In all the hoopla and mud surrounding the Presidential Election, it is good when someone occasionally cuts through the fog with a coherent thought or two. (No, not me -- someone else)
While scanning through a Townhall column this morning, I came across this comment from a reader:
Tough Decision
In December 1966, when John McCain requested his first combat assignment in Vietnam, Barack Obama turned 5 years old and was enjoying the freedoms a child should enjoy.
As Obama turned 7, McCain had survived a burning jet fire on the USS Forrestal and had just flown his 23rd bombing mission over communist North Vietnam.
In 1973, as Obama reached age 12, McCain was finally released from a prisoner-of-war camp in the Hanoi Hilton.
At age 15, when Obama was still in high school, McCain became the commanding officer of a Naval Training Squadron in Florida. He turned a poorly managed military unit into a distinguished, combat-ready team.
When Obama reached the legal age of 21 and was experimenting with pot and cocaine, McCain declined an admiral promotion and ran for and was elected to Congress.
By 1987, Obama was a young man of 25 and McCain had assumed the office of senator from Arizona (after a successful four-year tour in the U.S. House of Representatives).
At age 36, Obama looked on as Sen. McCain was named one of Time magazine's 25 most influential people in America.
Whom do we choose as our next leader? Do we choose a man with proven military and political achievements, or a man with little experience other than a stint as a community leader and junior senator? Decisions, decisions!
Too bad our political leader cannot articulate his own compelling story in such a succinct manner. If he could, this election would already be over.
Speaking of political leadership, it appears that our elected Republican representatives in Washington are going to build on that impromptu revolt they staged on Friday, and carry it over today. Reported in The Politico:
Continuing with their guerilla tactics from last week, House Republicans will be back on the floor Monday to talk gas prices, even though Congress is in recess, and they may stay there all week.
More than a dozen Republicans have already committed to make appearances, according to House GOP leadership aide, including National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Cole (Okla.).
Many of us have been decrying the dearth of leadership from Republicans in this Congress. It appears that they have finally found a spine and it is important, I believe, that we demonstrate our unity and support with them on this issue.
It is most important that we, on the internet, report this story, because the Mainstream Media has done their mighty best to bury it. As reported on NewsBusters, the Friday revolt that so fired up the base on the internet -- has been almost entirely ignored by the MSM. If you rely on the Evening News or any newspaper in the country to be informed on what is happening in Washington -- you are totally ignorant of this ongoing event.
As for newspapers, the New York Times alloted 520 words to this issue Saturday...on page A16. The Washington Post gave it 402 words...on page A3.
The results of a LexisNexis search suggest the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, the Chicago Tribune, and the San Francisco Chronicle all ignored this revolt.
The Worldwide Web is little better. While blogs have picked it up, searching through Google News finds almost nothing. A Google search of: "Republican revolt continues Monday" finds only the newsBusters article and one from the Ledger - Enquirer entitled Westmoreland leads House GOP revolt that focuses on local Rep Lynn Westmoreland, and features a deflection on the issue by a spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi calling it "a Republican stunt."
"We've passed a bill about monkey bites, shark carcasses, we've honored every football and basketball team," Westmoreland said. "The American people want us to do something about the high price of gas."
--snip--
"What this was about is that Republicans have done everything procedurally, parliamentary and legislatively we can do to address the high price of gas," Westmoreland said. "We were taking an opportunity to try to talk to people of this country."
And, as to the election in November, I would hope that in 2008, the US Military overseas be allowed to vote -- a right suppressed in 2000 and again in 2004. While there was then, and still appears to be, a whole lot of focus on the Florida Recount fiasco, and the suppression of "minority" voting rights, there has still been little done about the voting rights of our most oppressed minority -- the US Military.
In 2000 the Democrat Party deliberately and systematically fanned out across Florida Counties, with the express intent of suppressing military ballots. They rightly believed that the US Military would be voting overwhelmingly Republican, and so, set out to prevent those votes from being counted.
It became so bad that a Florida district court judge, Lacey Collier had to order illegally discarded military ballots be re-examined and counted. While the public focus was on a handful of partisan political operatives in three Florida Counties trying to "discern the intent" of voters through analysis of hanging chads, the clear voting intent of the US Military was deliberately ignored.
"It is truly an unfortunate circumstance when a citizen of the United States is denied the fundamental right to vote, whether residing in one of the several states or residing overseas," Collier wrote in his ruling. "It is even more unfortunate when a vote cast by a member of the armed forces serving abroad is rejected for no legitimate or compelling reason."
"It is unfortunate that Florida will accept an overseas absentee ballot with an unsworn, handwritten date, yet questions the oath, under penalty of perjury, of many of its service men and women," Collier said.
And finally, to return to the issue of energy in this country, I turn to the wise words of Dr Walter Williams, one of the smartest economists I know. In his column last week entitled Environmentalists' Hold on Congress he discusses drilling, Cap and Trade, and how special environmental interests have had a stranglehold, for the past 40 years, on Congress. He makes uncommon sense, as usual, in pointing out the dangers we face in allowing the Federal Government to regulate all aspects of industry and business in the name of "the environment." He points to the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, (which I have railed against in the past) as an example of the law of unintended consequences.
Anyone with an ounce of brains would have realized that diverting crops from food to fuel use would raise the prices of corn-fed livestock, such as pork, beef, chicken and dairy products, and products made from corn, such as cereals. Ethanol production has led to increases in other grain prices, such as soybean and wheat. Since the U.S. is the world's largest grain producer and exporter, higher grain prices have had a huge impact on food prices worldwide.
Exactly what I have been saying for the past year. But then, he is a respected economist, and I merely pay more at the grocery store and at the gas pump -- so what the heck do I know. But, I am glad he agrees with me.
Many of us have been decrying the dearth of leadership from Republicans in this Congress. It appears that they have finally found a spine and it is important, I believe, that we demonstrate our unity and support with them on this issue.
And as one who has been very critical of our congressional "leadership" in the past I'm happy to announce that I've only yesterday sent my first sheckles of this election cycle to the NRCC - with an note that it was in response to their recent display of backbone on the subject of energy and exhorting them to "keep up the good work".
The election is still some 3-months off - an eternity in politics - and there is still time aplenty available to turn the predicted Democrat congressional tsunami into, at worst, a draw if the GOP continues to hammer-away at the environuts who have held sway over the Democrat Party, and energy policy in general, lo these last 40-years.
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Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie' until you can find a rock.