This week, Mitt Romney was endorsed by the DE Moines Register and the talking heads are busy debating how this will impact his campaign. Many people overlook how useless such endorsements really are. Not only are they useless, but they actually demonstrate a problem with the endorsee.

Newspapers will endorse someone from both sides of the race. If there is both a Democrat and a Republican running they will endorse a candidate for each party. In seeking the candidate to endorse they look for those who match up with the values of the paper’s owners or editorial staff. This means they look for a Democrat and a Republican who each share their values. So when everything is done and the endorsements have been announced we see which two people have the closest values to each other and are the least different. The Register has told us Mitt Romney is the most Democrat-like of all the candidates. When you see such endorsements take notice and vote with care.

I am sick of hearing about the evils of gridlock and the virtues of compromise. I understand compromise is an essential part of our government, and to accomplish anything each side must surrender some of their pet ideology and seek common ground. However, the founders never imagined over 500 full time people whose only purpose to exist is the creation of law—easily defined as new limits to our freedoms. It is easy to see that our nation is never as free as when Washington is in full-fledged gridlock.

In the vitriol against gridlock, one target is the Republican controlled House of Representatives. Those of us who worked so hard to take the House last election have to understand that since we only control the House we are limited in our ability to influence law and policy. Only bills attractive to the Democrat controlled Senate will pass; so blocking the agenda of the Left is our most powerful tool. When you hear it reported that Congress refuses to get along and pass some bit of legislation, see such reports as banners pronouncing “Freedom Survives Another Day.”

I know many will complain that if Congress and the President don’t work together the economy will not be fixed. Actually it is government tweaking and interference that keeps the economy on the rocks. The best thing to happen to the economy would be a removal of that interference. If Congress won’t actively remove the onerous regulations that have strangled our economy, the next best is a gridlocked Congress that can implement no new ones.

Yesterday a miracle happened. No, a lion did not lie down with a lamb, the lame did not walk and neither did the blind see. Instead, a miracle of an unprecedented magnitude happened in the state of Massachusetts. A Republican was elected to fill the seat of Teddy “One-for-the-Road” Kennedy. To say that the left is in shock is an understatement.

The question I ask coming out of this election is how will the GOP read it? The election was spun by the left as a referendum on healthcare and that is exactly what won it for Brown. The people of Massachusetts came out in droves to vote against Obama’s plans to extend control over 1/7th of the US economy in the guise of healthcare reform. GOP leadership is of course ecstatic over the victory and they should be (heaven knows it’s been a while since good news involved the GOP). The danger to those of us who value freedom is a misread of Brown’s victory by party elites.

If party leadership reads this victory to mean people are so fed up with the Democrats they will vote for anyone wearing the Republican moniker the potential for big wins in 2010 will be lost. The Republican Party lost big in the last round, not because the country had shifted left, but because the Republican Party had shifted left. Under Bush it was hard to tell a Republican voting record from a Democratic one. Keynesian deficit spending alongside rampant Congressional corruption and moral turpitude produced a perfect storm for the left. The left won because the right stayed home.

It may be possible for the GOP to go one cycle or perhaps two with the old practice of running RINOs and Rockefeller Republicans. It is possible the electorate, shocked by the abuses of a strong Democratic majority, will vote for any elephant walking down the street, but this will not last long. Unless the party of Reagan returns to its base it will find itself exiled from power again and again. If this happens it is not the Republican leaders who will suffer but the American people who are forced to watch more and more of their freedoms wheedled away by misguided apparatchiks.

I case you don’t recognize that the plans of the liberal junta include expansion of government to an unprecedented degree, consider the 111 new government programs and bureaucracies created by the latest Healthcare bill released in the House of Representatives. To see a full list go here.

I will limit myself to mentioning a few with my own personal remarks. The numbers correspond to the above list.

1. Retiree Reserve Trust Fund (Section 111(d), p. 61)
Because the Social Security Trust Fund has been such a success.

4. Program of administrative simplification (Section 115, p. 76)
Just what we need, an administrative program to simplify administrative programs.

6. Health Choices Administration (Section 241, p. 131)
Since you will ultimately lose your healthcare choices, why do we need to administer those choices?

7. Qualified Health Benefits Plan Ombudsman (Section 244, p. 138)
Because we do not have enough unelected bureaucrats.

11. Health Insurance Exchange Trust Fund (Section 307, p. 195)
We can always use another trust fund for Congress to plunder.

12. State-based Health Insurance Exchanges (Section 308, p. 197)
Can you say “unfunded mandate?”

14. “Public Health Insurance Option” (Section 321, p. 211)
A public option will be needed after they bankrupt the entire industry.

15. Ombudsman for “Public Health Insurance Option” (Section 321(d), p. 213)
Bureaucrats are popping up like mushrooms after a bad rain.

16. Account for receipts and disbursements for “Public Health Insurance Option” (Section 322(b), p. 215)
Special account for all the wealth they will be redistributing.

17. Telehealth Advisory Committee (Section 1191 (b), p. 589)
Because the other government telephone advisory systems have been so popular.

23. Independence at home demonstration program (Section 1312, p. 718)
Who better to teach independent living than a government liberal bureaucrat?

24. Center for Comparative Effectiveness Research (Section 1401(a), p. 734)
Comparative Effectiveness Research? I’m more effective than you.

25. Comparative Effectiveness Research Commission (Section 1401(a), p. 738)
Of course you need an ineffective commission to research effectiveness.

26. Patient ombudsman for comparative effectiveness research (Section 1401(a), p. 753)
Another one! Sheesh!

27. Quality assurance and performance improvement program for skilled nursing facilities (Section 1412(b)(1), p. 784)
28. Quality assurance and performance improvement program for nursing facilities (Section 1412 (b)(2), p. 786)
I can hit both of these with the same statement: Because the federal government has such a reputation for improving performance and assuring quality in other programs.

33. Pilot program to develop anti-fraud compliance systems for Medicare providers (Section 1635, p. 978)
They have such a stellar record at preventing fraud.

34. Special Inspector General for the Health Insurance Exchange (Section 1647, p. 1000)
The head Bureaucrat-in-charge.

39. Comparative Effectiveness Research Trust Fund (Section 1802, p. 1162)
More trust funds. Can’t you just see Pelosi salivating over all that money just lying around?

41. Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (Section 1907, p. 1198)
This will be needed because the new government health care program will squelch all other innovation.

42. Public Health Investment Fund (Section 2002, p. 1214)
They don’t even try to put the word ‘trust’ in this one.

43. Scholarships for service in health professional needs areas (Section 2211, p. 1224)
No one will want to spend their own money to become a doctor when profit is illegal.

44. Program for training medical residents in community-based settings (Section 2214, p. 1236)
See above

45. Grant program for training in dentistry programs (Section 2215, p. 1240)
See above

51. Prevention and Wellness Trust (Section 2301, p. 1286)
Money, money, money!

52. Clinical Prevention Stakeholders Board (Section 2301, p. 1295)
Huh!?

53. Community Prevention Stakeholders Board (Section 2301, p. 1301)
Now they’re just getting silly.

58. Center for Quality Improvement (Section 2401, p. 1322)
Isn’t Government Quality Improvement like military intelligence?

59. Assistant Secretary for Health Information (Section 2402, p. 1330)
What’s a secretary of Health Information without an assistant?

60. Grant program to support the operation of school-based health clinics (Section 2511, p. 1352)
Kids-with-Condoms program. When that fails you only have to miss third period to have that abortion.

61. Grant program for nurse-managed health centers (Section 2512, p. 1361)
Who needs high priced doctors?

64. “No Child Left Unimmunized Against Influenza” demonstration grant program (Section 2524, p. 1391)
It’s for the children!

65. Healthy Teen Initiative grant program regarding teen pregnancy (Section 2526, p. 1398)
‘No Child Left In-uterus” program.

69. Grant program to promote positive health behaviors in underserved communities (Section 2530, p. 1422)
To undo what years of welfare has created.

71. Grant program to develop infant mortality programs (Section 2532, p. 1433)
For those who make it past the abortoriums.

74. Grant program for community-based overweight and obesity prevention (Section 2535, p. 1457)
Because fat is not your program, the government should pay for it.

86. Health and Human Services Coordinating Committee on Women’s Health (Section 2588, p. 1610)
87. National Women’s Health Information Center (Section 2588, p. 1611)
88. Centers for Disease Control Office of Women’s Health (Section 2588, p. 1614)
89. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Office of Women’s Health and Gender-Based Research (Section 2588, p. 1617)
90. Health Resources and Services Administration Office of Women’s Health (Section 2588, p. 1618)
91. Food and Drug Administration Office of Women’s Health (Section 2588, p. 1621)
Because more women vote liberal.

94. Grant program to disseminate best practices on implementing health workforce investment programs (Section 2591, p. 1632)
There is no better arbiter of best practices in medicine than a bureaucrat.

95. Demonstration program for chronic shortages of health professionals (Section 3101, p. 1717)
This will be needed because of all the shortages this bill will create.

97. Program of Indian community education on mental illness (Section 3101, p. 1722)
98. Intergovernmental Task Force on Indian environmental and nuclear hazards (Section 3101, p. 1754)
99. Office of Indian Men’s Health (Section 3101, p. 1765)
100. Indian Health facilities appropriation advisory board (Section 3101, p. 1774)
101. Indian Health facilities needs assessment workgroup (Section 3101, p. 1775)
102. Indian Health Service tribal facilities joint venture demonstration projects (Section 3101, p. 1809)
104. Grants to Urban Indian Organizations for diabetes prevention (Section 3101, p. 1874)
110. Native American Health and Wellness Foundation (Section 3103, p. 1966)
111. Committee for the Establishment of the Native American Health and Wellness Foundation (Section 3103, p. 1968)
These last few will be needed because of the poor performance of that little known government healthcare program: Indian Health Services.

Calls from the left ring throughout the land, “We must be civil in discussing healthcare.” People are going to town halls to protest and harangue condescending officials defending this takeover of the American healthcare system. Constituents shout, plead and debate the candidate in a way that can be very uncomfortable, but does this lack proper civility?

Efforts of this administration and the Hip-pocket Congress prove that the current elected assemblies in Washington are representing a failed ideology at the expense of the American people. Many of us fear having an imperfect system that works replaced by a system destined for failure. The Democrats in Congress (with the help of their moderate to liberal Republican sycophants) are so set on building their leftist Utopia that they are ignoring the voices of the people.

This congress and administration has done far more to undermine the confidence of the American people in their own government than all previous ones combined. Over the last few months we have become aware that those elected to represent us are voting on bills they have never read, and that many times are not even off the presses. This happened before, but pair it with record spending and you have a government run amuck. Add to this their hatred for dissent with efforts to reinstate the failed “Fairness Doctrine,” special email addresses to report those who would dare to speak out against healthcare, labeling those who served their country with honor as potential terrorists and accusations by Speaker Pelosi that those who are now speaking out are un-American.”

Then there’s the blatant hypocrisy of a Congress that rails against corporate executives flying in private jets, only to turn around and request new business jets from the Pentagon to ferry Congressmen around. According to a story in Market Watch this money will have to be cut out of other areas of the defense budget. Congress is willing to cut the amount of money being spent to support our troops in war so they can get a cushy flight. Of course this ignores the old news request of Speaker Pelosi for a larger jet for her private coast to coast flights. Their hypocrisy doesn’t stop there though. What about Card Check? This plan, also known as the Employee “Free Choice” Act, claimed to be for the support of workers. This claim was possible because leftists still long for the days of the great Revolution and calls of “Workers of the World, Unite!” They overlook the facts about unions—driving up costs, making American manufacturing uncompetitive, and unwillingness to see companies as anything other than cash-cows to be milked at every opportunity. Do you want to know why manufacturing jobs are fleeing the United States? “Look for Union Label.” This nice little bill would have stripped away a worker’s right to a secret ballot in a union vote.

So what are good hard-working Americans to do when faced with these issues? Are we to wait for the media to get the word out? Considering they have still not dropped their love affair with Barack Obama, I don’t think this will happen anytime soon.

Of course we should not be surprised they still fawn over Barack. They should have known that once they sold their souls in the election they would have to keep up the charade for the rest of his presidency. Liberals do not care what you did for them yesterday. Any anchor in the MSM that comes out with any negative press about Barack Obama will find himself labeled a bigot and tarred and feathered by the left. We can hope the media will wake up and resume their post as defenders of liberty and clarions of the truth, but that kind of media is rare.

“If you do not read the newspaper you are uninformed; if you read the newspaper you are misinformed.” —-Mark Twain.

The answer is what we see happening today. Protests and demonstrations are one of the few ways left to get the word to congressmen. The first amendment was not meant to protect only the news industry but all Americans who want to express themselves. Solutions will not be found in quiet discourse and polite debate, but in high volume vitriol. Politician’s calls for niceness and quiet are a veiled attempt to silence and to muzzle. The left has used this tactic for decades. There is a huge difference between what the left did before and what is going on now. When the left would demonstrate, the ranks were filled with the unemployed, the professional protestors and people unlikely to pay for what they demanded. Those protesting now are the very people who write the check and mail it to the IRS to pay the bills of this country. They are the productive in our society. When those who create the wealth in this land feel the need to take time away from work and family to come to a townhall meeting and make their opinions known it is the Congressmen or other official that should sit down and be quiet because those who pay them are speaking.

Bill Clinton recently went to North Korea to negotiate for the release of two journalists. Those on the left and the right naturally have differing views about this. The reaction of the right seems to be more based on throwing mud at Bill Clinton before he gets more good press—like there is anything we can ever do to keep the press from fawning over Bubba. Many are saying that this is tantamount to negotiating with terrorists. I would disagree because, though we do not negotiate with terrorists, we have a long standing policy of negotiating with sovereign nations, even terrorist supporting ones. Many on the right are even attacking the two journalists, saying they were foolish and caused their own problems. This also is not a reason to leave them in North Korean custody. One of the things about the US that makes us better than many other countries is that while their government is imprisoning and killing their people we take great strides to protect ours, even at times going to war to protect them.

While the reaction of the right seems churlish, the reaction of the left is naïve. The North very successfully used this and we should admit it. Yes Bill Clinton helped these two women, but that is small in comparison to the world’s condition. The left is using this as a bludgeon against Bush, though he hasn’t been in office for months. They say this shows that diplomacy works, leaving one to assume that diplomacy should have been tried with Iraq and one can only assume with Afghanistan. First of all, we tried diplomacy for years with Iraq. With Afghanistan we acted quickly because they were supporting those who had killed so many of our citizens on 911. Since the Russians had lost to them in the 80’s they assumed we would lose as well. Of course they forgot that we were on their side in the 80’s. Now, while I have always maintained that we should not have entered Iraq when we did, that part of the discussion is over and we have been much more successful in Iraq than the left will ever admit. So let’s look at the scorecard of freed people. Bill Clinton freed two young women who stuck their necks out too far. George Bush freed two nations with populations of millions. While I am no fan of George Bush, you have to give him credit for some things.

Later this month one more liberal landmine is set blow another hole in our already frail economy. In 2007, shortly after the Democratic takeover of Congress, the minimum wage was raised. This act was praised by the media and their friends on the left as help for the poor. We were barraged for years with images of unfortunate people who could not earn a ‘living wage’ flipping burgers and mopping floors. The left claimed these people needed help and that everyone working full time deserved to earn enough to live on. So in charged the Cavalry, riding Democrat donkeys and Republican RINOs, defending the rights of the worker from the evil capitalists enslaving them. No longer would these people be taken advantage of, the liberals would see to that and Bush would sign the bill. To ensure future prosperity for these disadvantaged souls, Washington legislated regular automatic increases. One of these is set to go off on July 24.

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Symbols of hatred were proudly displayed before the world on every visible inch of his skin. Fortunately, I met him in the one place such people are safely observed—behind the double wire fence of a state prison. Whether inspired by race, gender or eye-color such hatred makes us uncomfortable. We imagine living in a world without hate—where everyone loves everyone else, with no war, no discrimination and no violation of rights. Congress is attempting to create just such a world with HR 262 currently moving through Congress as the Ray Richardson Hate Crimes Prevention Act. Like most liberal legislation this bill will accomplish nothing but the abrogation of our rights.

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For the first time in his career Arlen Specter did the right thing—he switched sides. The only thing I have never understood is why the GOP has supported him for so long. Party loyalty and whom to support will always remain a mystery. I have heard the arguments that he is electable and we need this seat. However, when the party decides to lay-aside the beliefs of its base to support the ugliest dog at the show, why does it then turn around and expect the base to vote for that candidate?

When explaining his move, Specter tried to sound Reaganesque—claiming he had not left the party, the party had left him. Actually, he had never been in the party. He was always been (to suitably mangle the metaphor) a Jack Ass in an Elephant suit. When explaining his reasoning he pointed out that over 200,000 Pennsylvanians had switched from Republican to Democrat in the last election and of course he assumed these were the moderates and liberals who would support Specter. Am I the only one who remembers Rush’s Operation Chaos? This tactic to keep Hillary in the race so the Democrats would keep eating each other was a very powerful tool and thousands of Americans—especially in PA—took part by switching parties for the primary. I wonder how the media will spin it when they all switch back for the next election.

One thing that is quickly learned by any observation of American politics: memories are short. The biggest threat to those who would undermine our system and take away our freedoms is a voter with the power of recall. Had people remembered McCain in the 2000 election, he could have never been the candidate in 2008. Hopefully the people of PA will remember Arlen Specter’s history of obfuscation and disloyalty to take this opportunity to get him out of office.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is angry; angry, not about the state of the national economy; angry, not about how much pork barrel spending their own people have included in the “Stimulus Package”; angry, not that we now have a Secretary of State whose husband has received 87% of his honoraria from foreign interests; angry, not that the new Secretary of the Treasury is incapable of paying his own taxes. They are angry that a private citizen would publicly speak out against President Obama. (more…)