Massachusetts and Murderers

Superior Court Judge, Kathie Tuttman, Massachusetts, ignored the advice of the prosecutors and paroled convicted killer, Daniel Tavares without bail or a monitoring bracelet. The creep fled the state and murdered a young couple in Washington.

People make mistakes everyday. But this was not a mistake, nor an oversight. The court records prove that Judge Tuttman was aware of his violent history. In fact, she overruled a District Court judge’s decision to hold Tavares on $50,000 cash bail.

Releasing a cold blooded murderer to prey on the public was a gross dereliction of duty. But this is a common practice in Massachusetts. The state is renowned for cuddling murderers.

In the late 1980’s its Prison Furlough Program cost Governor Dukakis any chance of winning the White House.

This leftwing inspired program granted convicted first-degree murderers the right to roam the streets, without supervision, on 48 hour weekend furloughs. Governor Dukakis vetoed a bill that would have banned furloughs for first-degree murderers in 1987, insisting it would "Cut the heart out of inmate rehabilitation."

This insanity hit the national headlines when Willie Horton, a convicted murderer, butchered a couple in Maryland while enjoying his "rehabilitative" weekend.

Now add this madness to the fact that Governor Dukakis had commuted the sentences of 28 first-degree murderers, and Massachusetts bureaucrats had officially listed about 75 career criminals as escapees when they didn’t return to the prison after enjoying their weekends.

How sick is the political environment in Massachusetts? Rather than condemning Judge Tuttman for her atrocious decision, Massachusetts’ Democrats are blaming Governor Romney because he appointed her. And tit for tat, they are comparing him to Governor Dukakis, hoping to cripple his quest for the Oval Office.

Governor Romney appointed her for two reasons. First she had solid credentials as a prosecutor. Not one iota of evidence in her record suggested that she was cut from the Dukakis mold. Secondly, Romney was under a great deal of pressure to appoint a woman—affirmative action rules Massachusetts.

Now consider the contents of the liberal infested barrel from which he had to fish. He had to select a bureaucrat with legal credentials from a contaminated gene pool.

By the standards of the rest of the United States, conservative bureaucrats don’t exist in Massachusetts. Although there must be a few aberrations, only ardent Democrats can survive the judicial nomination process. Tuttman’s selection and the brutal murder of a young couple were the result of rampant political inbreeding.

Judge Tuttman, not Governor Romney, is responsible for the predictable outcome. This is the leftwing’s gift to the state of Washington. If the Democrats carry Washington in the 2008 presidential elections, the state’s electorate will share the responsibility for condoning this madness.

A Zero Sum Game

Long standing Democrats are concerned with security, immigration, healthcare, terrorism, education, the environment, the cost of living and energy. These are our neighbors, friends and business associates. Most believe in a deity and cherish traditional values.

They can be pro-choice or pro-life. They support the rule of law and expect the government to protect the nation and our freedoms. They are not bigots, nor radicals, nor in most respects, much different from moderates and conservatives.

But they are the most dangerous people in America because they vote by habit. They still associate the party label with Truman, Kennedy and Roosevelt. By any reckoning these men have more in common with President Reagan than with Presidents Carter, Johnson and Clinton.

Traditional Democrats still associate their party with the protection of labor—a bulwark against big business. Most pull the Democratic lever based on the tenet that Democrats care more about the little guy.

The Democratic Party has not abandoned this principle. It has corrupted it by marginalizing the ability of private enterprise to respond to market conditions. Its quest to protect the little guy has been derailed by the socialist element that dominates its agenda.

This anti-business message is espoused by every Democratic presidential hopeful. They blame private enterprise for the nation’s ills. Their proposals universally demand government intervention and control of the marketplace—control of every aspect of our lives.

It’s now a contest between Democratic radicals and business for control the economy. Under the guise of protecting the little guy, the Democratic leadership is promoting unfettered government as the first and only solution for every crisis, for every problem.

This is more dangerous than unfettered business.

Once government is a power unto itself, it is the sole arbiter, the judge of what it deems appropriate for the common good. When the interpretation of rights is the sole domain of the government, there are no rights. There is no neutrality, no buffer and no protection.

The platform of the Democratic Party is filled with plans to displace private enterprise and personal freedoms with government programs and intervention. Whether the subject is healthcare, immigration, food, energy, or the environment, they offer one solution—more government control, more taxation, less choice.

Each dollar the government controls adds to its power. And power is finite. The government’s gain is our loss. It’s a zero sum game. So be wary of politicians who exalt the need for higher taxes. Taxes are a cancer which feed on our freedom of choice.

Currently a handful of Republican Senators and one battered Republican president are all that is standing between us and Speaker Pelosi and her radical comrades. If Senator Clinton is elected, private enterprise will not be able to protect our freedoms.

Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving is the best holiday of the year.

It’s about friends, neighbors and family celebrating the blessings and bounty of the United States of America. It’s about the harvest. It’s about traditional values. It’s about gathering together.

It’s a mellow holiday—a quiet reminder to say thanks for our blessings. It’s about relishing the feast that sprang forth from this land of infinite horizons.

Thanksgiving is the annual snapshot of the nation’s journey.

It’s the status report—the people’s state-of-the-nation address. It’s a moment of reflection. And unique to America, it binds reflection to promise, yesterday to destiny. In this respect, we still have a lot in common with the Pilgrims.

At most dinner tables, the celebration of Thanksgiving acknowledges a guiding light. Some may claim that it’s just a lucky star, but most believe it’s the grace of God. Thanksgiving is the day that mutes this debate, because Americans can all agree that we have a lot to be thankful for.

We should all spend a moment to remember and thank our warriors for protecting our nation. Their courage and dedication honor us. God bless them. God bless America. Or if you prefer, thank your lucky star for their noble service.

Happy Thanksgiving!

A Political Deficiency

Governor Eliot Spitzer (D, NY) abandoned the effort to allow illegal immigrants in his state to receive driver's licenses. His decision was a foregone conclusion after a poll revealed that 70% of New Yorkers gave the proposal a resounding thumbs down.

He would have kissed his political career goodbye if he had stuck to his “principles.” Ditto for Senator Clinton. Both learned that Americans are pro-security and are tired of having the leftwing’s agenda shoved down their throats.

Naturally the leftwing scorned the Governor’s decision to withdraw from battle. Their rebukes vilified the public as anti-immigrant and racist. This is malicious hyperbole—standard leftwing race baiting—spouted by the real racists.

In hindsight, this episode was not a political benchmark, but it should be bookmarked. Senator Clinton’s back peddling on the issue can’t be construed as a sudden conversion to a sane immigration policy. But her waffling was beneficial.

It signaled the Democratic radicals that if elected, she will bless blanket amnesty and grant illegal aliens all the rights of American citizens. Yet, she is on record, stating that providing government documents to illegal aliens is inappropriate. She walked away from this incident with a checkmark in each column.

That Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s positions du jour are guided by poll results came as no surprise. It’s obvious that her goal of winning the Oval Office overshadows every other consideration. She is an opportunist, one who is ready to say anything that brings her closer to the White House.

Don’t be fooled. Senator Clinton has core beliefs. But she is aware that the majority of Americans would reject her if she exposed them. That’s why she has adopted her husband’s strategy. It’s called triangulation, which is voicing positions on hot issues that 50+% of the voters find acceptable.

The leftwing is adept at reading between the lines. And they know where her heart is. As long as they understand that there is no correlation between her assertions and her agenda she can depend on their vote. They will forgive lies and hypocrisy, if doing so furthers the leftwing agenda.

But there is a flaw in Senator Clinton’s campaign strategy. The use of triangulation requires an attribute that Senator Clinton doesn’t have—likeability. Her husband had a gift for ingratiating himself with the public. They know he is a rogue. Their response: So what if he is a liar and a womanizer, he’s a charming rogue.

Senator Clinton is charm free. This distinction changes the political calculus. Besides not being personable, she is carrying the baggage of the Clinton legacy. And her smile and cackle can’t overcome this deficiency. In politics there is no substitute for charm.

Senator Clinton is not going to be given a pass in the general election. The majority of Americans want someone they can trust, someone with ingrained values and someone capable of uniting the nation. She has no checkmarks in these columns.

Sharing Is Overrated

Today, the term “sharing” is distorted and misused. Once it was a benevolent gesture which usually generated a thank you, a smile or a nod of appreciation. Sharing was commonly associated with popcorn, affection, pleasant moments and small kindnesses.

The word itself was rarely used. It was simply implied by a compassionate gesture, or a moment in time when people bonded. But it’s no longer related to generosity or kind acts.

Just listen! Teachers, politicians, managers and news anchors have twisted its meaning. They have stripped it of virtue. It’s now a device for deception.

In today’s lexicon, sharing is a command that signifies a pecking order. It’s not bi-directional. When managers share ideas with subordinates, they’re issuing marching orders. They are not soliciting opinion, or feedback, they are explaining the rules. Setting the direction is not sharing; it’s a mandate.

Academia is all about sharing. Formal education was once devoted to the mastery of subject matter—about preparing students to prosper. Now teachers share ideas and measure success on the students’ ability to express their feelings.

This feel good addiction substitutes the rigors of knowledge based academic learning for self-esteem building—which denigrates the purpose of education.

And it shelters those educators who have never mastered the discipline they teach from being dismissed for incompetence. This is not sharing; it’s torching academic achievement, devaluing personal responsibility and enabling the inept.

Educators use sharing to spread and shield propaganda. The distortion of traditional values, associated with old fashion sharing, provides a mechanism for teachers to promote subjective morality or interweave their opinions with facts. Masking an ideological agenda is not sharing; it’s indoctrination.

When newscasters use the term share they are expressing personal opinions. The content that follows is not news, it’s an editorial. This is not sharing; it’s an agenda driven dereliction of media integrity.

Politicians love to share. They share ideas when they don’t have concrete solutions. They share blame when there is too much evidence to invoke plausible deniability. They share their sympathy when the cameras are running. They share your concerns when contributions are needed. This is not sharing; it’s pandering.

When liberal politicians invoke sharing they are talking about income redistribution. Sharing sounds so much better than admitting they plan on bludgeoning the productive segment of society into supporting and growing the Democrats’ entitlement hungry constituency.

When their sharing inspired schemes are dissected, they’re always cemented in government’s unbridled access to earned income, and its uncontested right to claim and spend it. When personal generosity is governed by liberals it is not sharing; it’s taxation to enlarge the Democratic Party’s voting block.

To achieve their goals, liberals have turned sharing into an art form. They mask their agenda under the guise of compassion, fairness, opportunity, equality and responsibility. Sharing is their code word for socialism. It’s a deceit to perpetuate their existence.

The 110th Congress

If the 110^th Congress was a private corporation, its common stock would be trading for pennies. Portfolio managers would shun it. The SEC would be investigating its officers and Board of Directors for its deceptive statements, lack of oversight and squandering company assets.

The 110^th Congress has accomplished nothing. It’s all sound and fury. Thus, it’s not surprising that its leadership wants to be judged on the merits of its efforts rather than on the results of its reign.

Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reid must be disillusioned creatures. They interpreted their rise to power as manifest destiny. They were so blinded by the mantel of leadership that they smugly expected everyone to rally around their agenda and never question their judgment.

Then they bumped their heads on reality—discovering their ascendancy and exalted opinions of themselves fell a little short of ruling by divine right. In fairness, this self-deception is natural for politicians who espouse the divinity of the state.

Their little world crumbled when confronted by heretics. You know, people that believe in God, low taxes, secured borders, personal initiative and respect for the military. That’s why Senator Reid and Speaker Pelosi are constantly seen anguishing in front of the cameras.

Between these emotional outbursts, they have kept busy flogging the same legislation over and over and over. Between these futile attempts to weaken America’s economic engine and undermine its national security, they attend meetings convened to discover wrong doing.

Believing that most Americans shared their vision, they fell on the mercy of the crowd, begging them to stop the unfair practice of score keeping. This tactic would have generated some forgiveness, if they had publicly attributed their dismal legislative record to arrogance and gross incompetence.

But using arrogance and stupidity as an excuse for failure—even in Washington DC—can have damaging political consequences. Besides, no one believes they are stupid.

But they have been woefully negligent. A fine line separates incompetence from negligence—a foggy legal area which shelters malfeasance. And the Democrats have homesteaded this domain for over fifty years. It’s their comfort zone.

They are sitting on a legacy of failed social programs and the nation is drowning in debt.

Yet rather than compromising on sustainable solutions—tied to fiscal sanity—Reid and Pelosi have resorted to blaming their paltry record of achievement on the competition—those nasty moderates and conservatives.

This tactic is akin to the president of a car company excusing its lackluster sales performance because its competitors build better vehicles at a lower cost.

The leftwing doesn’t understand the absurdity of this defense, because they don’t correlate ambition, productivity, profit & loss and investment with success and failure.

They don’t appreciate that the power driving the economy is an independent steed—not a mule behind a plow.

Energy Independence First

Today, the survival of Western Civilization depends on the production of energy. It’s the universal source of food, shelter, clothing and the fulcrum upon which our nation’s economy and security teeters.

The refusal of congressional Democrats to recognize our absolute dependency on energy is placing the nation in great peril. And time is running out. Their practice of holding energy independence initiatives hostage to environmental sensitivities during a time of war is beyond traitorous—it’s insanity.

Energy—the nation’s lifeline—is heavily dependent on fossil fuels from foreign suppliers. This dependency has enslaved our economy to the dictates of foreign countries and made our nation vulnerable to the goals of Islamic fascists.

When the US was the primary buyer of energy in the twentieth century, it controlled the marketplace. The rapid industrialization of Third World countries, especially China and India, changed the balance of power. The competition for oil has made the United States vulnerable to international blackmail. The cost of oil is already depreciating the value of our currency.

That the United States imports about 20% of it oil directly from the Middle East is both dangerous and moot. If the production flowing from the Arabian Peninsula is severely interrupted, the competition for other sources will be intense. No industrialized country will have a safe harbor.

If the disruption is prolonged, the western democracies will suffer economic chaos.

The Islamic terrorists, those determined to destroy western civilization, understand this dependency. Although the pipelines remain vulnerable to clandestine attacks, the control of the oil reserves and pipelines by Islamic fundamentalist/fascist caliphates is the greater danger.

Iran has already fallen under Islamic fundamentalist control and is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to undermine the US efforts in Iraq. If the US military exits Iraq before stabilizing its government, the Islamic fundamentalists will gain control of Iraq’s reserves and outputs.

Now, let’s give Iran a nuclear weapon. They don’t have to detonate it in Europe or the United States to destroy us.

Just threatening to annihilate Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait if they fail to curtail or cease their oil production could reduce the world oil output by about 50%. One bomb dropped on Saudi Arabia would send the western democracies into a decades’ long economic tailspin.

With this very real possibility a few hours away, Senator Reid and Speaker Pelosi are screaming for the US to bequeath Iraq to Iran. And the Democrats are even protesting the consideration of terminating Iran’s nuclear threat with military force.

The failure to acknowledge—or comprehend—that US energy independence must take precedence over environmental concerns is a prescription for disaster. Global warming and animal habitats are irrelevant when compared to the catastrophic consequences of US transportation at a standstill, the shutdown of commerce, cold homes and food shortages.

A Corrupt Neighbor

Mexico’s President Felipe Calderón, elected in 2005, is sitting on a pressure cooker. By tradition, Mexico is run by an oligarchy that controls about 70% of the nation’s wealth. The government is corrupt from top to bottom, and this corruption is further compounded by the legendary malfeasance of its bureaucrats.

It’s a shakedown society where bribes, family connections and kickbacks rule. Justice is a commodity. The police protect the populace as a fox protects a henhouse. Even the military’s cooperation is for sale.

The average per capita income in Mexico is about 75% lower than that of the United States. Nearly 9% of its population of 109 million people exists on about $1 a day.

Mexico is an economic, political and environmental cesspool, which explains the lure of the US economy. By comparison, minimum wage jobs combined with entitlements such as food stamps, free medical and daycare, subsidized housing, education, clean air, clean drinking water and sanitation make the US the land of milk and honey.

So it doesn’t take a PhD in economics to explain why twelve to twenty million Mexicans and other assorted nationalities have entered the United States illegally. And it’s obvious why millions more will continue to cross the border.

Nor does it take a political scientist to explain why the Mexican government is handing out pamphlets which detail the best ways to enter the United States illegally, or herald the availability of cheap airfares to the US/Mexican border, or use its army to protect the migration routes, or condemn US efforts to control the border.

Our economy is the safety valve protecting Mexico’s government from a full scale uprising.

The NAFTA trade deficit, the illegal drug market and the money returning to Mexico, which is earned on this side of the border—valued in total at about $115 billion—is propping up Mexico’s corrupt government.

According to federal statistics, each illegal alien costs this country’s taxpayers $19,000 in “free” services. Pegging the most conservative estimate of illegal aliens residing in the United States at 12 million, our local, state and federal governments will dish out $2.3 trillion to protect Mexico’s corrupt government.

President Bush’s refusal to secure our borders and stop the employment of illegal aliens reduces the standard of living of every American citizen, accelerates the destruction of our physical and social infrastructure, depresses wages and undermines our national security.

But maybe worse, his immigration policies reinforce the status quo in Mexico. The conditions won’t improve until the United States secures its borders and penalizes Corporate America for hiring illegal Mexican laborers.

Those who encourage illegal immigration and sanctuary cities for humanitarian reasons are perpetuating the impoverishment of Mexico’s citizens. The conditions to incite reform won’t build without pressure, and pressure won’t build as long as the United States provides a safety valve for Mexico’s corrupt government.

Mexico’s poor deserve change in their homeland—they need our resolve to end the corruption. And only a tough love policy will ferment change.

A Democrat to Respect

Thirty-two Democratic Senators and one equally treacherous Republican Senator, Pete Domenici, confirmed their membership in the Weaken America Club. They all voted against an amendment to the Immigration Bill 1348, which made English the official language of the United States.

Among those who voted to undermine our national unity were: Senators Dodd, Obama, Biden and Hillary Rodham Clinton—all Democratic presidential hopefuls. The latter, Senator Clinton, portrays herself as a moderate, mainstream Democrat.

She is a moderate if the vast majority of the Democratic Party faithful don’t believe English should be the official language of the United States. But that’s not true. The national polls indicate that over ninety percent of Americans agree that English should be the official language.

Defining herself as a mainstream Democrat contradicts her voting record. Were it true, about fifty percent of Democrats would be so far left that they would be pushed off the grid. The heir apparent to the title of Diversity Diva has a lot of trouble with the truth. In truth, Ms. Shared Responsibility is a leftwing radical.

Not all Democrat office holders are infected by the far left’s hatred of capitalism and national security. A few, just a few, know their party’s quest to encourage the stampede of illegal aliens across our borders will lead the country down a bitter path.

Senator Clinton and her radical soul mates are being challenged by Representative Heath Shuler (D, NC). He recently proposed legislation called the SAVE ACT (Secure America with Verification and Enforcement).

It’s a solid proposal which includes first class border security and targets illegal aliens using fraudulent identities. The SAVE ACT will expand the E-Verify program database, which will allow employers to verify the legal status of employees and applicants in minutes.

The expanded database will flag suspect Social Security numbers by automatically correlating them with birth and death records, state driver licenses (state certified pictures) and the employment activity attributed to a specific Social Security number. Fictitious numbers will be immediately recognizable.

The process—phased in over four years—will eliminate the lure of jobs which attract illegal aliens and close the employers’ ignorance loophole. It will save American jobs for Americans. Equally beneficial, entitlements and medical emergency centers will be reserved for Americans.

The SAVE ACT also empowers ICE to receive the cooperation of local officials, adds detention facilities and streamlines the judicial process. It eliminates the revolving door in the current system by immediately detaining suspected illegal aliens and expediting their hearings. Yes, they remain in police custody throughout the process.

Any politician who votes against the SAVE ACT will be regarded as an illegal alien accomplice. And the Democrats in Congress know it. That’s why Senator Reid and the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, will do everything in their power to keep it from consideration. Why? Because they need an entitlement dependent constituency to survive. They need illegal aliens.