Show Trials

I really, really like Rick Santorum—and he wrote a great article on September 10th called The Elephant in the Room: Who will collect the dots?

I will not comment in depth on the main point of his article, which was that the Intelligence Agencies are being transformed into their pre-9/11 forms again. We must honestly deal with the question of whether or not we are a target to evil in the world, and whether or not terrorism is something that is still a threat to our nation. I would hope the answer is "no," but I know with certainty that the answer to both questions is a frighteningly resounding "yes." It is not of light consequence that these realities exist and we must not bury our heads in the sand and pretend that they do not.

The substance of the article discusses the dire situation facing the Intelligence Community because of an activist overly politicized Justice Department. Some of those people are out to score political points, but worse yet they are out for blood.

The methods that are being used to exact political revenge are what I would like to bring up. I find it utterly sickening that serial killers, rapists, and child predators walk the streets of this country because of "prosecutorial misconduct," and equally reprehensible are the efforts to empower our terrorist enemies by bestowing upon them due process rights. To demonstrate how backward and utterly disgusting the system is becoming, we have good honest men and women, many of whom are the real heroes in this country, who are being dragged through the mud with the intention of finding misconduct in their own defense with which they may then be charged and convicted.

So, lets get this straight: the bad guys go free because the lawyers mess up...and the good guys go to jail because the lawyers are successful in crossing them in their words...is that about right?

This is what Senator Santorum says in his piece:

"Last month, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder countermanded the decision of his Justice Department's career prosecutors and decided to investigate CIA agents who had interrogated unlawful enemy combatants. Holder's special prosecutor will undoubtedly prosecute and secure convictions. Like most political prosecutions, however, the charges will grow out of the agents' conduct during the special prosecutor's investigation, not the agents' conduct in questioning the terrorists. (See the Scooter Libby prosecution.)"

This is outright shameful, and it is going to get people killed, not to mention many wonderful people will have their names and their lives ruined in the process. These actions are undermining the security of our nation, which is the foremost role of the federal government under the powers granted to it by the people in the Constitution. The use of these dirty legal games that only seek to injure and harm are just like the "show trials" that went on for decades in Stalinist Russia.

Stalinist Show Trials

Stalin and his henchmen found that this was a wonderfully useful trick to get rid of potential political opponents.

• Drag them in front of a court


• Get them to say something they can be accused for


• Prosecute them accordingly and then lock them up in a Gulag

This was very effective, but extremely diabolical. And the practice is totally antithetical to liberty and should never be used in the United States of America. Unfortunately, we see it all the time, Congressional Hearings, Special Prosecutors, and so forth; all done by conspiring men and women, all done with the same malicious intent, and all happening right in our own front yard in broad daylight.

The only point left to ponder is the ethics of stealing a page out of your opponents playbook and getting down in the mud; fighting fire with fire, so to speak. I would say only as a last resort because the ends do not justify the means, in spite of what the current Congress and Administration believe. Sometimes it behooves a man to taste his own medicine, but I would hope that in this great nation we could do away with such things without having to all lower ourselves to such disrespectful ways.

The Race Card

I have had it with all of the accusations of racism that have been so flippantly thrown around over the last few weeks (and months for that matter). No individual gets a pass because of their gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, height, color, family pedigree, academic achievements, or anything else of the sort. If someone, be it the president or anyone else, supports a position or an idea then we have every right to disagree or agree based on the substance of said position or idea. The notion that anyone is racist because they disagree with someone of a different race is absolutely absurd and exposes the shallowness and insecurity of the accuser.

This is a purely political attack and I resent every single bit of it. To be frankly honest it is both immature and disrespectful to say that people are racist when they criticize someone with whom they have an honest disagreement. And the truth of the matter is the disagreements we are having in our country right now are of great import and consequence, and to result to playing the race card when the moment you begin to lose political momentum is a shameful act of desperation.

The true measure and character of a man or woman is on full display during times of difficulty and tumult, and we are justified in using that measure to form our opinions on how fit someone is to lead us or not. I believe there are many who currently hold positions of power who are weak and unfit to lead, and this latest attempt to demonize those who oppose them only serves to affirm this belief.

Securing the Blessings of Liberty

I felt like saying thank you to all the men and women who serve in the armed forces in one capacity or another. I wish to express thanks from the bottom of my heart to all those who have served and those who are no longer with us because they themselves paid the ultimate price in securing our liberty. Your service and your sacrifice does not go unnoticed or unappreciated. One day, probably not in this life, we the American people and also the other nations of the world will fully understand what you have done for us; and at that time I hope the honors and gratitude bestowed upon you all will be great and glorious, because only God Himself knows the true price you have paid for your countrymen.

Because of you, I am able to work and live my life, serve God and love my family, all without fear of oppression or tyranny. Many tens of millions of people throughout the world and throughout history cannot say the same thing. I only wish I could properly express the reverence and respect I feel for you and what you do. So once again, Thank You!

Who is This Guy Kidding!?

Obviously a lot of people.

So, first things first—this from The Hill:

The Senate must move legislation to raise the federal debt limit beyond $12.1 trillion by mid-October, a move viewed as necessary despite protests about the record levels of red ink.

The move will highlight the nation’s record debt, which has been central to Republican attacks against Democratic congressional leaders and President Barack Obama. The year’s deficit is expected to hit a record $1.6 trillion.

President Obama is the ideological leader of those who have power in our government right now; that is something that could never be said of George W. Bush, he may have been the "standard bearer" of the Republican party and he was definitely a leader as commander in chief, but unlike Obama, he did not share the same political ideology as his party's base.

So with that in mind, who are we to point the finger at for this continued financial nightmare. A simple and basic understanding of our government tells us that the Congress creates the spending bills that become the laws dictating the expenditures of our Federal Government.

Again from The Hill:

Democrats in control of Congress, including then-Sen. Obama (Ill.), blasted President George W. Bush for failing to contain spending when he oversaw increased deficits and raised the debt ceiling.

“Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren,” Obama said in a 2006 floor speech that preceded a Senate vote to extend the debt limit. “America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership.”

Obama later joined his Democratic colleagues in voting en bloc against raising the debt increase.

Now Obama is asking Congress to raise the debt ceiling, something lawmakers are almost certain to do despite misgivings about the federal debt. The ceiling already has been hiked three times in the past two years, and the House took action earlier this year to raise the ceiling to $13 trillion.

The problem is the democrats have been in control of both houses of Congress for the last two and a half years. The spending bills that have pushed the federal debt limit higher have come from them. Sure Bush signed them into law, but all too soon forgotten are the great debates that took place over spending on the war, which was indeed the top priority for President Bush. All the rhetoric about "shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren" was political posturing for the 2008 election, and it was done with malice toward the choice to liberate the people's of Iraq and Afghanistan.

When out of control domestic spending is the principle cause of the debt like it is now, democrats are all in favor, and republicans are eerily silent. So the pattern that we see is this: military and defense spending - bad, domestic social programs and welfare - good. Republican President desires debt ceiling to be raised because Congress won't balance a budget - President is bad. Democrat President calling for increase of the debt ceiling - President is good.

Because of the ongoing struggle for power the actions of politicians must always be second guessed, especially when we have the most disingenuous group of Marxist ideologues this country has ever seen working around the clock to destroy the fundamental traditions and principles of our great nation.

The debt limit should not be raised! We need to rally together and demand that our representatives and senators start putting together proposals that will address the massive deficits and out of control spending at the federal level(and state for that matter, but one battle at a time). We can have little hope of this current Congress and Administration doing anything of the sort, but fortunately the mid-term election is only 14 long months away. Plenty of time to expose these ignorant power-hungry elites for what they really are. And yes Mr. President, we are watching you, very closely. Go soak up all the visits to Martha's Vinyard you can because 52.9% will be much harder to come by in three years!

Natural Rights

The Founders of our great nation had the correct understanding of the principle of natural rights. In the Declaration of Independence they declared:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

Governments are not instituted to confer or to take away rights, but to secure them. The Founders stated that the Creator endows all men with the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

When government begins to assert itself and claims that it has the power or intention to confer or deny any kind of right, we must push back, for this is not the role of government. Our federal government is massively out of control, and has far overextended itself from the original intents of our forefathers. Tyranny always begins to gain strength through its feigned intention of creating equality of outcomes and results. We must not fall prey to this seductive and false promise.

As a nation we have many problems that require solutions, but let us not surrender our liberty to those who seek to exercise power and authority; and let us promote liberty by making our voices heard, stemming the expansion of governmental power, and advocating a limited government that only exercises the authority granted to it under our Constitution.

Let's Read Between the Lines

Front page of Yahoo.com today: Pfizer to pay record $2.3B penalty over promotions

The AP reports that, "Pfizer Inc., the world's largest drug maker, will pay a record $2.3 billion civil and criminal penalty over unlawful prescription drug promotions." Apparently we have laws that tell drug manufacturers how they can promote the sale of their goods, and the Justice Department feels that they have the authority to tax the ____ out of a company if they do not comply with such laws. I of course support the rule of law, but initially this looks like a blatant abuse of power, $2.3 billion!? I see this more as the government abusing 'we the people,' than as a large company abusing the government system.

From my reading of the article the violation was that Pfizer wined and dined some doctors on numerous occasions. Not dissimilar to what lobbyists have done with lawmakers who write the laws telling drug companies what they cannot do to persuade those they wish to influence. The article states:

To promote the drugs, authorities said Pfizer invited doctors to consultant meetings at resort locations, paying their expenses and providing perks.

"They were entertained with golf, massages, and other activities," said Mike Loucks, the U.S. attorney in Massachusetts.

It's a good thing that this behavior isn't outlawed in people's personal lives because last I checked this is the primary method most people use to convince someone to marry them. But here is the part that is most disconcerting:

Associate Attorney General Thomas Perelli[sic] said the settlement illustrates ways the department "can help the American public at a time when budgets are tight and health care costs are rising."

This Perrelli is weaselly at best, but I see his track record as very dangerous. This comment about the DOJ helping the American public with this settlement is sick! The administration that he represents and supports is doing all of the wrong things to address the said tight budgets and rising health care costs, but not to digress, this whole notion of bleeding out large companies to help the situation is outrageous.

The other big issue is FDA approval and the subsequent promotion of drug usage. For example, aspirin is approved by the FDA to treat certain conditions, but companies cannot label or promote it as being able to do any of the other 1,001 things that mothers and grandmothers across the country use it for. The ridiculous part of this law is that once a physical condition is labeled as a disease by the Department of HHS and the FDA, no remedy for such "disease" can be marketed or promoted as a treatment or cure without going through all of the phase testing required for drugs.

All of this is done under the premise of the government protecting the consumer, but do consumers need protection from big brother? This is a much debated question and it will continue to be debated, but for now it is beside the point. This whole story is being sold today as "Big Pharma breaks law, health care fraud against Medicaid and Medicare." All the nudnick politicians and similar hacks are coming out saying what a wonderful thing this is and how terrible Pfizer is, again from the article:

New York, for example, will receive $66 million, according to the state's attorney general, Andrew Cuomo.

"Pfizer ripped off New Yorkers and taxpayers across the country to pad its bottom line," Cuomo said. "Pfizer's corrupt practices went so far as sending physicians on exotic junkets as well as wining and dining health care professionals to persuade them to prescribe the company's drugs for patients in taxpayer-funded programs."

These are the very same taxpayer-funded programs that his buddies and liberal comrades have been promoting and creating for 75 years. They complain about all the waste, fraud, and abuse in their beloved entitlement programs, but their solution is to create bigger more comprehensive programs—socialized medicine being the mother of all.

I would venture to say that Pfizer and companies like it have done 100 times more to actually improve the quality of life for more people than Medicaid and Medicare have done or ever will do. Entitlement programs have never invented one new drug, never created one new procedure, and they have never nursed one patient back to health; instead they impede and limit the free flow of goods and services between health care providers and health care recipients by driving up costs, creating dislocation, and reducing quality. I would rather put the entire health care system in the hands of Pfizer (I of course would not want that) than in the hands of the federal government. So, read between the lines of this story, which actually broke back in January, and do not be mislead by the propaganda and the spinning that so many in the media and the government will try to pull off.

Save the Earth! At All Costs?

Yes, this is the battle cry of the environmentalist movement. Now they are starting to make headway in many leftist run countries, and among them not-so-Great (anymore) Britain.

This from the Telegraph: Britain facing blackouts for first time since 1970s. I predict that unless they change course the estimates will be low.

I am all for innovation and new technology, but it just will not come to pass at the insistence and prodding of government. Almost nothing that any environmentalist ever suggests is ever beneficial to society, and these groups should largely be ignored by rational thinking human beings (liberals and eukaryotic organisms are obviously exempted but for different reasons).

Make sure that you keep your priorities in order when you espouse a cause. Too many people get sucked into something that has some meaning and value on the outside, only to become irrational and sometimes fanatical as they slide down the slippery slope. Stand on principle and never compromise, then when you support something you can be assured that you are supporting something of merit and value.