thru the media as news or images designed to mislead you, to give you evidence of what is not necessarily true.

You can read it here.  Eric Martin has nailed the situation and the likely problems of creating propaganda even if you do it overseas.

What is the difference between government lies and government propaganda? We all know that the government normally lies about ‘events’. It’s excuses for failure are almost always lies. Propaganda, on the other hand, is an attempt to shape ‘events’ into a plausible narrative for you to absorb before you are aware of the event. It is half-truths, misdirection, and sowing seeds of misinformation. It is like telling you that a person is a liar before you hear what they have to say. It’s like telling you that this thing is good when it is, in fact, bad. It is a special type of organized lie: it is created, it has a target audience, it is supported by ‘officials’and ‘authorities’ and it is designed to misdirect you. The better the propaganda,  the worse the lie, and the more residual effects there will be. Blowback is the right word.

     The Defense Department will pay private U.S. contractors in Iraq up to $300 million over the next three years to produce news stories, entertainment programs and public service advertisements for the Iraqi media in an effort to “engage and inspire” the local population to support U.S. objectives and the Iraqi government.

…a lengthy list of “deliverables” under the new contract proposal includes “print columns, press statements, press releases, response-to-query, speeches and . . . opinion editorials”; radio broadcasts “in excess of 300 news stories” monthly and 150 each on sports and economic themes; and 30- and 60-minute broadcast documentary and entertainment series.

Who will stop America from becoming the worst government the world has ever known? You can. You can vote for people with integrity. You can vote for people who respect people. You can vote for people who wish to be let alone in the world. You can vote for the good guys. Vote responsibly and save America.

McCain to be invisible soon…again

Prediction: The economic crisis will overshadow the McCain campaign.

John just cannot get a break. First, Hillary and Obama struggled for supremacy for months and that struggle kept McCain off the pages. McCain’s trip to the Mideast, the Vatican, and to the UK went unnoticed. Then Obama’s trip to the same places was covered by all the major networks. Then the  Democrat Convention kept McCain off the air and off the front pages again.

McCain strikes publicity gold with his selection of Sarah Palin and gets two weeks of attention. Then the media plays Where’s Waldo? with Sarah and her inaccessibility to interviews. Not forthcoming, Sarah’s comet begins to sputter and go dark. Then the VEEP debate takes place and Sarah and John receive about four days of attention during the beginning of the financial crisis. As the comet fades again, McCain’s campaign gets all bold and he vaults over to Washington to block the House bill. He gets a lot of press for this but his struggle to assume leadership of the Republican Party fails when he chooses the wrong crisis to leverage Bush out of Republican authority. The crisis cannot wait for McCain’s lobbying of his solution to Congress so President Bush steps in and maneuvers the Senate Republicans into approving some special earmarks to get the Senate bill passed. McCain leaves defeated but this is overlooked by the media as Palin debates Biden. The attention to the McCain-Palin campaign survived two days after the Bailout Bill was passed and will now fall flat.

Oh, I guess Palin could do something outrageous like accuse Obama of being friends with a terrorist (*cough*) but then everyone knows this is a lie and they will defend Obama. So her sparkle fades once again.

This week, if President Bush does not attack Iran, McCain’s campaign will go dark once more as the press focuses on whether the Bail Out Bill will fix the economy ( it won’t) and the press will focus on the upcoming banking hearings in the House on how the credit debacle was created.

John just cannot get a break to get his campaign moving. But he has a debate scheduled this week with Obama, so some attention may shift towards him but it will likely be short-lived ( unless he can think of something to bring attention to himself). Someone should make up words to the song ‘Unforgettable’ but call it ‘Undetectable’ and spoof the McCain campaign. 

I am feeling sorry for John McCain. Like I once felt bad for Dukakis.