Before You Say "War On Women" Again...

To be sure, I'm all for having a discussion about how healthcare should be administrated in this country. Personally, I advocate local and private administration rather than a federal single-payer system, and I think history, evidence, and fiscal reason support my preference. But sure, let's have the conversation about the merits of boths paths, and lawfully implement changes without circumvention of the Constitution. Looking at you, Democrats that support ObamaCare.

But where I take particular issue is when some among the American left argue that the lack of a federal birth-control mandate constitutes a GOP-led "War on Women."

Before using these words in the future (as they have little value beyond being an emotional trigger, anyway), read this amazing and informative article by Robert Fisk. It may offer perspective on some other cultures and ideologies that truly wage war upon women. I will suggest reading it all (full link below), as it is a global epidemic that warrants far more attention than it is given, but for those pressed for time, here is an excerpt that particularly affected me:

"[A] young woman found in a drainage ditch near Daharki in Pakistan, "honour" killed by her family as she gave birth to her second child, her nose, ears and lips chopped off before being axed to death, her first infant lying dead among her clothes, her newborn's torso still in her womb, its head already emerging from her body? She was badly decomposed; the local police were asked to bury her. Women carried the three to a grave, but a Muslim cleric refused to say prayers for her because it was "irreligious" to participate in the namaz-e-janaza prayers for "a cursed woman and her illegitimate children"."

Now, remember that Rush Limbaugh is known far and wide as a misogynist of the highest order for saying that Sandra Fluke should buy her own birth control and for calling her a slut. Then, think about the fact that events like this are quietly happening every single day in other nations, most often in predominantly fundamentalist Islamic ones, without the slightest mention of condemnation by the American left.

And then, reflect on how incredibly ridiculous this GOP-led "War On Women" nonsense really is.

Found at: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-the-crimewave-that-shames-the-world-2072201.html

William Sullivan

** Above image courtesy of Global Post. Hat tip to Dr. M. Zudhi Jasser for providing this article.

Our "One-trick Pony" in Chief

When President Obama tackled the economic crisis in early 2009 via the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, what was his plan of action?

More money, and more reform.

When President Obama tackled the problems with the rising cost of healthcare, what did he offer as a solution?

More money, and more reform.

It's clear that Biggie had it right when he said, "mo money, mo problems." Because problems is all we've gotten from Obama spending all of our money that we haven't made yet. Despite the Recovery Act, banks still have deficits and still don't lend. Sure, some fish hatcheries (pp. 123) in our national parks did get stocked. (for $165MM, by the way) But is that worth the billions we owe to foreign interests? What did the money and reform in healthcare give us? Fewer insurance policies being offered, a few thousand more IRS agents to breathe down our necks, and government administrated student loans.

Now, President Obama sees that there is a problem with American education. Here are the only facts of the case that matter. Since 1970, spending on education has tripled. Since 1970, quality of education has waned, and we are being surpassed by the rest of the world in terms of education.

What does that tell the sane individual? That throwing money at the problem is not working.

What does that tell Barack Obama? That we just haven't been throwing enough money at the problem. Oh, and we haven't reformed enough, either.

"People started to realize what is needed is not either, or -- not either more money or more reform, it's both. Both more money and more reform."

Yeah, you've suggested that before, Mr. President. But that's not what people are starting to realize. They're starting to realize that "Mo Money, Mo Reform" is the only thing you know how to suggest, and though it might have worked in the cesspool of Chicagoland in your community organizing days, it is not a viable economic strategy for our nation. It just puts us deeper in debt.

Oh, and a news flash, Mr. President: Americans don't like it.

William Sullivan

As The World Burns...

The Middle East is in a state of unprecedented upheaval that could plunge the world into war. Europe is in chaos due to vast budget shortfalls. Oil prices are poised to breach the ceiling previously known. The dollar is primed for collapse, and several currencies are being touted as a possible new trading standard.

Meanwhile, in America, public sector unions are fighting for their life to retain the influence they hold in deciding how public money will be spent. And their supporters are pulling out all the stops. Pro-union lawmakers are going AWOL and shirking the civic responsibility they have sworn to uphold. Our pro-union president is seeking to apply his federal influence in the fray, though he has no Constitutional right to do so. And pro-union lawmakers call for blood in the streets to get what they want.

But aside from unscrupulous union supporters, what is being done in Wisconsin is exactly how our government was meant to work. The state's budget shortfall has been directly linked to the collective bargaining rights of the unions in that state: strong-arming unions manipulated politicians to promise more in deferred benefits than it is possible to pay now that the bill is due. To reconcile this, officials have been elected by the people to plug the fiscal hole that the unions have created. To do this, Governor Walker of Wisconsin has suggested that public servants begin contributing 5.8% to their own pension funds, and that they pay for 12% of their healthcare premiums. Oh yeah, and the unions have to give up the collective bargaining rights that led to this mess in the first place.

This is all to be voted upon by elected officials, and it is constitutionally sound. Consider this to be our republic's way of giving shareholders, i.e., taxpayers, a say in how the business they have invested in is run.

Democrats are crying foul in this instance because Republican leaning police and firefighters in Wisconsin were not asked to make any such adjustments. It is as if they believe that unions and the entire public sector of Wisconsin should all be subject to equal accountability for the collective public pension problems, regardless of which segment caused the problems or which segments have performed better than others. (Need more proof that Democrats today are socialists?) But the fact is, it is entirely possible that the state funded teachers' pension is collapsing while that may not be the case for firefighters and cops who rely on city or county pensions.

The municipal troubles in our nation are incredibly different everywhere you look, so the problems in Wisconsin do not necessarily translate to problems in California, while problems in California don't necessarily translate to problems in Texas. And beyond that, Texas' problems don't necessarily translate to Dallas or Houston's problems. And even further beyond that, Houston firefighters' problems don't necessarily translate to Houston police officers' problems.

The issue certainly isn't black and white. So we need to be reasonable, and allow each city and state to take their own approach to handle the problems with public sector pay and benefits based on the type and severity of each problem. However, we also need to be steadfast in addressing these problems, because is clear that most municipalities, if not all, do have problems that endanger taxpayers.

If there is one universal flaw in public compensation, it is the very notion of the defined benefit. There can be no question that defined benefits cannot exist with birth rates and life expentancies as they are* without perpetually increasing tax liabilty. In my opinion, they must be amended across the board in favor of defined contribution plans. How quickly that transition must take place will depend upon the solvency, or lack thereof, of each municipality.

But we who would seek to amend troubled defined benefit programs are not calling for blood in the streets like the pro-union Democratic legislators that are so quick to decry the "hate speech" on talk radio while implicitly suggesting pure violence in the name of their cause. As much as we in the private sector would like to end public sector unions' noxious existence, we instead choose to elect politicians that would fulfill our wishes constitutionally, and right each ship, respectively.

And Walker is just doing what he was elected by the people to do; right the fiscal ship of Wisconsin. Of course, given that there are idiots among the protesting teachers holding signs that say "Egypt supports Wisconsin workers," maybe the proper action for Walker should be to just fire them all and hire from among the millions of unemployed to take their place. If teachers there think that protesting against a ~5% contribution to the retirement fund they will eventually collect is anything like revolting against a Middle Eastern Islamic dictatorship, the replacements could not possibly be any dumber than the teachers they already employ.

William Sullivan

* William G. Shipman, a leading global expert regarding Social Security, is one of many voices heralding the unsustainable nature of defined benefit plans, and is currently working with legislators to reform Social Security for the private sector. You will find incredible evidence of the flawed nature of defined benefits in today's world here.

The Great Talker Keeps on Talking

If a hard-hitting, investigatory interview was her aim, we could say that Lisa DePaulo failed miserably in her dialogue with Joe Biden for Gentlemen’s Quarterly. And we would, if we thought for a moment that she was trying to achieve those ends. Rather, she avoids having to feign an unbiased approach by declaring, in the very first paragraph, that recent accolades for Joe Biden in the Atlantic are “long-overdue.”

We appreciate her honesty. In continuing past that first paragraph, the reader knows exactly what to expect with her piece: the equivalent of a rock-star being interviewed by a devoted groupie.

DePaulo sets the tone early by gushing praise. She recognizes Obama as “The Great Orator,” Biden as “The Great Talker,” and refers to them collectively as “two of the best communicators we've ever had running the country.” She continues, “The two major things you've done, you and the president, health care and the stimulus, are both successes.” Despite dismal polls and a flaccid job market that signifies the opposite, Joe doesn’t miss a beat and just confidently replies, “Yep.”

She then asks, “So how come you can't get that across?” Joe responds, “I think people will grant us that they were, on balance, the important things to do. But other than in the health care industry, they didn't create many jobs in their mind.”

Biden takes unwarranted liberty in assuming that Americans believe the healthcare bill created jobs in any industry, but there is a very legitimate reason that the legislation he references, stimulus and healthcare, didn’t create jobs in American minds. It’s because they didn’t create jobs in reality.

In the past few years, it has become increasingly apparent that Joe Biden finds difficulty keeping his rhetoric within the confines of reality. And this interview doesn’t alter that pattern, as he goes on to suggest that people will wake up and embrace the healthcare legislation. “That's why you're gonna see health care turn around—they're starting to find out that what they're told is simply not true. Their premiums haven't gone up. They're not in a position where their companies are dropping health care.”

I’m sure the battered Democratic Party that backed the healthcare bill is glad to hear that, Joe. It’s just too bad that nothing could be further from the truth. First, consider that 60 Democrats lost their seats in the House to their more conservative counterparts earlier this month, with many of the victors running on the platform of repealing this healthcare bill. So it’s not at all accurate to say that it looks like the American people are any closer to accepting it.

Furthermore, it is obvious that hundreds of thousands of Americans are facing significant premium increases or the loss of their company-sponsored coverage. In fact, the administration has selectively distributed waivers for privileged companies and unions, admittedly to keep them from experiencing the premium increases and dropped coverage that are a direct result of this healthcare bill. So when it comes to healthcare, Joe's opinion doesn't come close to reflecting what we Americans see.

Joe Biden's obviously living in his own alternate reality when it comes to healthcare and fiscal issues, but it even seems as if his moral compass seems is askew from what we Americans see in him. For example, at various points in the interview he quotes proverbs, and one in particular stands out. He relates to DePaulo that he believes that "The cardinal sin one can commit is to abuse power.” The average American will undoubtedly chuckle at this. Any member of Barack Obama's administration imparting maxims to educate us about the moral crime of abusing power is the very personification of the term "hypocrisy."

Ultimately, there is very little of value in this interview. Outside of some tidbits about the Vice President’s personal life and his intense admiration of Barack Obama, the only political value that this ridiculous puff-piece offers is the evidence that Joe Biden is unable to feel the distance that lies between him and the American people, and that he is incapable of comprehending how contrary his beliefs are to reality.

And it seems like every time Joe Biden talks, that sinks in a little more for Americans, whether he’s scolding an audience for being dull, delivering financial wisdom like “We have to spend money to keep from going bankrupt,” or simply having a conversation with one of his fans at GQ. And since the Great Talker shows no sign of stifling his trademark talent, Republicans welcome an Obama/Biden ticket in 2012 as happily as they welcome Nancy Pelosi’s insistence to remain a figurehead of her Party.

William Sullivan

Republic in Reverse

When broken down into its most basic form, the United States’ system of government is a simple one. The founding fathers formed what is known as a federal constitutional republic. By definition this is a nation where the head of state and other officials are elected as representatives of the people, and must govern according to existing constitutional law which limits the government's power over citizens. The fact that the elected officials’ decisions are subject to judicial review makes this form of government a republic. The key principle here is that the elected officials are supposed to be representatives of the people. This is a corner stone that appears to have been ignored, not only by the Obama administration, but also by the Democratic members in both the House and the Senate.

Although poll numbers are not always completely reliable, and can sometimes have a tendency to be skewed due to how the questions are worded, when multiple polls tend to show similar results one can generally believe the information to be accurate. When polling of Americans show the majority are opposed or in favor of legislation, according to the United States system of representative government, logic would follow that the congressional voting on the issue would closely mirror these numbers. After all, a representative’s only job is to vote how the majority of their district or state would vote if every single eligible voter were to cast a ballot on any given issue. Unfortunately this has not been the case with the Obama administration or with the majority of Democrats in Congress, in fact just the opposite has occurred with no foreseeable change in tactics in sight.

The first glaring example of this disturbing trend was evident with the new health care laws. Although many different kinds of questions were thrown out by pollsters, the general consensus was that a majority of Americans disapproved of the actual bill that was passed. The fact that the Democrats had to use reconciliation to pass the bill, which had never been used on any major legislation before, speaks volumes about the laws popularity with citizens.

Now Arizona has passed an immigration enforcement law which closely resembles the existing federal immigration enforcement mandate. This new law is supported by the majority of not only Arizona citizens, but the majority of Americans as well, and yet many Democrats and Obama himself have come out and said that the Arizona state legislature‘s efforts are “misguided“. Misguided? Actually the Arizona legislature is a prime example of how the our government is supposed to work. Politicians are supposed to pass laws that the people want, not pass laws in which they are against. Its truly mind blowing how the overall simplicity of the process seems to escape the liberal powers that be.

With legislation on issues such as “cap and trade” and immigration reform forthcoming, it is imperative to not only recognize but also demand that our “representatives” be just that, representatives. George Washington urged against the forming of political parties. He simply saw no need for them. If every elected official was to vote in a manner consistent with the beliefs of their constituency on every issue, then the whole party system would, in turn, be unnecessary. In his farewell speech in 1789 he stated, “they (political parties) are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people, and to usurp for themselves the reins of government; destroying afterwards the very engines, which have lifted them to unjust dominion."

Sound familiar?

Calvin Parker